The Hamburger Dilemma:

Due to budgetary cuts, Bob and Diane are relocated from their individual offices and forced to share a single office space. One day Diane brings a hamburger for lunch and heats it in the office microwave. When she gets back to her desk, Bob reminds Diane he is a vegetarian for religious reasons and asks her to leave the office to eat her lunch. Diane and Bob have a problematic history, and she is on a deadline for their boss, so she declines Bob's request. Instead, she leaves her plate on the desk while she runs out to fill her water bottle. Since Diane won't leave, Bob decides he's going to leave the office for a while. As he gets up to go, he trips over the cord to Diane's lamp and falls into her lunch plate, knocking it to the floor. Diane isn't there to see it was truly an accident and walks in just as Bob is picking her plate up off the floor.

As you are preparing your response, think about the following questions:

• What were the roots of the conflict? (Remember the triangle)
• How do the parties to the conflict view the behavior of their 'opponents' and pursue their own interests in the conflict situation?
• At what point did the conflict become detrimental to the parties involved?
• How might this conflict extend to the larger workplace if not resolved?

This exercise is less about "getting it right" and more about identifying your own capacity to recognize antecedents, reflect on the way you currently manage conflict and self-identify ways in which you can improve your ability to recognize, diagnose, and resolve conflict in the future.