Convening Processes
Convening processes include all of the actions an intermediary must take before a negotiation, mediation, facilitation, or dialogue process starts. It involves conflict assessment, stakeholder identification, obtaining resources and a venue, and at least starting to design a process. Numerous respondents have comments on how this is done.
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Convenor's Role
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Silke Hansen talks about the third party's role in making medition a feasible option.
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Carolyn Stephenson explains most of the work of a workshop comes ahead of time.
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S.Y. Bowland talks about third party cultural competency.
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Laura Chasin talks about using interviews with participants to improve the quality of dialogue groups.
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Silke Hansen discusses the importance of making sure everyone knows what is going on when one is trying to convene a dispute resolution process.
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Silke Hansen discusses the use of prelimary meetings to overcome roadblocks early on in mediation.
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Larry Susskind talks about how conflict assessors can distance themselves from the bias of the convener.
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Conflict Assessment
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Larry Susskind talks about conflict assessment and option identification.
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Stakeholder Identification
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Peter Coleman discusses who should be at the negotiating table.
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Wallace Warfield discusses the importance of getting the right people at the negotiation table.
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Deborah Kolb asks, "Why are women not at negotiating tables?"
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Larry Susskind suggests that simply getting parties to the table is form of success for practitioners trying to build consensus.
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Larry Susskind talks about the process of identifying stakeholder representative in complex, multi-stakeholder conflicts.
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Larry Susskind talks about how to deal with spoilers during the convening process.
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Process Design
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Frank Dukes suggests that process design is crucial to successful facilitation.
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Suzanne Ghais suggests that setting an agenda and identifying
goals to be accomplished can be an important part of intervention.
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Robert Stains talks about creating safe spaces for dialogue.
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Leo Cardenas talks about how to "work the ethnicity out of" a conflict situation, so that more immediate issues can be addressed.
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Bob Ensley says that getting disputing parties to talk to one another is a crucial step toward managing racism and other overarching issues.
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Former Community Relations Service Mediator Nancy Ferrell describes how she dealt with potentially violent situations.
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Community Relations Service Mediator Silke Hansen describes how it helps to level the playing field by helping community groups prepare for mediation.
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Community Relations Service Mediator Ozell Sutton describes the difference between "street mediation" and "table mediation" and how he got and kept people involved in each in a very hostile employment dispute.
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Former Community Relations Service Mediator Wallace Warfield discusses how he balances his mediation activities with justice concerns.
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Case Examples
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Larry Susskind talks about consensus building and mediation in the Middle East.
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Dick Salem describes a grassroots peacebuilding and violence prevention program with gangs in El Salvador.
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Peter Coleman describes how an abortion dialogue in Boston had its genesis in a shooting.
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