Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict

Introduction: Frank Blechman, a private mediator and facilitator, suggests that facilitators should be open to play whatever role may be missing in the group dynamics. Often, Blechman plays a bad role model, to give the parties something to react against.

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Role Playing
Frank Blechman
Private Consultant. Formerly at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University

Interviewed by
Julian Portilla
2003

What I did as a professor was to try to push people past some of the existing techniques to a belief that they were entirely capable of creating new ones. That is certainly how I practice myself, is to look at situations and say what is missing here? What is it that I could add that might change the dynamic? Sometimes what I'm adding is a soothing quality or a third party perspective. But most of the time what I'm adding is actually a bad role model, which encourages other people then in counterpoint to behave better. I would like to think that what I've done certainly as a facilitator in public processes is to amplify the good intentions of the parties.

I am part and parcel of the whole and cannot find God apart from the rest of humanity. -- Mohandas Gandhi

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Univ. of Bradford Centre for Conflict Resolution

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Beyond Intractability Version IV
Copyright © 2003-2007 The Beyond Intractability Project
Beyond Intractability is a Registered Trademark of the University of Colorado
Project Acknowledgements

The Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base Project
Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, Co-Directors and Editors
c/o Conflict Information Consortium (Formerly Conflict Research Consortium), University of Colorado
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