072. When Nonprofits Deal With Internal Strife: Conflict Mediation to the Rescue With Daniel Genberg

Summary

Conflict within our organizations: we often don't really want to face them, but they are very much there. The result? Plenty of passive aggression to go around. 

What are the implications of such forms of conflict avoidance?

In other NGOs on the other hand -- especially in the last few years it seems -- internal strife has come out into the open - sometimes spilling into the media in an unwanted fashion.

On another note: is interest-based problem-solving still a helpful approach to conflict management skill building, or not?

In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Daniel Genberg, one of the foremost consultants on NGO governance matters, on how conflict mediation can come to the rescue when nonprofits deal with internal strife.

Daniel's Bio:

• Independent advisor on governance issues; Daniel is one of the premier INGO governance advisers in fact
• Special Advisor for Not-For-Profit Organisations at Morrow Sodali (formerly Nestor Advisors), a consulting company on governance and sustainability
• Director of Governance, Amnesty International
• Head of Governance Development, ActionAid International
• Head of Governance and Accreditation at the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
• Anthropologist by training

We discuss: 

• Even though Daniel is called in to consult on governance issues -- both their structural and process dimensions --, behind these governance issues one often finds people, relationship, and power issues that truly drive the difficulties
• Thus, conflict mediation skills need to be part of the toolbox of a governance adviser
• Conflicts tend to revolve around 1/ resource distributions and who holds the (financial) resources; 2/ differences in view about strategic directions; and 3/ divergent understandings of the roles and authority of management vs. boards 
• In resource-scarce environments, conflicts tend to abound
• Important steps in mediation: 1/ abandon a win-loss attitude; 2/ it’s not always about compromise (i.e. mini-win, mini-loss); 3/ how can we grow the pie for everybody?; 4/ the importance of feelings; 5/ the need to be able to try out ideas without committing to them as yet; 6/ it is not the role of the mediator to create solutions; 7/ confidentiality; 8/ the use of a structured process with an outcome that prevents loss of face
• Do we see a rise in recent years of intra-organizational strife in civil society? Yes, there are more areas of tension, due to the gloomy financial prospects of many organizations, and power and authority structures that have been in place for decades.

Quotes

"Conflict mediation is not so much about getting out of conflict but about restoring relationships, listening skills, and learning and understanding how a situation looks like from the other side"

 

Resources:

Daniel's LinkedIn Profile

Morrow Sodali (former name Nestor Advisors)

Center for Effective Dispute Resolution

CIVICUS Essay Tosca on NGO sector scandals about abuse of power and the role of cultural issues

SSIR: The Upside of Conflict, with Joseph McMahon, Allen Fowler and Elizabeth Field

&nbs