Responding to Conflict as Facilitators

Conflict can be hugely painful, hurtful and traumatic. And, we believe, it is essential feedback to any group about its ways of being and the systems within it and outside of it. It's also always going to be with us, in our families and friendships, our romantic relationships, our work, our groups and our global society.  Working with conflict is essential to deepen connection and for personal and collective transformation and liberation.

As facilitators, we will most likely encounter conflict in the groups we work with and in the spaces we hold.  How we respond to emerging conflict can be a game changer: we can help de-escalate tensions, and support the group to find a generative way of engaging with the conflict that's emerging. We believe learning to see conflict as an opportunity for growth and being willing to address tensions together is some of the most important work we can do in our groups. Conflict can help us transform power dynamics in our groups and create ways of being together and meeting our purpose, that truly work for everyone.

In this block of 5 x 2.5 hour sessions we will explore our own relationships to conflict and develop our own capacities to be with conflict. We will explore the impact conflict has on our bodies and how conflict manifests in groups. We aim for you to leave with an alternative understanding of conflict and what it means, as well as tools to respond to it - as you notice it in yourself, and in a group you’re facilitating. This course will not make you a conflict mediator.  We hope that it will make you feel more confident and comfortable when conflict emerges in the groups you're facilitating.

Who are the sessions for?

These sessions are for people working in groups to create social, climate, ecological or economic change. They’re for people who want to support their group to make great decisions, benefit from the wisdom of all their members, and have lasting impacts with the work they have chosen to do. They’re for people who are already facilitating and want to deepen their skills, AND for people who want to start facilitating meetings.

Acknowledging our positionality

Jana (they/he) and Roz (she/they) will be facilitating the course and wanted to let you know something about some of the identity labels / experiences we have. We're both white, hold British passports and went to university. These 3 things alone give us huge privileges and affect the way we experience and view the world. One of the ways we'll mitigate for this is by continually inviting in perspectives and experiences from the group and feedback on the way the sessions are structured and held, before, during and after the course.  If you'd like to talk more about any of this before signing up, please do drop us an email.

Some of the values that underpin this course are:

• Moving from individualised blame towards systemic transformation, or: moving beyond call out and cancel culture to non-punitive and yet power aware ways of being with conflict
• Believing that we're all trying to do our best to meet our fundamental needs, and sometimes the ways we go about that are flawed, hurtful or harmful
• Honouring our own boundaries and responding to our needs is in support of the whole
• Re-gaining choice about how to respond to conflict is a contribution towards our own and our collective liberation
  

We aim for this course to be trauma sensitive. Some ways of doing this are by:

• Offering participants choice about activities they do, including participanting in breakout rooms
• Acknowledging and inviting in the wisdom of the group - we don't know everything
• Attuning to the group and individuals with warmth and compassion
• Inviting in moments of self-reflection and self- and co-regulation
• Offering multiple ways of engaging and contributing
• Being transparent and clear as possible about what you can expect :)
  

Other information

• Dates - 5 online sessions, Wednesdays 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st May from 4.30 - 7.00pm BST - please note that these sessions are 2.5 hours long (not 2 hours, as they have been before)
• Recordings -  recordings of these sessions will be available to those who have signed up, and will be sent out generally within 24 hours of the session, along with related materials.
• Please come to all the sessions in this block, as they will build on each other. If you miss a session we ask that you watch the recording before attending the next session.  
• Cost - the fee for this block is on a sliding scale from £20 - £80. We want to make these sessions as accessible as possible. Please pay what you can and if the cost is prohibitive please contact us at bookings @ navigate.org.uk. If you have the means to pay more, we welcome additional donations. If you’re coming on behalf of an organisation that has funding, please ask your organisation to pay for your participation, at the top end of the fee scale.
• Signing up - please sign up before the start of the first session in the block on Wed 3rd May
• Home Groups - during the course you will have a 'home group' which you'll check in / out with each session. Let us know (in the sign up form) if you have any strong preferences about this group e.g. you want to be in the same home group as a friend who's also attending

If you have any questions about the course, please do contact us at bookings @ navigate.org.uk

Lots of warmth to you