Mark Gerzon: Leading Through Conflict
Hailed by the New York Times as an "expert" in civil discourse", Mark Gerzon has worked as a facilitator and leadership trainer for the United Nations, the U.S. House of Representatives, and a wide range of corporate and civic organisations around the world for more than a decade.
Mark helps leaders in the private and public sector learn skills that are critical for dealing with conflict, and leading across difficult social divides. He specialises in enhancing the capacity of competing groups and divided organisations to find alignment around shared goals and values.
His primary international work is as co-director of the Global Leadership Network, a group of two dozen leadership experts from throughout the world who are developing a book, workshop and educational curriculum. In the US, he is now working with "Reuniting America" to convene and facilitate transpartisan dialogues in which representatives from across the political spectrum can explore new and more productive ways of engaging in the political process.
In his presentation Mark demonstrated how conflicts strike in organisations or communities, and how you need to pull people together. As our world grows smaller, opportunities for conflict multiply. Ethnic, religious, political and personal difference drive people apart in organisations and institutions of all kinds - with disastrous consequences. Mark argued that it is the task of effective leaders to bring people together again.
Through vivid case studies drawn from the audience Mark explained eight powerful tools leaders can use to transform seemingly intractable differences into progress:
Integral Vision - acknowledging all sides of a conflict - Systems Thinking - understanding the relationships among factors contributing to the conflict
- Presence - applying all your mental, emotional, and spiritual resources to grasping the nature of the conflict
- Inquiry - asking questions to elicit essential information for addressing the conflict
- Conscious communication - choosing with awareness how you speak and listen during the conflict
- Dialogue - communicating in ways that inspire participants' ability to work through the conflict
- Bridging - building partnerships and alliances that cross the borders dividing your organization or community
- Innovation - fostering breakthrough solutions that create new options for resolving the conflict.
Each of these tools is covered extensively in his new book "Leading Through Conflict: How Successful Leaders Transform Differences into Opportunities" Harvard Business School Press, 2006. (According to Stephen Covey, this book is "an absolutely brilliant analysis" that shows how to "transform defensive energy into creative, collaborative energy that seeks a higher, third alternative for the good of the whole.")
Mark's Auckland presentation can be accessed here
DISCUSS - We invite you to discuss the importance and reality of leading through conflict and dispute resolution in the Excelerator discuss and debate area. You will need to join if you have not previously signed up (there is no cost).
