Generative Conflict

We can meet conflict with more curiosity, care, and skill

All individuals show up with their own set of unique lived experiences, values, beliefs, resources, and needs. When invariably these factors rub up against each other, conflict occurs.

Many folks avoid conflict at all costs; perhaps they make their needs smaller, leave some of their experiential wisdom at the door, or even compromise their values to do so. Conflict can feel so uncomfortable that many choose to avoid it at all costs! Others learned that engaging in conflict means doing or experiencing harm.

Instead of avoiding or hurting each other through conflict we have the ability to approach it as an opportunity for expansion. Relational ruptures, when worked through with creativity and care, can be an invitation to grow closer together rather than further apart.

Generative Conflict (GC) is a set of values and practices that encourage us to engage in more skillful ways, prioritizing harm reduction, fostering deeper connections and ultimately working towards more equitable solutions at a systemic level.

  • What becomes possible for us personally and collectively when we heal our own relationship to conflict?

  • How does the body respond to conflict? How can somatic techniques (tools that engage the body) support us at the uncomfortable growth edges of conflict?

  • How can being in generative conflict build stronger relationships and more equitable solutions?

Anna-Maria helps individuals and groups with coaching and facilitation focused on Generative Conflict. She has worked with community groups, institutions, nonprofits (including through Third Sector New England (TSNE)) and staff/faculty/students in higher education (including the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE)), developing targeted curriculum to support them in reworking their relationship to conflict in their collectives.

Read Anna-Maria’s blog post on generative conflict for TSNE and sign-up for her upcoming online training as a Facilitator for Better Management Training to TSNE’s Emerging Consultants of Color cohort (open to the public also, 5/2/25).