ABSTRACT
The staff identified a process whereby they all publicly claimed to be different arid valued their differences, but whenever the differences led to conflict, this was defused by retreating from the differences and claiming personal responsibility for the disagreement: "It must have something to do with the author", as one of them put it. But as staff members are getting on with their work, they are embedded in this discourse and are unlikely to step back and observe how their discourse about conflict is limiting their ability to tackle a new situation. By organizing conversations such as these, staff members are given the opportunity to create new constructs or widen the discourse about conflict. It does not sound particularly risky when reading this account on paper; however, this and similar exercises about differences must be constructed with a clear view of the agency and the anxieties that may be raised.
