Conflict. We all face it, but dealing with it effectively may have much to do with what every mechanical engineer knows about the spiral.

With its ability to absorb force and spring back powerfully, the spiral is a standard design feature in machines like vehicles, which sustain impact with use. That could be why 1979 Tri-State University mechanical engineering graduate Karen Valencic uses it as a central metaphor in her business, Spiral Impact, as well as in her life philosophy.

The Indianapolis-based Valencic developed the program Spiral Impact to teach individuals and companies to harness the power of the spiral. Through principles taken from the martial art of aikido, performance improvement, and science, she strives to enable them to achieve desired outcomes gracefully.

Companies engage Valencic to teach their personnel to use conflict creatively, focus energy, and make solid decisions to reach their goals. Merging companies seek her skills in education and team development. She is a popular conference speaker, providing keynote speeches and breakout sessions throughout the Midwest. Human resources directors also employ her program to help employees manage stress.

“When I ask people what conflict is, most of the time they respond with 'A difference in opinion.' Conflict is not a difference in opinion, it is how we respond to a difference in opinion.

In 2007, she wrote "Spiral Impact: The Power to Get It Done with Grace," to expand upon the program, and began e-mail instruction with individuals in December. For the drive to work, her CD employs music, breathing, and positioning techniques in a 15-minute guiding practice, and a 15-minute de-briefing session when the job is done.

A 17-year practitioner of aikido, Valencic compares its principles to those employed in mechanical engineering. "It really is all vectors and angles.  Aikido attracts techies," she said in a return visit to her alma mater in October.

Her TSU ME degree, which included an internship with Delco Remy in Anderson, provided a springboard to an amazingly vast world of opportunity. "The market was good, and the experience gave me tons of options," she said. "I was a little overwhelmed with all the opportunity."

After three years with Delco Remy as a student, upon graduation she joined the company as one of its first engineers, numbering among the few people providing finite analysis for General Motors by hand. She eventually took a leave from engineering to raise her two daughters, now 19 and 22, performing practice management and personnel development for her husband's dental office during that time.

Karen made a rather radical change in careers in 1990. She founded LifeWorks and began teaching conflict resolution in a wide variety of organizations. She began her studies with Thomas F. Crum, author of "The Magic of Conflict" in 1990. She has completed hundreds of hours of non-credit courses in communications and personal development. In 2000, Karen authored the course and guidebook, "Using Conflict Creatively"

"I wanted to be in command of my life rather than have circumstances control me," she says in her book. "I met an aikidoist out West, and that triggered a change in my life. I felt like I could have more impact with what I do now."

Aikido teaches the power of position and moving with oncoming force in a spiral motion, and Valencic teaches and applies its concepts interpersonally. "It's all about shifting position, and fluidity," she said. "You shift your position. Where initially you would have been in someone's face, instead you move off your point to see how they are seeing it. When you do that, you use the model of the spiral"

During conflict, one must not only know oneself, but also understand the other. In order to do so, one "turns statements into questions and acknowledgements. In other words, how do we get unstuck," Valencic asked. "Movement gives us energy and creativity; struggle and fear sometimes overwhelm us. The choices you make either create or stop momentum, both on the aikido practice mat and in life and work."

Managing conflict fruitfully has led to "lots of work in health care," she acknowledged, and some interesting input for construction businesses, where she helped employees build the skills to work together to get the job done. Her program also helps managers retain employees to avoid the cost of turnover and retraining.

In an era when women comprised only 10 percent of the TSU student population, Valencic thrived in the environment. She called the small campus "wonderful,"and appreciated the guidance of a TSU counselor who talked her out of a degree in drafting. "He said, 'I know I can place you early if you have a good GPA,'" she said. Taking advantage of a school year set up on quarters, she worked one quarter to pay for the next. Combining work with a student loan program, she graduated with $200 in debt.

She praised the confidence and intellect of the women who preceded her in engineering. "The women ahead of me opened the door, and that comes from (a sense of) community," she said. "I appreciate it."