23 - The Power of Stories in Conflict-Management and Negotiation

Abstract Information: Multiple perspectives and stories among stakeholders often fuel conflicts - which can challenge even the most skilled evaluators. Lack of listening, conflict management, and negotiation skills can create barriers to the successful completion of evaluation projects. Many conflicts and tensions can be prevented through effective listening and storytelling throughout the evaluation process. Through a hands-on, experiential approach using real-life examples, participants will learn practical applications of conflict resolution and negotiation skills in program evaluation, with an emphasis on deep listening and facilitating storytelling. Attendees will assess and reflect on their approach to handling conflict in order to further develop their listening, conflict-management, negotiation, and evaluation-practice skills.

Relevance Statement: The co-facilitators have worked with graduate students and evaluators in a variety of settings - academic and professional - for over twenty years. They have also facilitated conflict-resolution and negotiation training for experienced evaluators, and have found that the field is rife with unspoken and unaddressed conflict. Helping evaluators learn to elicit stories to listen deeply has the potential not only to enhance evaluators’ skill sets, but to build sustainable relationships among stakeholders, leading to successful program evaluations.
Our lived experiences as evaluators have been committed to including all voices in the process of evaluation and addressing systemic discrimination. We believe that all voices have value and are critical to the creation and sharing of knowledge throughout the evaluation process.

References
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