Modeling collaboration in your process design

Picture: Imam Ashafa and Pastor James

In this adversarial world of power politics, collaborative peace-making processes are emerging as providing surprisingly sustainable outcomes. Unlike power negotiations, participatory mediation is based on the premise that differing worldviews are able to co-exist peacefully and that solutions that meet both sides’ needs can be created by the parties.

Injustice is a central part of many protracted ethno-political conflicts. Exclusion, oppression and cultural imperialism are also key drivers of conflict. Prolonged disputes give rise to dehumanizing images of the “other” to the point that “being against” another group becomes part of a community’s identity. The process of creating durable peace requires then more than the signing of a piece of paper; it should include strategies to change the narrative that defines each identity group.

While mediation is only one tool amongst others on the road to sustainable peace, the design process should take into account that narrative of discrimination. The careful selection of key actors connected to the right constituencies, is a critical part of that design process. The assumption inherent in collaborative problem-solving is that the individuals present at the mediation table are connected to social systems and that changing those individuals’ perceptions, attitudes and actions will transfer to the wider social system and alter the dynamics of the conflict [1].

To allow for perceptions to change, the mediator creates a space where participants can freely express their views and move from an adversarial position to joint problem-solving. A mediators’ impartiality is critical in being able to accomplish this; modeling collaborative communication skills between co-mediators is another tool that can be used to create this counter-cultural space.

For inter-religious conflicts, designing a process where Imams and Pastors co-mediate and model positive cooperation can be used to demonstrate the possibility of restored relationships. As the mediators provide both parties with equal consideration of their needs, fears and concerns, they also model balanced social dynamics that obliterate the patterns of domination exhibited by the parties. Modeling the unfathomable can help belligerents visualize the possibility of joint problem-solving. Establishing an environment of power symmetry that allows for authentic exchanges of information and ideas is a mutually empowering strategy which can help parties in conflict experience the possibility of collaboration [2].

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