Transformational Platform

A transformational approach requires us to build an ongoing and adaptive base at the epicenter of conflict, a ‘platform.’ A platform is like a scaffold-trampoline: It gives a base to stand on and jump from. The platform includes an understanding of the various levels of the conflict (the ‘big picture’), processes for addressing immediate problems and conflicts, a vision for the future, and a plan for change processes which will move in that direction. From this base it becomes possible to generate processes that create solutions to short-term needs and, at the same time, work on strategic, long-term, constructive change in systems and relationships.

This diagram presents this idea by adding to the process-structure the escalation of conflict episodes, with the platform underlining it all. The process-structure spiral can be seen as the epicenter of the conflict, and the peaks or waves of the conflict as the episodes. The general rise and fall of the conflict and change processes provide an ongoing base from which processes can be generated.