Sharing Dispute Resolution Practices with Leaders of a Divided Community or Campus: Strategies for Two Crucial Conversations

Abstract

Dispute resolution experts have much to offer local leaders during a time of national division. They can provide ways for these leaders to: preserve and build trust, take advantage of the energy underlying protest to help the community deal over the long term with root causes of the concerns that residents raise, and prepare the community by making it more resilient and ready to deal with a divisive incident or conflict. In creating and using a “virtual toolkit” of resources for assisting local officials, several strategies emerged that will help dispute resolution experts reach these leaders. The strategies include: ask other local leaders to transform the dispute resolution practices into leader-to-leader counsel, omit alternative dispute resolution (ADR) jargon, fit leaders’ schedules, offer an engaging format that might be a change of pace for leaders, educate for discovery so that local leaders can tailor the concepts to local situations, and conduct the conversations quietly.