I love a good “pros” and “cons” list, and today I’m sharing one that I put together about the things that I love about working in this field, and some things I wish were different. I’d really love to hear what you’d contribute to this list!
What I love (and what I wish were different) in the field of conflict resolution Read More »
Working with people in conflict, whether as a conflict management coach or a mediator, is a complex and uncertain activity. While practitioners usually follow some kind of process in their work, what they do within those processes involves a great deal of flexibility and choice. There is rarely one “right” choice for whether or how
Intuition as a conflict practitioner Read More »
What is trust? The word trust can be used as a noun (something you have) or a verb (something you do). As a noun, trust can be defined as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something” (Merriam-Webster) As a verb, trust can be defined as a belief that “someone
Trust between practitioner and client Read More »
What are generations? Generations are groupings of people based on their date of birth into time periods of about 15 years. The five most recent generations are: The Silents / Traditionalists (born between around 1925-1945); The Baby Boomers (born between around 1946-1964); Generation X (born between around 1965-1979); Millennials / Gen Y (born between around
Intergenerational Conflict Read More »
Many of the challenges that arise when neurodiverse and neurotypical people are involved in conflict are due to each person’s different way of experiencing, expressing and regulating emotions, and also the neurotypical assumptions on which many of our conflict resolution processes are based. With greater understanding and flexible approaches in the way we support diverse people
Neurodiversity, emotions and conflict Read More »
In our Conflict Leadership Program last month, we discussed various challenges in our practice as mediators, conflict management coaches, and conflict management consultants. While there were a number of themes (including working with clients exhibiting challenging behaviours and managing strong emotions), surprisingly, the most commonly mentioned challenges were the limitations that are imposed by the systems
Challenges in our practice – hearing from the practitioners Read More »
THIS SPECIAL EDITION OF CONFLICT MATTERS has been written by Carol Bowen, presenter of our webinar about menopause and conflict. In the past ten years of my conflict resolution practice, it became clear to me that there was an increase in my coaching work of people, roughly between the ages of 40 and 55, desperately
Menopause and conflict Read More »
When mediators and coaches first learn how to mediate or coach, they are often taught a particular process with step-by-step instructions. This gives them a framework to follow as they practice and develop their skills. However, rigidly following those frameworks in the long term is likely to be problematic. Firstly, it may indicate that the practitioner
Adapting our box – co-designing a conflict resolution process Read More »
There has been a renewed interest in the intervention of reality testing in mediation in Australia with the release in December 2022 of research conducted by Lola Akin Ojelabi and Alysoun Boyle, funded by the Mediator Standards Board of Australia. The authors note at the start of the report that the phrase used in the
Can we take the “reality” out of reality testing? Read More »
I’m not a skilled jazz musician. In fact, I played the violin for many years and was part of a youth orchestra – there was no room for improvisation in that setting! However, I have always loved jazz. Jazz is a great metaphor for constructive approaches to conflict. There is also so much we can learn from the
Jazz and conflict resolution Read More »
