The notion that the Relationship Story Issue is what the two characters should be “arguing” about is inaccurate and a shorthand for describing what this story point really is supposed to be about.
The selection of Issue determines a source of conflict in the relationship, not something each of them necessarily sees and talks about through dialogue. When understood this way, the confusion over the difference between whether the characters are arguing over Responsibility vs. Commitment or Commitment vs. Responsibility is clear.
They’re not.
An Issue of Commitment between two people can be seen in a relationship where there is an imbalance in the level of loyalty between them. You can imagine a business relationship where one automatically assumes loyalty where the other takes actions that completely destroy that trust and good faith (why you find Faith under that Issue).
This is encoding Commitment as a source of conflict in a relationship, rather than a topic of conversation. It is a far more elegant solution and allows for the ups and down and emotions between two people to be examined for problems.
An Issue of Responsibility between two people can be seen in a relationship where there is an imbalance in the level of assumed personal accountability in the relationship. Again one would assume that a certain level of commitment could also involve a greater amount of accountability in their interpersonal dealings and when that doesn’t happen, or that trust is broken yet again–you have hurt feelings and increased separation between the two.
Can you see how this opens up so much more in terms of narrative juice than simply “I’m on the side of Commitment” “I’m on the side of Responsibility”?
Domain, Concern, Issue, and Problem are really all just the same thing seen at different levels of magnification. The Issue is slightly bigger than the Problem and smaller than the Concern–but its not about a conversation–its about the inequity created between two people and locked within their own relationship.
