September 28, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Leading Through Conflict: How Successful Leaders Transform Differences Into Opportunities
by Mark Gerzon
As technology and globalization break down traditional boundaries — economic, political, racial, religious — old enemies and complete strangers are forced to confront one another, a situation that has made near-constant conflict a fact of life, writes Mark Gerzon, president of Mediators Foundation.
Leaders of nonprofit groups, working to ease or fight the problems associated with such conflicts, should avoid the “our way is the best way” attitude. They would do better to become “mediators” by recasting seemingly intractable social problems as opportunities for growth and change, rather than simply trying to manage conflicts.
Mr. Gerzon provides eight skills that nonprofit, business, government, or community leaders should develop to work for social progress in a world of great conflicts.
These “tools” include advice on how to grasp the dimensions of a problem, how to foster unlikely partnerships, and how the right questions can help both sides understand each other.
In an example of successful mediation, Mr. Gerzon describes a bridge built by one community group across the deep divide between religion and science regarding evolution. Instead of struggling to completely eliminate either Darwinism or creationism from the high-school biology class, the group integrated both ideas into a curriculum that dealt with the debate about the topic.
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Mass. 02163; (617) 783-7510; fax (617) 783-7489; http://www.hbspress.org; 273 pages; $27.95; ISBN 1-59139-919-X.
