Psychologist - Dr. Thomas Gordon wrote steps for both business and in discipline techniques with children. In his book, Promoting Self-Discipline in Children, these are the steps listed. The following steps are the best I knowI
Step 1: Identify and Define the Problem
Step 2: Generate Alternative Solutions
Step3: Evaluate the Alternative Solutions
Step 4: Decision Making
Step 5: Implement the Decision
Step 6: Follow up Evaluation
Not all effective problem solving will go through the six steps effectively or orderly. Sometimes one of the problem solvers will come up with a solution that all parties will agree upon. And hooray! When that happens- a successful conflict resolution has been reached.
In conflict resolution all concerned parties must agree on the solution! If one party is still not happy—the conflict has not been resolved. If that is the case-you will have to go back to step 2 to generate more ideas. (When using these steps with childen, post a list that is written in language they will understand)
From his biography and the "No lose-win-win version" of the 6 steps, Dr. Gordon stated:
"...Step I, Defining the Problem, it is important to define it in terms of conflicting needs , not conflicting solutions . The second was stressing that there should be no evaluations of any of the solutions brainstormed in Step II, a requirement I had learned from my friend, Charlie Clark, a pioneer in the field of creativity."
Barb Shelby at http://www.After-School-Care.com