Wallace Warfeld Honored
When the Association for Conflict Resolution gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, from October 7-10 for its 9th annual conference, Wallace Warfield was invited to be the keynote speaker. His address, “Challenging Conventional Identities,” was offered in response to the conference theme: “Convening the ‘Whole of Community’: Integrating Approaches & Practices to Address Conflict in a Chaotic World.” At the conclusion of his remarks, Warfield engaged a panel of conflict resolution experts, Robert Benjamin, Homer C. LaRue, and Joyce Neu, in a discussion of current issues and future directions for the field. Then the floor was opened to conference attendees for Q&A.
Two significant events occurred that morning, in what could otherwise be considered standard fare for the opening session of a conference: First, the substance of Warfield’s message issued a challenge for the field to reflect on its own identity and relevance to the full range of complex and persistent conflicts. Second, Warfield was presented with a Lifetime Contribution Award.
ACR's Rachel Barbour presented the award saying, “I concluded last night that the English language is inadequate,” [as a medium for expressing the breadth of his contribution]… “As a conflict resolver you have positively impacted so many lives at all levels of society from the streets of New York to the countries of Liberia and Columbia. You have changed the structures of our government from local agencies dealing with ethnic and racial conflict to the creation of new dispute resolution processes in the federal sector. Your gift to the field has also been your tireless mentoring of a new generation of reflective practitioners and scholars who continue to shape and grow our field. For this, we at the Association of Conflict Resolution honor you and thank you.”
Faced with the task of writing about the award for this newsletter, I can appreciate Barbour’s difficulty in finding words to fully express Dr. Warfield’s many contributions to the field of conflict resolution, as well as to my own learning. His long career reflects a commitment to leadership, ethics, reflective practice, community, and going to the difficult conversations. As his student, I benefited immeasurably from his mentoring and as a colleague I continue to learn from and be challenged by his insights. The following list is by no means complete, but perhaps begins the task of tracing his influence in my own practice and scholarship:
•Learn everyone’s name. Right from the start. It is a sign of respect and recognition that we do not work with “parties” and “interests” but with people.
•Jazz is a useful metaphor for conflict resolution. Both are patterned as well as improvisational. A musical score or conflict resolution process is a starting point, one that anchors individual interpretations as well as emerging conversations. As he observed in the keynote, intervenors are parties too and the field suffers when processes and identities become too reified. Any new conflict or intervention is neither wholly exceptional nor wholly conventional.
•When in doubt, ask. An emphasis on reflective practice stems in part from the recognition that people often know more than they realize, as well as from a recognition that communities in conflict develop hard won insights and wisdom. Parties must do most of the hardest work, requiring humility on the part of intervenors with regard to their own influence, presence and impact.
•Vision and values matter. Seeds of outcomes are buried in the process, and seeds of the process are found in outcomes, as well as the conditions of the setting. Too often in the field when discussing the intersection of practice and assessment we are stymied within a false debate about process versus outcomes. In the hands of a seasoned practitioner, such a dichotomy does not exist—the two are inextricably intertwined. Throughout his long career Dr. Warfield has reminded us that vision and values matter in conflict resolution and that those who would offer help need to consider the deeper ethics and implications of their practice, while finding ways to engage with immediate as well as deeper concerns.
•Teaching isn’t telling. Experience, practice and reflection are essential for learning how to work with conflict. While he might inspire with a compelling story or diagram, the implications of a key theory, in the end what is asked of students is trying it out. Along the way, students might learn as much from reflecting on an experience as a party as one where they were attempting to be helpful.
Wallace Warfield’s long career reflects a commitment to leadership, ethics, reflective practice, community, and going to the difficult conversations. His keynote last month was a challenge, a call for the field to examine its assumptions, relevance, and effectiveness. But it was also a call to community, for shared learning and reflection in order to be of better service to those facing increasingly complex and persistent conflicts. He’s given us some important homework.