HOW TO NAVIGATE TENSION WHEN LEADING GROUP WORK.
USING CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION: an online course.
with Lou Shackleton and Ruth Adams.
WE LIVE AND WORK IN A WORLD full of DIFFERENCES.
SOMETIMES THOSE DIFFERENCES LEAD TO TENSION.
AND SOMETIMES TENSION CAN GET IN THE WAY OF THE WORK.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
This online course is for people who regularly hold space for others, supporting others to navigate complex, purposeful work in multi-disciplinary groups and teams.
YOU’RE LEADING A GROUP OF PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE A SHARED AIM.
- You might call yourself a facilitator, designer, consultant, or coach. A project manager or product owner. A programme director or strategy lead.
- Your job title doesn’t matter; you bring people together to make decisions and / or to get things done.
YOU DESIGN AND RUN COLLABORATIVE SESSIONS: MEETINGS, WORKSHOPS.
- Perhaps you use design thinking, co-design approaches, agile, strategic frameworks or systems thinking – or perhaps you have another framework you use to shape your work.
- The exact framework(s) you use doesn’t matter so much as what you have noticed in sessions.
YOU NOTICE TENSION. DISAGREEMENTS HAPPEN. THINGS ARE LEFT UNSPOKEN.
- You have already noticed tension or discomfort – maybe even conflict – in sessions you lead.
- You can see its influence on you and the people you hold space for.
- You’re curious about whether you could approach tension in a different way.
- You are interested in power dynamics and their relationship with privilege, and you are aware of their presence in the work that you do.*
*Note that this programme doesn’t explicitly teach power dynamics, though there is space to consider it alongside the conflict transformation practice in examples that you bring.
why LEARN HOW TO NAVIGATE TENSION IN GROUPS?
- To recognise when there’s tension and discomfort.
- To know what to say when you notice tension, and how to communicate with the group.
- To get more skilled at how you hold and steward tension for the benefit of everyone you’re working with.
- To use the tension to help progress the work, rather than avoiding it and feeling that it’s getting in the way.
Everyone has the capacity to be resilient to conflict.
We can all develop greater resilience through experience and training.
Every situation has within it the capacity for transformation.
~ RUTH ADAMS
BY THE END OF FOUR SESSIONS, YOU WILL HAVE:
“Can conflict be an opportunity for change and growth?”
CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION SAYS: Yes, IT CAN.
Conflict can be an intimidating word: it’s certainly a powerful one. Many people avoid conflict; some people seek it. There’s a lot we can learn from conflict transformation that will help us when we notice tension in the group we’re leading, whatever the conflict-preference of the members of that group.
Conflict transformation says that conflict is an opportunity for change and growth. It’s a signal, showing us something that we need to pay attention to. Conflict transformation’s approach and tools help us to create space for disagreement whilst treating the relationship as the most important thing – so that we can disagree in constructive ways.
Now, it’s very rare that I’ve seen overt conflict in the groups and sessions I’ve facilitated and led.
Instead, I’ve observed things going on underneath the surface. Body language, subtle things they people say, where someone is sitting or standing compared to other people. Or a sense that there are things that aren’t being said. When everyone or certain people go quiet.
My co-facilitator, Ruth, has more experience of overt conflict: people storming out of meetings or squaring up to each other. She grew up in a country she describes as ‘rigorously defined by conflict’ – Northern Ireland – and surrounded by conflict transformers. There’s no one I’d rather learn from.
In this programme we’ll get really clear on how we know tension is there, and explore our own initial responses to it. You’ll create your own toolkit for you to understand how to support your own response to conflict. And we’ll cover de-escalation techniques and conflict mapping tools to help you to better understand tension and conflict when you notice it.
WHAT IS CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION?
Conflict transformation is the process of engaging conflict as a means of generating constructive change and restoring relationships (Lederach, 2003).
Conflict transformation is a practice that was formed in the fire of conflict. It was developed by practitioners like Lederach who were (and are) working in areas prone to conflict around the world. Many of the early practitioners came from a tradition of peacemaking.
It’s also a practice – it’s not just about tools or theory. You learn it by doing it – you are the conflict transformer.
You can listen to Ruth and I discussing conflict transformation in this hour-long audio. Together, we define conflict and explore the differences between conflict management, resolution, and transformation.
what this course IS.
- A space to bring your experiences and observations. We will apply what we learn to situations you have experienced to make the learning as live and applied as possible.
- Learning how to use conflict transformation, embracing conflict as a potentially constructive force, restoring relationships.
What it’s not.
- Purely theoretical.
- Learning about conflict resolution. Conflict resolution focuses on solving the problems that lead to a particular conflict, and is different to conflict transformation.
MEET YOUR FACILITATORS – RUTH aDAMS
Ruth is a mediator, trainer and Anglican priest. She is also the Bishop’s Advisor for Resilience in Conflict in the Diocese of Ely. Throughout her career, Ruth has worked to accompany communities in difficult times.
Ruth coaches leaders and groups in times to conflict. She aims to improve the particular conflict situation and to build skills. Ruth has worked with charities, college students and staff, church leaders, and communities.
Ruth’s work is informed by her early years in Belfast during the Troubles. Ruth worked as a curate in Omagh before and after the tragedy of the bombing in 1998. Ruth also has a Master’s in Peace and Reconciliation Studies.
MEET YOUR FACILITATORS – LOU SHACKLETON
Lou is a facilitator and sense-maker with 14 years of experience. Her work combines the many practices she has learned over a varied career: psychological theories of motivation; person-centred planning and self-advocacy tools; design thinking frameworks; storytelling models; coaching techniques; participatory approaches; prototyping; business model frameworks. When she can’t call on a specific framework or tool for what she needs to do, she will often create one.
Lou has worked with and in for-purpose organisations and teams, charities, social enterprises, the health service, and community organisations. She discovered her passion for creating environments that enable and empower in her first ‘proper job’ at an award-winning self advocacy project for people with learning disabilities. This project and organisation were at the leading edge of participatory approaches. Lou moved on to push participatory approaches to their limit in inclusive community development, leading to the award-winning community bike project, You Can Bike Too.
Lou is new to the conflict transformation process and is keen to build on past experience in preventing and navigating challenging behaviour in the social care space. She is part of the team for Conflict for Facilitators because of her broad experiences as a facilitator. She loves holding space for other people to get clarity in order to do things differently.
wHAT PEOPLE SAY:
KEY DETAILS
£275
Four sessions over four months.
Pay upfront or in two instalments*.
*Must be completed in full before the second session.
4 x 90 mINS
One session per month.
Each session is 90 minutes.
This includes a break.
There is homework between sessions.
You’ll be paired up with your peers for homework.
REMOTE
All sessions are remote, by video call.
Sessions are confidential.
We don’t record them.
BOOK YOUR PLACE.
Session dates are:
- Friday 9th May 2025.
- Friday 13th June 2025.
- Friday 11th July 2025.
- Friday 8th August or 12th September 2025, TBC.
All sessions are 10am to 11.30am (UK time).
Registration Once we have your payment we will contact you to complete a registration form. This helps us to gather the information we need to deliver the programme.
Payment Please use the pay now button below to make payment. Your space will not be confirmed until we have received payment. Please note we are not VAT registered.
Any problems? If you experience any problems with payment, you can try in a different browser or on a different device. Or email me directly – lou at loushackleton.com.