GENERATIVE CONFLICT & PRINCIPLED STRUGGLE
“...principled struggle offers us another way, a way to struggle in which we are not being conflict avoidant, or conflict aggressive, but rather engaging in generative conflict, conflict that grows each of us and that creates more possibilities for what we can do in the world together.”
N'Tanya Lee & adrienne marie brown
Our Offerings
Generative conflict and principled struggle are deep concepts that involve a lot of preparation, intention, and practice. With so many ways to engage with this work, we have a couple of different offerings to share:
Leaning into Generative Conflict and Principled Struggle: This session is facilitated as part of the Power50 and women's fellowship curriculum. If you are trying to put something together that's part of an ongoing learning cohort, check out this session that we've designed for that purpose.
Preparing for Generative Conflict and Principled Struggle series: This series of 3 sessions is another powerful offering to delve into these topics, focusing on the embodied experience. Check out this series if you're looking for ways to train with your group on this topic over an ongoing period.
Read on to learn more about both offerings.
Leaning into Generative Conflict and Principled Struggle
Description: #Wekeepussafe. My liberation is bound up with yours. So many parts of our organizing movements rely on a deep sense of interdependence. Interdependence includes developing a shared set of community commitments, learning each other’s strengths and challenges, and...learning how to be in principled struggle with each other. How can we build a practice together around disagreeing—arguing even—without canceling each other? What does it look like to call each other in and up when we are straying from purpose?
This session comes from the Power50/women's fellowship curriculum and offers a way to practice generative conflict / principled struggle with an ongoing learning cohort. If you are looking to train with your group on generative conflict / principled over an ongoing period, check out the below powerful series: Preparing for Generative Conflict and Principled Struggle.
Purpose: To build understanding and develop a practice for leaning into conflict and calling each other in and up.
Outcomes:
We understand the concept of principled struggle and the tools we’re developing to engage in it
We leave with new tools around understanding how we show up in conflict
We practice techniques for leaning into conflict with each other
We re-root in our commitments to each other and our community
Process: 75 min
Preparing for Generative Conflict and Principled Struggle series
Description: Many of us have longed for spaces that feel safe, that shield us from the harshness and isolation of living in a world that doesn’t seem to want us or our stories. That doesn’t know how to meet us when our rage, fear or dissatisfaction show up. For many women identified people of color conflict is present everywhere we turn. In our homes, on the streets, in our jobs, in our heads. We long for somewhere quiet and safe. We yearn for spaces that can hold and nourish us. We see you and we know this. We also know that in order to create those spaces we must transform. And as we all know, transformation ain't always easy. We do not have a magic formula to follow when conflict shows up. What we can and hope to offer here is a deeper awareness of who you are and what you need in order to practice being in discomfort and tension.
This three-part series includes:
Intro to Generative Conflict and Principled Struggle (about 2 hours + pre-work): In this session, we invite participants to reflect on what their lived experiences have taught them about conflict, consider another way to be in conflict, and practice connecting with the body around conflict. We hope this session invites you to think about how you engage in conflict; what are the stories you hold, what society tells us, what we learn in our homes and to then consider the gifts of tension and what all of these together gives us.
Our Bodies and Conflict (4.5 hours - recommend with trained somatics facilitators): In this session, we invite participants to dive deep into their conditioned tendencies around conflict and consider what shapes their bodies take as a default approach to conflict. We hope this awareness and curiosity can lead you on a journey to who you would like to become as you try out new ways to engage in conflict.
Navigating Conflict as a Collective (minimum 3 hours): In this session, we invite participants to learn about and develop collective practices for engaging in and navigating through conflict. We create space for individuals to reflect on their own stories, behaviors and responses, as well as identify possible tools that a group can implement as they move through conflict generatively together.
This powerful series trains on generative conflict / principled struggle with a group over time. If you are looking to introduce this generative conflict as one topic for an ongoing learning cohort, check out the above session: Leaning into Generative Conflict and Principled Struggle.