The Demand

The next time the same conflict comes back around — the same two people, the same front-of-house-versus-kitchen friction, the same cast member who finds conflict everywhere — you run the interest read before you respond to the position. A conflict resolved at the position level will recur. One resolved at the interest level will not.

The Work

  1. Identify the one recurring conflict currently costing you the most time or turnover risk this month.
  2. Before your next conversation about it, ask the three questions in writing: what is the other person actually protecting? What am I actually protecting? Where do those interests overlap?
  3. Run the conversation from the interest level, not the position level — do not let the conversation stay on ticket times, schedules, or whatever the surface argument is.
  4. Name the overlap you find out loud to both parties, and build the resolution from that overlap specifically.
  5. Check back in two weeks to confirm the same conflict hasn’t resurfaced in a new position. If it has, you addressed the wrong interest — go back and run the three questions again.

Before your next conversation about this recurring conflict, you have identified the underlying interests on both sides and built your resolution from the overlap, not from who wins the position.