2/5: Conflict Infrastructure within Low-capacity, Un(der)funded Community Organizations: A Discussion Guide
Part II: The Planning for Planning Phase
Conflict Infrastructure refers to a set of dedicated and enacted policies, procedures, processes, resources, time, labor, emotional and social energy that is set up to address conflicts that arise within an organization and/or the social ecosystem that organization exists within, impacts, and is impacted by.
See Part I: What Path is Right for Us? for an introduction, if you haven’t yet. This is the second in a series of five newsletters that serve as a discussion guide for any group of people who are interested in developing conflict infrastructure within their organization. Each part (e.g. Part 2) is intended to take several meetings, and each section (e.g. 2.1, 2.2, etc.) is its own prompt for discussion.
Part II: The Planning for Planning Phase
Before diving into exploring the specifics of what your conflict infrastructure could be, weighing your options, and making decisions, it’s important to consider the broader aspects of what you’re doing and what you’ll need for planning sessions to be effective.
2.1 What are our goals for the planning process (i.e. what is our desired outcome)?
Why goals are important: Before beginning the planning phase, it’s important to be aware of what you’re specifically hoping to accomplish. These goals might shift over time, as you decide you need more or less than you thought, but having a sense of what is desired early will allow you to do the work as you discuss and decide on relevant aspects. The areas on this page are just some areas where you may have goals.
Here some things you might want to produce (and some may not be of interest to your group):
A trained group of members who will facilitate/respond to conflict: Maybe you have a sense of who and what training they’ll have already, maybe that’s something you need to decide during planning.
A defined list of services, processes, or supports offered within the organization: As you plan, you will narrow down what you are and are not able to do within this infrastructure.
A set of referrals lists or connections to outside facilitators and organizations: As you learn what you can’t do, you may find other organizations or resources that folks can engage with in order to fill any gaps.
Learning opportunities for members to skill-up their own conflict knowledge, to mitigate harms: As you go along and learn during the planning process, you can catalogue resources that might be useful to others such as trainings, readings, videos, zines, and other learning opportunities about active listening, compromise, communication, bystander intervention, and other skills.
Dedicated resources to be used for conflict-related processes or survivor support: As you learn and decide, maybe you can create a wish-list of items that would be useful for your organization to have (books, computers, software, rapid response phones or text lines, healing equipment, dedicated space, a bank account, a list of couches or guest rooms that people can use when in need, a food pantry, etc.).
Procedures or systems through which members can initiate or engage with the infrastructure: As you discuss, you may want to draft organizational charts, a workflow, volunteer sign-up sheets, intake and feedback forms, complaint forms or anonymous tip systems, phone numbers or websites, etc.
Policies or agreements for how members will engage in conflict: As you discuss, you can write down suggested policies (e.g., We will not call the police on each other or our neighbors) or agreements (e.g. We—members—agree to bring conflicts to the group when they’re impacting the group, and the group agrees to dedicate resources to addressing those conflicts within three days).
A set of principles or values for the organization that relate to how conflict will be addressed internally or externally: Maybe as you’re making decisions some core principles or values (see below) become really apparent, you can make a list of suggestions along the way that the larger group can vote on later.
Statements or explanations of the organization’s stance on certain conflict-related issues: For some organizations, desire for conflict infrastructure is coming from specific incidents like sexual violence in a community or over-reliance on police to solve neighborhood issues; for you, maybe having an organizational stance on those issues impacting your communities is really important to you and you want to draft a statement around why this infrastructure will address or respond to those issues in the future.
2.2 Who needs to be involved in order for our planning process to have the necessary information, input, and legitimacy? How should those people/groups be involved?
Why involvement in planning is important: During the planning phase you’ll explore questions like “How will people who need support let us know?” and “What types of conflicts do we want to involve ourselves with?” or “What will our process be for intervening in intimate violence between our members?” In order to answer these questions in ways that address the needs of the people you intend to serve, you may want direct insight about what will work for those very people. For example, you might be considering an online form to request support, but by involving community members, learn that most are not very computer savvy and would feel more comfortable calling on the phone. Or, you may want to hear directly from people who have experienced intimate violence about what kinds of support they wish they had received in the past, in order to do better than the programs already available. Without these insights, you can do a lot of work and find out that what you’ve created isn’t relevant or helpful to the very people you want to work with/for.
Who experiences the types of conflicts we want to address?
How can we respectfully connect with them to talk about their interest in providing input, being involved, or giving feedback?
2.3 What values or principles will guide our planning process?
Values are the qualities of life and relationship we claim and enact in our lives (honesty, integrity, respect). These are often deeply cultural, prioritized in our lives based on circumstances, and sometimes acted upon (or against) subconsciously. Some reflections on values can be found here, some example values and principles/practices here.
Principles are the commitments or rules we try to follow in order to live in accordance with those values (we will practice safety and accountability without relying on alienation, punishment, or the state). Some examples of principles can be found here, here, and here.
Why values & principles are important: One benefit of knowing our values and principles is that we can weigh our choices against them (“does this live up to our value of X”) without subconsciously deferring to our fears, biases, or personal animosities. This is not to say that everyone has to share the same values in order for them to be a good guidepost, or that those values will be held as equal priorities in every decision. Rather, when faced with difficult choices, values can be a reference point for discussing why we hold different positions (e.g. allowing anonymous complaints prioritizes confidentiality, dignity, and safety, while requiring someone’s name to initiate action prioritizes transparency and accountability.
These values and principles that guide the planning process may or may not be the same as those that guide the practice of your infrastructure in the end, because the people planning may not be the same group as the people who use the infrastructure, and these should be determined by the relevant collective.
Activity:
As individuals, reflect on what values and/or principles you want to bring to the work.
As a collective, which values and/or principles line up and which don’t?
When disagreement arises, refer back to these to better understand each other’s perspectives.
2.4 What do we need to know/learn/understand before we begin to create this infrastructure?
Why learning is important: In 1.7, you may have talked about what skills your group already has. Assessing the current and desired knowledge of the group will help begin the planning process with more confidence, wisdom, and intention. Doing some learning before planning can also prevent getting too far along in the process only to learn that what you’ve planned so far has been tried and failed, or that experienced people have warned against those same choices. For example, you might want to ask similar organizations what has worked and not worked for them and learn from their successes and failures. You might want to review Transformative Justice or Restorative Justice practices so you have an understanding of the different processes you might be able to use and learn—you may even find it helpful to attend mediation or RJ trainings before planning, so that you better understand what might be involved in offering those processes.
To reduce the workload, you could assign different subjects or learning areas to different people, charging them as subject experts during the planning process and trusting them to answer the questions that relate to their area of study.
2.5 What expectations do other members of the organization have of us (the planning team), our work, and our timeline for creating the infrastructure?
Why expectations are important: In 1.4 and 1.5 you may have assessed organizational needs and support. If a sub-group/committee is making the plan for conflict infrastructure, it’s important to understand the rest of the organization’s interest in knowing what’s happening and when things will be done.
Having realistic, transparent expectations from the beginning will help mitigate conflict, frustration, and disappointment. If these expectations aren’t discussed, people may expect quick results and plan to be able to use mediators or facilitators sooner than is possible. These pressures may cause the planning process to rush into decisions without deep consideration.
You don’t want to blindside your fellow organizers when you have to tell them it’s going to be two, three, or four times longer than they expected before you have something to offer.
2.6 On what aspects of the conflict infrastructure do we need group input and approval to move forward? And what is the decision-making process for that?
Why approval is important: Maybe your organization trusts you and doesn’t want to be involved until you have some final decisions—that’s great for everyone to know before any decisions are made. But, maybe your organization wants to receive notes and updates every month, so that they can raise objections or concerns before things go too far. If they’ll be impacted by the outcome, this is a reasonable request and important to know before it’s too late.
Set up reasonable, concrete expectations of when you’ll share information, what information you’ll share, how people can provide feedback, and how that feedback will be incorporated. Use the organization's typical decision-making process to determine how final decisions will be made.
Having these clear expectations can communicate respect and inclusion to those who aren’t directly involved, but care about the work you’re doing.
Discuss your own expectations and timelines as a subgroup.
Share those plans with the larger group.
Ask for questions, feedback, and concerns.
Reconnect as a group to address group needs and concerns.
Be transparent about the reality of what’s possible. Don’t be afraid of boundaries that push back against group urgency.
2.7 Who can become more involved in the planning process and at what points? How will we get them up to speed?
Why considering new folks matters: If your organization brings in new members frequently or you find that members often want to switch projects or join different projects based on changes in their capacity, you may find yourself with new people wanting to join your sub-group to help plan the conflict infrastructure. If this happens when you’re in the middle of making decisions, it can be frustrating for you to have to re-litigate past decisions and frustrating for new people to feel they don’t have a voice or don’t know what’s going on.
Consider asking new folks to review past learning and notes before becoming actively involved in the discussion, but hold one-on-ones between sessions where they can ask questions and provide fresh viewpoints to past areas of struggle.
Having detailed notes and learning resources already available can reduce the labor when this need arises.
2.8 How will we communicate about and/or respond to conflicts that arise during the planning phase?
Why considering conflict matters: If you’re not already engaging in this process because of a pre-existing conflict, it’s almost inevitable that some form of conflict will arise while you’re in the middle of planning. For some who are already skilled up and confident in their abilities, it may make sense to engage in small mediations, listening circles, or support pods during the planning process. These engagements may lend meaningful insight into what structures, resources, and processes will work for your organization. For others, engaging in processes without a formal structure, dedicated resources, or collective training will be a burden on capacity and distract from planning. Further, you want to be cautious of initiating a conflict process and then finding yourselves unequipped or unclear in the middle, leaving those in conflict or crisis to bear the burden of poor preparation. Only you can know if you have the capacity and resources to both plan and practice at the same time.
2.9 What resources are available to us during the planning process?
Why resources matter during planning: It’s probably already apparent that knowing what resources are needed to enact the infrastructure is essential, but what about the planning process itself? If you want to attend conferences or trainings to skill-up, will the organization pay for that? If you’re going to spend a lot of time planning the infrastructure, can other members take over your other roles or projects? Do you have meeting space, paper, markers, transportation, etc. to sustain a long planning process? Knowing what is available to you before you start, can help avoid the expectation that sub-group members will foot the bill for any expenditures that come up, or that other members of the organization will be willing/able to carry more labor during the process. Communicate with each other and the larger group about what resources are okay to use and how use of those resources needs to be documented or communicated.
…Look for Part 3: The Planning Phase in your inbox soon!
Opportunities to Learn + Act
NYC Anti-Violence Project is hosting a virtual Bystander/Upstander Intervention training on verbal de-escalation tactics on July 27th at 6pm EST. Register here.
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