A Civic Designer's Guide to Mindful Conflict Navigation
Summary
As civic designers, we are adept at listening well, understanding complex interactions between people and within systems, and identifying creative opportunities. Working on teams that often comprise many disciplines, perspectives, and motivations, we must approach teamwork with intention and importance. While differing opinions and interpersonal dynamics are inevitabilities of collaborative work, our civic design superpowers uniquely position us to navigate conflict skillfully. While tackling some of our communities’ toughest, most intractable challenges, we must care for ourselves and our teams too– so that we can live well and serve sustainably. This session will begin with guided self-reflection. We will then explore conflict navigation through a lens of mindfulness, systems-thinking, and human-centered design.
Key Insights
-
•
Conflict navigation focuses on self-awareness and co-creating solutions rather than just managing or mediating conflict.
-
•
Collusion is a dynamic where both parties unknowingly perpetuate conflict through reactive behaviors.
-
•
Positive feedback loops can escalate conflicts or be leveraged to rebuild connection.
-
•
Mindfulness practice helps individuals center themselves to engage in conflict more effectively.
-
•
Questioning assumptions is critical to breaking negative conflict cycles and understanding others' motivations.
-
•
Civic designers have valuable skills like deep listening and empathy that aid in conflict navigation.
-
•
Building relationships with influencers can help circumvent challenging power dynamics in conflicts.
-
•
Effective conflict resolution progresses through stages: mindful arrival, relationship-building, listening, teaching, and co-creating solutions.
-
•
Psychological safety in teams fosters transparency and makes it safe to voice challenges without fear.
-
•
Visualization tools, such as collusion diagrams, bring visibility to conflict dynamics and identify intervention points.
Notable Quotes
"Conflict navigation is creating self-awareness of how you are in conflict and understanding your worldview to co-create solutions."
"When you step away as a conflict manager, the conflict often just reignites because the root issues aren’t addressed."
"Maybe one person wanted the zest and the other wanted the pulp—the conflict isn’t always about the whole thing."
"Mindfulness gives us space to bring curiosity and compassion to ourselves and others during conflict."
"Collusion is this dynamic process where both parties, through negative interpretation and reaction, perpetuate the conflict."
"Questioning assumptions invites the possibility that there are other reasons behind someone’s behavior that we haven’t considered."
"Deep listening allows us to hear from another person’s perspective and build understanding."
"The positive feedback loop can either spiral a conflict out of control or help reconnect the relationship."
"If you can’t reach the main person in conflict, build relationship with someone who influences them."
"Psychological safety creates an atmosphere where it’s safe to speak up, ask questions, and be imperfect."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"If we deeply understand outcomes and advocate for impact, we’ll be the ones making real change happen in the enterprise."
Greg PetroffSoftware as Material—A Redux
June 6, 2023
"That night at 11:59 PM the entire nation of New Zealand would move into what was called a level 4 lockdown."
Brendan JarvisFraming Tomorrow by Questioning Today
June 8, 2022
"Achieving coherency across products leads to less training, fewer support calls, and more users successfully adopting products."
Prerna MakanawalaAchieving Balanced Design Consistency
June 9, 2021
"AI is super polarizing — on one end, it’s discovering millions of new materials, on the other, it’s corrupting children’s experiences."
Tricia WangFrom Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research
March 25, 2024
"Pro-social gaming is about designing for positive social interactions that contribute to thriving communities."
Cheryl PlatzEmbrace Your Fun Factor: Game Development Best Practices for Product Design
January 9, 2026
"There’s inherent conflict that will arise when navigating many stakeholders."
Ariel KennanTheme Two Intro
November 17, 2022
"Representation is key to avoiding harm and misinterpretation, especially when working with Indigenous and marginalized communities."
Tricia WangThe most popular design thinking strategy is BS
January 27, 2022
"Don’t try to control the data to fit your narrative—the goal is to let insights guide your decisions, not justify them."
Kristin WisnewskiMeasuring What Matters
October 23, 2019
"It’s not move fast and break things; it’s slow and steady."
Scott Jensen Sarah Delaney Carmen LiuShort Take #2: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How can research and operations teams collaboratively evaluate new UXR tools for usability and operational fit?
How can storytelling be used to extract deeper insights without being extractive in user research?
Why is the emerging AI integration in healthcare seen as a major opportunity for UX professionals?