CONCLUSION
Practitioners of Large-Group Methods have created processes that work at the organizational and community level to either manage or resolve conflicts. Here are eight principles about large group processes that account for their effectiveness.
1. Focus on common ground, areas of agreement rather than differences or competitive interests.
2. Rationalize conflict. This means acknowledge and then clarify conflict rather than ignoring or denying it. Agree to disagree and move on to areas of agreement.
3. Expand individuals’ egocentric views of the situation by exposing them to many points of view in heterogeneous groups that do real tasks together collaboratively and develop group spirit. This broadens views and educates.
4. Promote the development of personal relationships through structures such as small table groups that exchange information and views with each other in structured activities. (A sense of having a personal relationship helps manage differences.)
5. Allow time to acknowledge the group’s history of conflict and feelings before expecting people to work together cooperatively.
6. Manage the public airing of differences and conflict. Treat all views with respect. Allow minority views to be heard but not to dominate discussion. Preserve time for the expression of views of people “in the middle” as well as those who are more extreme.
7. Manage conflict by avoiding incendiary issues or issues that cannot be dealt with in the time available.
8. Reduce hierarchy as much as possible. Push responsibility for working together and for managing conflict down in the organization so that people are responsible for their own activities.
Large-Group Methods tackle conflict in different ways at different points in its development. Sometimes dealing with past history, sometimes putting differences aside and simply managing them, sometimes directly addressing and resolving issues that divide people and groups. The principles described are primarily at the systems level. These processes, however, simultaneously affect the group and the individual level as reflected in principles 3 and 4. These methods also document many of the principles developed in the research on conflict and conflict resolution. We can hope that they may also stimulate new theoretical thinking about how conflict is managed and resolved.