Full disclosure up front, I am one of the contributors to this book! However, before it was published, I hadn’t read all the chapters written by the many other fascinating contributors.
This book is so interesting, because it collects the experiences of a range of people involved in managing conflict in different countries and varying contexts, and their experiences during Covid. It is also a lovely call to arms for how we can continue to grow and learn from our experiences into the future.
Contributors include full time mediators, human resources professionals, academics, lawyers, CEOs, publishers, engineers, and marketing experts. While many of these may not be the kinds of professions you would expect to be included in a book about mediation, as you read through their stories you realise how pervasive conflict, and the need to mediate, is in all facets of business and personal spheres. The contributors come from all around the world: Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, America, Ireland, Spain, Norway, and India. This diversity also allows you to consider the impact of covid and related conflict, from very different perspectives.
As Sarah Blake, the amazing woman who collated this collection, observed, often the most valuable conversations are not those that take place in formal presentation settings, rather they are the coffee conversations in between the formalities. Reading this book is like having coffee with colleagues and sharing our professional and personal experiences of doing the work that we do and love during Covid, and our hopes for the future.
