Ask permission from and record someone telling you a story about a conflict in their working life. Please let your respondent know that this information will be kept confidential, that their name will not be used in your write-up, and that this assignment will only be seen by yourself and the professor. These stories should be approximately 10-15 minutes (or more), so prompt your respondent with more questions about details, interesting parts of the story, or other considerations if they run short. Transcribe the interview (or you can ask the person to write out the narrative for you), and then type (or re-format) the narrative so that it is single-spaced, 12-point font, and one-inch margins.

1. Analyze your narrative in several steps. First, what concepts from Difficult Conversations come into play in this conflict narrative? Name the concepts from the book in relation to particular words, sentences, or passages from the story. Second, what concepts from our other course readings or lessons come into play in this conflict narrative? (e.g., Sostrin on CMM and communication patterns in organizations, etc.). For both the first and second steps, you can also describe what concepts are missing from the story to develop out this analysis further (e.g., what did the respondent not choose to include in this story?). Third, space permitting, look for other considerations that demonstrate the choices your respondent makes in making sense of the conflict: e.g., key metaphors, imagery, colorful language, plot devices, issues of passive vs. active voice, tone, word counts characterizations or images of victims, heroes, innocent bystanders, etc. If it's an oral narrative, note pauses, silences, laughs, false starts, the number of sighs, how often someone starts and stops a sentence, or more. If it's a written narrative, take note of font, all caps, use of emoticons, number of typos, formatting, etc., in addition to the language used. Keep reading the narrative multiple times through, looking for different aspects each time. Try not to make any value judgments about this person or the narrative, just try to "swim" in the details of this story.
2. Reflect on this process. What have you learned from analyzing the conflict narrative in this manner? What insights have you gained about how the respondent frames the conflict, how they contribute to (or perpetuate) the conflict, how they see themselves in conflict, how they view their own agency (or lack thereof), etc .?
3. Write an essay in which you organize your analysis of the conflict, detailing your many findings from above. Each step of the way use course concepts (especially from Difficult Conversations) with specific examples from the respondent's story. The essay should be approximately three pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font. At the back of your essay, include a copy of the typed-up narrative. Again, do not put the person's name in your paper. Your paper will be graded on the skill with which you follow through on the above directions, your reasoning (i.e., your analysis alternates between course concepts and specifics from the narrative itself), the depth and breadth of readings and concepts from which you draw, the quality of your writing, and elegance and insightfulness of your arguments.

Further Clarifications:

• Do not use a "ready-made" conflict from a website or screenplay or book. You must gather the narrative yourself from a real person who can describe a past work conflict.
• Do not use your own conflict narrative: the more distance the better as you acquire this skill. Don't use a family member or roommate conflict, for instance; this should be a professional you trust but also have some distance from. To repeat, do not make this narrative up; this is not creative writing, you'll find that it takes 10 times longer to produce what's needed and it's easy to tell when these are made up.
• Make sure your narrative has enough substance and length-again, prompt your respondent with questions if you need more information.
• Limit your analysis to what you have evidence for in the narrative, rather than giving the whole backstory to the conflict and the people involved. Analyze the language used to narrate the conflict. Avoid psychologizing (i.e., explaining what people do in terms of deep- seated psychological motives or drives)-use the ideas from Difficult Conversations to explain what's operating in the conflict narrative from what the respondent says.
• Avoid providing an answer or solution to the conflict but do think a lot about the word and sentence choices selected in the respondent's language and, perhaps more important, what is not selected.