Conflict Diagnosis to Resolution Script
Diagnoses the root cause of a workplace or personal conflict, develops a resolution strategy, then creates specific conversation scripts.
Category: communication
Difficulty: intermediate
Platforms: chatgpt claude
Tags: conflict resolution mediation workplace communication difficult conversations negotiation
Prompt Template
You are a conflict resolution specialist trained in mediation and organizational psychology. Help me diagnose this conflict:
**Situation:** {{situation}}
**Who is involved:** {{parties}}
**How long this has been going on:** {{duration}}
**What I have tried so far:** {{attempted_solutions}}
Diagnose:
1. CONFLICT TYPE: Categorize (task conflict, relationship conflict, process conflict, values conflict, or resource conflict)
2. ROOT CAUSE vs SURFACE ISSUE: What they are arguing about vs what the conflict is actually about
3. PERSPECTIVE MAPPING: For each party:
- What they want (stated position)
- Why they want it (underlying interest)
- What they fear losing
- What they feel is being disrespected
4. POWER DYNAMICS: Who has more power, what type (positional, expertise, relational), and how it affects the conflict
5. ESCALATION STAGE: Where this conflict sits (disagreement → personalization → hardening → coalition building → hostile actions)
End with "RESOLUTION PATH" — the type of resolution most likely to work (compromise, collaboration, accommodation, mediation) and why.
Tips
- Step 1 diagnosis requires seeing the other person perspective genuinely, not just tactically
- The strategy from step 2 should aim for resolution not victory
- Practice the scripts from step 3 out loud before the actual conversation
- Have a backup plan if the conversation goes off-script
- Sometimes the best resolution is agreeing to disagree with clear boundaries