What are the best ways to create inclusive conflict resolution programs?

1 Assess your needs

Before you design or implement a conflict resolution program, you need to assess the needs and expectations of your stakeholders. Who are the people involved or affected by the conflicts? What are their backgrounds, experiences, and preferences? How do they perceive and communicate their issues and interests? What are the existing policies, norms, and resources that shape the conflict resolution process? Conducting a thorough needs assessment will help you identify the gaps, challenges, and opportunities for creating a more inclusive conflict resolution program.

2 Choose your approach

There are different approaches to conflict resolution, such as mediation, negotiation, arbitration, restorative justice, and dialogue. Each approach has its own strengths, limitations, and suitability for different types of conflicts and contexts. You need to choose an approach that aligns with your goals, values, and resources, as well as the needs and expectations of your stakeholders. For example, if you want to promote mutual understanding and healing among parties who have experienced harm or trauma, you might consider a restorative justice or dialogue approach. If you want to reach a binding and enforceable agreement among parties who have a legal dispute, you might consider an arbitration approach.

3 Train your facilitators

The facilitators of your conflict resolution program are essential for its inclusiveness and effectiveness. They need to possess the skills, knowledge, and attitudes to handle conflicts in a respectful, impartial, and culturally sensitive manner. Facilitators must be cognizant of their own biases, assumptions, and blind spots that could influence their facilitation. Therefore, adequate training and support should be provided to prepare them for their role and responsibilities. You may include topics such as the principles and practices of inclusive conflict resolution, the sources and impacts of diversity, inclusion, and equity on conflict and conflict resolution, strategies and techniques for building rapport with diverse parties, methods and tools for facilitating constructive dialogue, problem-solving, and decision-making, as well as ethical and professional standards for conflict resolution in your training.

4 Engage your participants

The participants of your conflict resolution program have the most stake and influence in the outcome, so you need to ensure they feel valued, heard, and respected. Engage them in a meaningful and collaborative way that empowers them to express their views, needs, and interests. Invite them to share their stories, perspectives, and emotions in a safe and supportive environment. Ask open-ended and probing questions to elicit deeper insights and understanding. Encourage them to acknowledge and appreciate the complexity of their conflicts and situations. Help them identify common goals, values, and interests. Support them in generating and evaluating creative and realistic options and solutions.

5 Evaluate your outcomes

To evaluate the success and impact of your conflict resolution program, you need to measure the satisfaction, learning, and behavior change of the participants, as well as the quality, durability, and implementation of the agreements or actions. A systematic and transparent approach should be taken to capture feedback from stakeholders. You can use surveys, questionnaires or polls to assess satisfaction and learning, interviews, focus groups or testimonials to collect stories and opinions, observations, recordings or reports to document behavior change and implementation, and criteria, rubrics or checklists to measure quality and durability. Utilizing these methods and tools will help you improve and enhance your conflict resolution program.