Any time you anticipate that a session has the potential to become contentious (or if the group has had stormy meetings in the past), it's a good idea to create specially-targeted norms for conflict situations. As with all other norms, these are created by the members of the group, preferably at the start of the session. Use the following questions to trigger the discussion:

• What behaviors and rules should we follow if we find ourselves moving into disagreement and potential conflict?
• What can we do to ensure that we have a good debate instead of a heated argument?