Blog

The habit of conflict resolution

Thursday 17th September 2009

I was listening to Ian Duncan Smith on the radio yesterday. He was talking about a new report that is just out on the benefits system, and why it is so difficult to get the long term unemployed back into work. It seems to me that part of what the CSJ report is trying to tackle is developing the habit of work in the long term unemployed by removing the obstacles and barriers to them finding work rewarding, so that they stay in work longer and reap the rewards that regular work can bring. His words got me thinking about habits and the kind of habits that we are encouraging young people to develop at Leap.

Developing a good habit is all about having the opportunity to make a positive choice where you may have made a negative or neutral choice previously, and to keep having the opportunity to make that more positive choice. It’s important to remove the barriers that keep people stuck in old bad habits, but it is also important to provide people with the opportunities to cultivate new more positive habits.

At Leap we are supporting young people to develop the habit of good conflict management. In our youth programmes work we provide a role for young people – as peer mediators, educators and trainers.Through carrying out this important role within their schools, and communities they are regularly provided with opportunities to practise and expand their conflict resolution skills. Almost without conscious effort they begin to acquire the habit of managing and dealing with conflict skilfully, in a way that has constructive and positive outcomes. Doing this regularly over time means that they begin to see themselves and their true potential. Their friends, families and peers begin to respond to them differently and to see the potential within them. People often refer to Leap’s work as ‘transformative’, and it is, but the work of transforming conflict is in the slow painstaking process over a period of time of developing good habits.

Jo Broadwood, Leap Academy of Youth and Conflict Director