Conflict Profile
Most people have one way of moving through conflict that they reach for before they think. Knowing which one it is — and what it costs you — changes what you do in the room. This page explains what a conflict profile is, what the four dispositions look like in practice, and what the free assessment on this site actually gives you.
Free · about 15 minutes · no account · results on screen
A conflict profile describes a habit, not a personality. It tells you what you do first when a conversation stops being comfortable: withdraw, soothe, trade, or analyse. That first move is usually invisible to the person making it and obvious to everyone else in the room.
A label on its own is close to useless. What makes a profile worth having is the second half: the strength the habit gives you, the blind spot it creates, and one concrete thing to practise next week. That is what this assessment is built to produce.
It comes out of practice rather than a laboratory — 25 years of mediation, dialogue facilitation and training in community, organizational and international settings. It is a development tool, not a clinical instrument, and it should never be used to screen or select people.
The Four Dispositions
Nobody is only one of these. The assessment reports a primary and a secondary disposition, because the interaction between the two is where most of the useful detail lives.
Creates space before engaging.
You step back when tension rises — for yourself and for others. That instinct protects rooms from escalation and gives you perspective others lose. The edge to work on is re-entry: knowing when stepping back is judgement and when it has become avoidance.
Restores connection first.
You read the emotional temperature of a room before most people notice it changed, and you move to repair the relationship. The edge is holding firm: advocating clearly, and letting discomfort stay in the room long enough to be useful.
Looks for the workable trade.
You are pragmatic and fair-minded, and you believe a solution is always reachable. You move people forward. The edge is depth — staying with interests and emotion long enough that the settlement actually holds.
Analyses the pattern underneath.
You find conflict genuinely interesting: the history, the system, the unspoken dynamics. You are rarely satisfied by a quick fix. The edge is translation — turning insight into something the parties can feel and act on.
What the assessment covers
How you instinctively behave when a situation heats up. Forced-choice pairs, no right answers, primary and secondary pattern reported.
Which capabilities you actually work from — thinking, relational, execution, influence, resilience, learning — and what that combination makes possible.
Community, organizational, business, or complex multi-party work; and whether you sit as mediator, dialogue facilitator, negotiator, or are still deciding.
The specific things you find hard, in your own words, mapped to practice exercises rather than reassurance.
Questions
A conflict profile is a description of how you tend to behave when a situation becomes tense: whether you step back, smooth things over, trade and settle, or analyse. A useful profile goes further than a label — it names the strengths that come with your pattern, the blind spots it creates, and what to practise next.
Yes. The assessment is free, needs no account and no payment, and you see your full profile on screen at the end. Every practitioner handout linked from your results is also free to download.
About 15 minutes. It runs in four parts: disposition, strengths, your context and track, and the challenges you most want to work on.
A named profile, your primary and secondary disposition, your strength cluster, how your disposition and your chosen track interact, the challenges you named, concrete practice exercises, and a short list of handouts matched to your profile.
No. It is a practitioner development tool built from 25 years of mediation and dialogue facilitation field work. It is not a clinical instrument, not a diagnosis, and not a hiring or selection tool.
Your profile is generated in your browser. You only share an email address if you choose to, when you ask for feedback or download follow-up material.
Free, no account, and the full profile appears on screen when you finish.