April 14: The Conflict Context

Kraybill. Facilitation skills for interpersonal transformation.

This article by Ron Kraybill applied the concept of transformation to methods used by facilitators in conflict intervention. Kraybill first introduced 3 main skills that facilitators can use in intervention settings to work toward transformation. The skills are paraphrasing, summarising and reframing. He gives special attention toward the need for intervenors to recognize the response of parties to make sure that they are responding positively to these methods. The author then gives 4 techniques to use in intervention that may help bring about transformation: The Samoan Circle, the Conflict Spectrum, Interviews, and Interviews with a Listening Chair. All of these techniques emphasize the need of all parties to listen to each other. They also work to allow people to gain a better understanding of the views of others and of themselves. Lastly, the author brings in the idea of transformative process design. He argues that many people will accept undesirable outcomes if they believe the process is fair. He writes about the importance of recognizing the people involved and making sure that all parties participate in this recognition. Kraybill says that decision-making should be a key focus in facilitation and that parties should turn their attention toward the process of decision-making. It is important for parties to recognize how decisions are made and by whom so that they can address issues that arise in the process in hopes of bringing about change if necessary.
I thought this article was really helpful. Kraybill gave a lot of examples of what to do and what not to do as a facilitator. This article made me think of the role play we did in class with the divided church. In the role play, it seemed like the focus of the intervention changed from finding out "who should get what?" to "how can the church be saved?" The skills introduced by Kraybill seem like basic communication skills, but as he says, they can have a transformative effect.