EAR - Conflict Resolution Skills

As a leader, a scout will be called on to resolve conflicts between other scouts. Conflict isn't fun, but having a few skills to deal with it makes a leader more effective and able to keep his team unified towards the goal at hand.

The BSA youth training provides conflict resolution training. The EAR acronym emhpasizes the value of listening and then working to fix a situation.

EAR - Express, Address, Resolve

• Express - each person should be given the opportunity to tell their side and express how they view the situation. Equal time is given to all sides and no jumping to conclusions or prejudging should happen.
• Address - after listening to the involved parties, the leader voices the concerns so everyone understands the issues to be resolved. This ensures everyone is trying to work through the same problem, even though from different views. Acceptable changes to the situation that will ease concerns are discussed.
• Resolve - a plan evolves that will effectively resolve the conflict. This may be an obvious decision or may require each party giving up something to meet a compromise for complex issues. The leader needs to work so each side feels as good as possible about the solution.

Scout On