Review
“I picked up Bernard Mayer’s new book last spring, and here is the bottom line: its impact on my practice was instant…What is more, the impact has been enduring. It has changed how I think about and talk about the work I do….”
— Sheila Heen in
Negotiation Journal, January 2010
From the Inside Flap
Staying with Conflict
As the field of conflict resolution has grown and expanded its reach, it has increasingly faced the challenge of how to deal with long-term disputes. The most prevalent approach, with its emphasis on prevention, management, and resolution, is often inadequate for dealing with ongoing conflicts that are reflections of fundamental issues of values, identity, and structure.
In this groundbreaking book, Bernard Mayer, a pioneer in the field of conflict resolution, offers a new paradigm for dealing with long-term disputes. Mayer explains that when dealing with enduring conflict, mediators and other conflict resolution specialists need to move past the idea of how quickly they can resolve the conflict. Instead, they should focus on how they can help people prepare to engage with an issue over time. Once their attention is directed away from a speedy resolution to a long-term approach, new avenues of intervention become apparent.
Staying with Conflict builds on the lessons learned and the skills honed from years of effective conflict resolution. Mayer takes the process to the next level and outlines six strategic challenges that this new long-term process will address:
Confront the pervasive and destructive power of conflict avoidance
Work with disputants to construct conflict narratives that encourage an effective approach to long-term disputes
Assist in developing durable avenues of communication
Help people use power and respond to power wisely
Understand and recognize the proper role of agreements within the context of long-term conflict
Encourage the development of support systems that can sustain disputants over time
The book is filled with illustrative examples from a broad variety of conflicts, from the interpersonal to the international. As these stories demonstrate, this new model for working with enduring conflict offers hope for dealing with our struggles as social beings.
