What I do
As individuals need to reconcile their goals and strategies, so do most groups from short term alliances to long lasting teams need to build common intention. In-tension bubbling below the surface has to be managed to avoid ugly eruptions. Resolution of every difference within the self or among colleagues is seldom required. However, adequate enough understanding of what is going on to ensure successful conflict navigation must be a prime goal if results matter. Intention must get the better of intension.
How does intention intervention create worthwhile outcomes despite serious obstructive in-tension? Acknowledgment and acceptance of the obstruction comes first. Motives may not be pure, but they are also not purely intentional. Suspicion and defensiveness are rarely what anyone aims for. The client has the incentive as well as the capacity to reach understanding of destructive drivers wherever they come from. Discovering and nourishing more authentic intention through coaching or facilitation erases the negative by-products of frustration or powerlessness. This is what the intention coach does.