Working alongside someone else’s conflict
Our useful ‘Map for map makers’ we use to help us navigate the start of projects
Recent community listening and testing of ideas for different activities in Beckton Parks, Newham
This year Street Space have supported me to become a qualified mediator and although my heart isn’t set on becoming a mediator in the traditional contexts, in-line or precursing legal disputes — I am, ever enchanted by the principles of mediation, moving people through conflict to a place of resolution, understanding and mutual benefit.
At Street Space, it’s often that our projects touch, intersect, neighbour and surround instances of conflict. These might be conflicts between communities and councils resulting from a difficult decision, a lack of listening, funding cuts or often a lack of meaningful and thorough engagement in the first place. These might be conflicts between people in different communities, prompted by different needs, priorities in their lives and values around what’s most important. These manifest in different ways and we see glimpses of conflict at all stages of our projects from small warnings at client meetings, gestures and declines to engage on the ground; to long-form passionate emails telling us the whole story from one side, neighbourhood petitions and disgruntled attendees at workshops wondering why everyone else is smiling.
No matter how prepared we think we are for a project, no matter how much research we do before we begin, it’s guaranteed that we’ve only scratched the surface as the situation unfolds before us. Common questions that come to mind here are — how on earth did we get in the middle of this one? And what on earth are we going to do? After-all, we’re often not there with a brief to resolve conflict, yet the conflicts are living as part of the context in which we’re operating and underpin our evolving relationships.
Ignoring conflict in these instances is impossible if you’re truly listening to what people have to say. Albeit, this doesn’t stop some people from trying, leading to surface level engagement, superficial conclusions, tokenism and reports that only speak of the positive. So, what on earth are we to do? With our limited time, limited scope when confronted with a conflict that’s not ours to solve but is paramount in the minds, bodies and passions of those that we’re engaging with?
Be clear about the scope of the commission with yourself, your team, your client and the public. At Street Space we begin by writing a short and simple information sheet to outline our purpose, our position and what we are there to do and not do! This can be a really helpful tool to manage the expectations of others and to guide decisions when things feel a little murky.
Listen. Even with a clear scope, it’s important not to try to regulate what we hear or define what we listen to. After-all, we don’t know what we don’t know! Making space (and plenty of time) for all perspectives, including those in conflict, to be spoken aloud enables people to feel heard — usually for the first time! At Street Space we begin our conversations with key stakeholders long before we’ve built an engagement plan. This helps us to create methods that are grounded in local knowledge and experiences. This is the first step to establishing strong foundations for better communication down the line.
Move from fixed positions to common interests. It’s easy to understand someone’s position within a conflict, what they think, what they do, where they stand, what’s acceptable to them and what’s not. It’s much more difficult to grasp what’s motivating them, their interests and what’s most important to them. At Street Space we develop curious, surprising and sensitive questions combined with active listening to help unveil the true interests, fears or needs at play, often hidden below the surface. Through doing so, it’s often that we find there’s much more common ground than anyone had ever imagined — an essential step for moving through sticky stand-offs towards imagining new ways of working together towards a shared goal.
Tell stories to incite empathy. Inciting empathy in others is crucial in disrupting fixed positions and enabling people to see the situation differently, from multiple points of view. Stories can turn ‘they’ and ‘them’ into Pete, Penelope or Asad with three kids and a dog. At Street Space we document what we hear in much detail (including hopes, fears, emotions and ambitions) so we’re able to re-tell (with consent) these stories to others — most commonly the client!
Find opportunities for making concessions. We’re often in a unique position to be able to spot opportunities for people to support each other and work together. From granting permissions to hosting an event, working together to clear up a small alleyway or sharing information about upcoming funding, both community group and council have resources that are precious to the other and spotting opportunities for them to work together and support each other can help build relationships over time. These small offerings really can go a long way.
Don’t be a passive carrier pigeon. Typically it’s our job to share with the council what we’re hearing on the ground, it’s also our job to share with people information about the project we’re working with the council on. Yet we need to be careful not to simply become a passive carrier pigeon carrying messages between multiple people, absorbing the conflict and deflecting the decisions of others. We’re motivated to build relationships between community and council — not come between them! My personal rule of thumb is, if it’s bad news that will impact the lives of local people, it’s down to the person who made the decision to deliver the message — not Street Space.
Harness creativity to improve communication. We all know that the classic ‘town hall’ consultation doesn’t provide a platform for empathetic, constructive or insightful conversations. But what does? At Street Space we harness our creative spirits to devise site and community specific contexts for conversations that are grounded in the thoughts, experiences and needs of those we’re engaging with. We’re conscious of creating environments for people to enter on their own terms, and communicate with us in ways that feel comfortable (and inspiring) for them. I will be talking more about what this looks like in a future blog post — Stay tuned!
Working alongside someone else’s conflict is hard, emotional and exhausting work and there’s no one ‘right’ or ‘successful’ way to approach it. It’s likely that we can’t resolve the conflict, nor is it our role (unless all parties in conflict have consented to our role as a mediator and our methodology reflects this). Yet it’s important to acknowledge that as soon as we’ve been commissioned, we’ve changed the state of play. How might we be mindful of how we influence, inform, dampen or fuel the dispute at hand?
I hope these tips help us to be mindful of our complicated position within a complex bureaucratic system (in which we hope we might not be needed in the future) and help to improve communication, build trust and build the foundations of better relationships once our commission has come to an end.
Harnessing the power of imagination to engage people on the question of future park uses