Basic tools, methods and approaches for dealing with group and relational conflicts.
Conflict in our groups is common. It’s part of the group’s and relationships life cycle. It can be painful and damaging, undermining our efforts and draining our energy. But it can also become a source of learning, evolution and a basis for deepening trust and relationships between us.
Learning to deal with conflicts, developing the skills to find the transformative potential within them, and supporting the group and people to learn and evolve in the process can deeply empower our work for social change.
Our work together sits within a global and historical system of interlinking forms of oppression. These shape the material, relational and psychological conditions that influence every one of us. In order to not reproduce harmful patterns, a systemic perspective on conflict is additionally needed.
This strand will offer methods, basic skills, frameworks and tools for transforming and dealing with conflicts, turning them into opportunities for deeper understanding and learning. We’ll learn how to support the building of shared understanding, how to access emotions and inner experience, to hold such spaces more safely, and attend to the healing involved in handling conflict.
A variety of approaches and methods are needed to be able to work with conflict well. Specific interventions and tools to use will depend on the situation, phase of the conflict, organising culture, available resources, quality of relationships, social positioning of people involved. Therefore, there isn’t a one-size-fit all solution. This course will combine different approaches and aim at enabling participants to experience a range of different methods that can be further developed within the specific organising context they are brought to, focusing also in the basic skills to stay in and manage conflicts in a way the can evolve.
The approach that the training team will take, will be:
- Centred around the experiences participants bring into the room
- Based in working with real situation and cases of conflict from the past
- Supporting the creation of enabling environments and using the framework of courageous & caring spaces
- Focused on developing self-awareness and emotional literacy, alongside acquiring specific tools
Some of the topics that the course will cover are:
- Roles in conflict and understanding group conflict and group processes
- Communication tools and listening skills
- Basic understanding of conflict shapes, phases and mapping tools
- Giving and receiving feedback
- Emotional literacy
- Group processes and feedback loops
- Systemic lenses and power dynamics in conflict situations
- Setting up accessible and caring group cultures
Who is it aimed at?
Anyone with experience in socially engaged action addressing ecological, political and social justice issues. We embrace a broad definition of activism and/or social action, including: Resistance – action preventing further damage to ecosystems and social justice; Renewal – action focused on developing and creating alternatives for healthier societies and communities; and Building Resilience – action supporting increased resilience in communities to weather the uncertain times ahead.