What is conflict transformation?
10 Apr 2019In 2018 I took a course on conflict transformation, I wrote about why and how here. This first post introduces the concept of conflict transformation. I’ll talk a bit about definitions of conflict before delving into how conflict transformation unpacks the term and why that’s important. It’s a long-format post so grab a hot beverage and get comfy.
What is conflict transformation?
Conflict transformation is an approach to conflict which emphasises the importance of conflict in communication and its value as a potential catalyst for transformative change.
If this all sounds a bit academic, let’s compare it with something a bit more familiar: conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution focuses on reducing, mitigating, or defusing conflicts. In contrast, transformation seeks to get at the root causes of conflict and focuses on how it can lead to constructive change in people, relationships, organisations, and cultures.
What is conflict?
Most definitions of conflict focus on combative or oppositional elements. We typically think of two people on opposite sides of an issue arguing.
Conflict transformation takes a different approach. The course defined conflict as:
two ideas sharing space, two intentions sharing space.
A bit more zen, right?
It speaks to one of the main tenants of conflict transformation: conflict is normal and can be a catalyst for change.
To be clear, the way the course defined conflict does not include forms of violence and abuse. I’m sticking to that definitional scope too.
Conflict is normal
We tend to think of communication as an uninterrupted ebb and flow of information. Conflict is perceived as breaking that flow because it puts people in opposition and halts the information exchange.
Conflict transformation asks us to see conflict as a type of communication, a normal and necessary part of how humans interact which can teach us something about ourselves and others.
In a conflict, the information exchange between individuals continues but in a more emotionally charged way.
For example, my pair partner talks over me one day. I find this infuriating and I escalate with a harsh bit of snark. We both leave the interaction hurt and angry.
I’ve just learned it angers me when I’m talked over and that my go-to escalation tool is snark. My pair partner learns that when they’re excited, their awareness of speaking turns goes out the window.
As long as we bring curiosity, openness, and humility to the interaction, conflict has the potential to surface insights about ourselves and the people we are in conflict with.
Thinking about conflict and change
This brings us to the second part, “conflict can be a catalyst for change”.
John Paul Lederach, one of the key conflict transformation scholars, asserts that conflict can transform us at four levels: personal, relational, structural, and cultural.1 In fact, most of the changes we experience and which historians study are due conflict.
Personal
Conflict changes us personally at emotional, intellectual, physical, and psychological levels. We’re impacted in both positive (i.e. personal growth) and negative (threats to our sense of self, identity, and principles) ways.
A transformative approach tries to maximise the instances of learning and growth in an interaction and minimise the destructive impacts of threats to identity etc.
The hypothetical pairing interaction is a good example. Through that interaction I’ve learned something about myself, perhaps a behavioural pattern I didn’t know about or even a pet peeve. I can use that information in future interactions to achieve different outcomes.
Relational
How does conflict change us in relation to others? Fundamentally it changes how we interact: our feelings about others, our relationship with a person, issues of power and interdependence. Pretty heady stuff that goes back to core human psychology and anthropology.
In practical terms it can mean we avoid people we’re in conflict with, or we embrace the conflict and grow to a deeper understanding of ourselves and others.
So far this has been my experience since taking the course. I’m far more willing now to bring curiosity to a conflict than escalation because I’ve seen what an incredible tool it is for mutual understanding.
Structural & Cultural
Structural and cultural change are the tofurkey-and-veg of a historian’s diet.
Structural change relates to changes in law, education, religion, organisations, institutions. Often these changes are brought about by conflict. Think of LGBTQ activists’ work to legalise gay marriage, civil rights activists, environmental activists –– a lot of their work produced conflict but that conflict ultimately led to change.
Cultural change is similar, it’s based on conflict but can lead to change. It’s the fights women had in the 1960s to wear mini-skirts (or the 1930s to wear trousers), it’s the young man who got expelled from school for wearing long hair or an afro in the 1970s –– it’s many individuals pushing back on the status quo and ultimately changing it.
So what?
Why does this all matter?
It matters because it encourages us to rethink conflict in our lives.
As the course phrased it:
Conflict transformation asserts conflict can be a catalyst for deep-rooted, enduring, positive change in individuals, relationships, and the structures of the human community.
Day-to-day interactions become chances to grow and reach towards mutual understanding. It also implies our actions have meaning and consequence in larger structural and cultural systems.
At the risk of sounding contrived, a transformative approach argues change cannot happen without conflict.
The sooner we embrace conflict’s potentially constructive role in change, the sooner we realise we have the power to bring about the changes we want to see in ourselves, our relationships, our workplaces, and our world.
Notes