Communication is the focus of the conflict resolution certificate program offered through the University of Rhode Island’s (URI) Feinstein Center for Continuing Education. “Most conflicts come out of miscommunication or a lack of communication,” said Theresa Watson, URI’s special programs coordinator and instructor for the program. “Every behavior, at its root, has a feeling involved.”
At URI since 1986, first as an education specialist working with public schools, Watson started the mediation classes to meet the need of continued requests for her services as a mediator. Ten people from area businesses and schools are currently pursuing certificates in mediation.
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The first of the two classes required for the certificate explores and analyzes conflicts that come up every day in the workplace and assesses management style. Mediators are trained to listen and remain neutral – the mediator is there simply to facilitate the process. Through class discussions and role play, participants brainstorm for solutions to help disputants break out of negative patterns.
“I try to get people to look at conflict as a positive growth tool,” she said. “It’s how we deal with it that determines whether the outcome will be positive or negative.”
A common obstacle to successfully navigating through conflict is the inability to see another person’s point of view; Watson said that resolution comes from being able to separate the person from the problem at hand.
“These people are trying to get to a conflict before it escalates to the point of no return,” said Watson.
The class’s second section requires students to practice the theories and skills they have learned about in class and set them into action in the workplace.
“The goal is to get them to apply, in a concrete way, the tools that they’ve learned,” Watson said. “There’s no magic wand – it’s in the way you look at it.”
Watson said conflict is a natural result of spending eight or more hours a day with a diverse group of people.
“You’re not going to be best friends with everybody, but you can respect others’ need to be different,” she said. “There is true value in different types of people working together to make the whole stronger.”
But the benefits of successful conflict resolution go beyond making the work setting more relaxed. According to Watson, it can be cost-effective.
“The money lost in conflict – it’s incredible,” Watson said. “This one doesn’t like that one – they won’t work together. The haggling that goes on in an office costs employers money because of the unproductive nature of conflict. You want to address these issues.”
Keith Welch, principal of Graniteville Elementary School in Johnston hopes to use the skills he’s learned with his students. Welch said he’s also learned that the structured process of mediation can be used in a variety of settings.
“I thought it would have some relevance for the work that I do,” he said. “The most important thing I’ve learned is to be patient in situations and try to resolve them in a way that is the most fair for them [the disputants] – not to me.”
Observing a peer mediation program at an area junior high school makes guidance counselor Elaine Capobianco think a similar program can work for her students at Exeter/West Greenwich High School.
“I hope to organize and actually supervise a mediation program for students,” she said. “I really believe in the process and that students can mediate simple disputes before they lead to violence.”
Capobianco said she had seen several instances when students had helped each other.
“It’s very interesting to watch kids in this role – they come to it unbiased,” she said. “They’re much better than adults.”
Brenda Micheletti, a vocational coordinator at Goodwill Industries in Providence, said she hopes to apply the skills she’s learned in class not as a mediator, but as a listener. Her clients – many of them welfare-to-work moms, disabled individuals or recent immigrants – are adults and young adults who may come in with a negative attitude.
“They come in combative,” she said. “I feel like I need more skills to do my job better, fine-tune what I already know, and try to work at being a better listener.”
