Facilitative Leadership: Re-Framing Narratives to Navigate Conflict and Difference

Abstract

The current paper explores the facilitative role of leadership in the context of peacebuilding and conflict resolution. It highlights the importance of skilled facilitation in navigating complex, multi-stakeholder environments characterized by divergent perspectives and interests. The authors suggest that conflicts can sometimes be unlocked by re-framing the kind of narrative that parties and peacemakers jointly inhabit; in these cases, peace leadership works at two levels—to enable a narrative re-framing and to facilitate appropriate peace-making within-the-frame. When successful, these two rather different leadership functions enable constructive dialogue toward shared understanding and commitment. The paper develops the notion of hybrid configurations of leadership, illustrating how various leadership styles and processes coexist and interact. It suggests how peace-leaders may use narrative re-framing to help create more inclusive narratives that transcend divisions and locate conflicts in a wider context. The conclusion calls for further research into the hybrid styles of leadership appropriate to varied types of facilitation and suggests practical implications for leadership research, development, and practice, particularly in sustaining adaptive spaces for open communication and develop mutual respect in contexts characterized by conflict and difference.