Working together – whether with colleagues in our teams, with partners and stakeholders, or with our citizens and the people we support – means interacting and communicating in a web of interconnected relationships.
Times of uncertainty and change (including improvement, transformation and innovation!) inevitably cause tensions, disagreements, conflicts and sometimes even confrontations. These are often feared because of their potential for derailing proceedings; but they are a natural manifestation of transition and sensemaking phases, where participants bring different appetites for change, a diversity of values and priorities, and a range of possible strategies for the way forward.
If handled with attention and care, conflict can be transformed into a valuable opportunity for deepening understanding and trust, and coming out of the experience more resilient in our relationships and our solutions.
Are we committed to taking the time to talk together?
I support this work through:
- individual coaching
- group training and mentoring
- facilitated group work
I practice, share and facilitate techniques of connective communication that open up dialogue, engage partners, and lead to sustainable interactions (or graceful, respectful endings if need be).
I support teams ad-hoc as needed, and I also offer a structured series of 6 sessions designed along a narrative arc of journeying together, that broadly follows a forming / storming / norming process. (The final “performing” phase of the Tuckman model takes place as the new business as usual, the result of the relationship building process.) The sessions are:
- a combination of guided exploration, group coaching, and learning (offering useful models),
- in a supportive environment, facilitated and held with care, to enable meaningful exchanges and courageous conversations,
- using inside and outside spaces (literal and metaphorical), group circles and individual breakout periods,
- to build relationships of trust through spending time in dialogue.
Civic mediation
I am also stretching my practice into civic mediation: using stakeholder engagement, dialogue and mediation processes to work on contentious issues and build relationships between the different actors within a system (for example communities, third sector organisations, public bodies, private companies,…). I’m particularly interested in working on social and environmental issues with cross-sectoral partnerships, and by building collaborative approaches between government, NGOs and communities, etc.
My toolkit includes nonviolent communication, which I find useful for personal reflection and practice; and for working with groups, the Lewis Deep Democracy toolkit and the Dialogue for Peaceful Change methodology.
Want to see some examples of my work in this area? Click to reveal!
Training and workshops:
- Conflict and communication skills(workshop, Oxford Co-production Festival)
- Conflict and communication skills for public facing teams(training, Natural Resources Wales)
- Dialogue for collaboration and co-production (training, CAVDAS)
- A toolkit for difficult conversations(training, Barod)
- Facilitation skills for chairs(learning workshop, Wales Environment Link)
Want to see some nice things people have said about my work? Click to reveal!
- “The Conflict and Communication workshop was a bit life-changing, really – really useful stuff in there that I’m finding is coming into my mind all the time.” – Oxford Co-production Festival (workshop)
- “The delivery was interactive and made you think, there was time for reflection, and the trainer was knowledgeable and friendly. It was clear and well structured, with good tools and exercises. It was all helpful and relevant and participants’ needs were considered and respected.” (CAVDAS training)
- “I thoroughly enjoyed your session, I have been thinking about it a lot, particularly this morning on my walk with my dog. I will be better equipped when having tricky conversations now…”– Barod (training)
- “I think it’s an excellent thing (…) because discourse is becoming more fraught, more polarised and toxic. People will also need some of these conflict resolution skills to mediate at public events where they may find themselves confronted by increasingly angry people during public debates or Q&A sessions.” – WEL (learning workshop)