A couple of weeks ago in my conflict management course, I asked everyone to choose a conflict and work through it. One group chose whether they should arrive to my class on time or late. 😊 As far as I could tell, four people wanted to be on time and one wanted to arrive late, but they all wanted to stay together as a group.

It ended up being a really useful example of the difference between a position and an interest. A position is what you say you want. The interest is why it matters to you. They could tell me their positions very clearly, but I still didn’t know why being on time mattered, why being late mattered, or why it was so important that all five of them arrive together.