Are global conflicts, especially in the Middle East, ever to be resolved? That was the core of an inspiring speech by former majority leader of the U.S. Senate, George Mitchell. Addressing a capacity crowd of City Club and National Conflict Resolution Center members in December, he delivered some succinct advice, making it clear that the United States has considerable commitment in world affairs.
Mitchell insisted that the eurozone economy and political structure are important to a stable American financial system. Providing one-fifth of global commerce, the European Union must survive its sovereign debt crises to avoid a banking crisis that could reach to every corner of the world.
Responding to a query about the Israel-Palestine conflict, Mitchell was not optimistic for the immediate future but was adamant that there must be a compromise eventually. The pain will be worse if the leaders don’t resolve their differences that have lingered for more than 60 years, he said.
Mitchell’s credentials are broad in foreign relations and conflict resolution. His career began as a federal judge before he was appointed senator for the state of Maine to serve out the term of Edmund Muskie, who left the Senate to be secretary of state in 1980. After re-election on his own ticket, Mitchell became Senate majority leader for six years.
Following his Senate career, the statesman earned kudos for his leadership in negotiating peace in Ireland. It earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize plus many other international awards. After his term as a Senate leader and a decorated mediator, Mitchell is surely an expert in conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution spreads over many areas of diplomacy, politics and business. Although negotiations for a peace settlement require a certain diplomatic strategy, some of the techniques to get opposing parties to the table for constructive exchange also apply to business conflicts.
I met the president of the National Conflict Resolution Center at the Mitchell talk and learned of programs for industry executives presented in conjunction with the UC San Diego Rady School of Management. In February, I attended a day session for executive exchange training with a group of local industry managers who deal with employee disputes in the workplace.
My past experience in management was during an era when the staff was glad to have a job and seldom, if ever, sued the employer for wrongful termination or gender discrimination. But I am aware it is a very different workplace today, with more employee rights, expectations and demands. There is a time when every conflict is big enough to see but small enough to solve.
The National Conflict Resolution Center course addressed three sides of an office conflict when two employees and their supervisor are unable to resolve their differences in job performance or office procedure. Theoretical scenarios are screened by video, then the participants in groups of three act out how they would present their case to the supervisor. We all honed our skills in make-believe for a better understanding of the three individual perceptions of what caused the dispute.
Most job conflicts derive from personality styles, misunderstandings, and real disagreements that lead to complaints and grievances. Some of the typical origins are an unfair performance evaluation, promotion of an employee with less seniority, a colleague getting credit for work done by the complainer and a victim of office gossip.
The challenge lies with the supervisor to hear what each employee is saying and to guide them into a conciliatory mood to understand the adversary’s version of the dispute. To learn resolution, this is the role that each member of the class assumes after playing out the employee parts. Most of the course participants had this management responsibility in their workplace.
Besides the management training sessions, the National Conflict Resolution Center offers both pro-bono community mediation and fee-based conflict resolution with professional panels of specialist mediators. The newest service is providing mediation to the legal community. These are problem solvers who have worked with real people in real conflicts.
Mediation is a smart solution to conflict resolution. It should be scheduled with a professional intermediary before the dispute proceeds into legal action, which is a costly solution. Arbitration is also an alternative that provides some informal legal procedure without the court costs, but it may be a binding settlement.
Ford is a freelance writer located in San Diego. He can be reached at johnpatrick.ford@sddt.com.
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