Mediators and Conciliators
7. Massively Parallel Roles & Tasks
- Mediators and Conciliators help deeply-conflicted parties break down their polarization and escalation by helping them, often for the first time, really listen to and come to understand the concerns of the other side, and helping them reframe their conflict, so they no longer see it as the fault of the other side, but rather as a mutual problem that can be solved. Once parties begin to do that, they can begin to work together, if only in small steps, to identify areas of common ground, possible ways of solving mutual problems, and developing an increasing level of trust and mutual understanding. Examples of mediators and conciliators who help parties do this include the conciliators of the Community Relations Service, and the mediators and facilitators of the Consensus-Building Institute, and the Keystone Policy Center, all of which which have long worked with deeply divided parties over very intractable issues to come to agreements few would have thought possible.
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