Organizations funnel the stress of political and social upheaval and I see groups grappling with how to balance personal and professional lives, grief/trauma or neurodiversity, true equity in their org, aligning on meaningful workplace culture, and so much more. There are many ways to explore these tensions!
“Your personality, love, kindness, and patience cultivated a lot of trust which led to openness and vulnerability in the group.”
-Community member in conflict resolution process
Between my decades of working with collective-based organizations and living in a 20-person intentional community, I have had an enormous amount of practice with healthy communication, working through tensions, giving and receiving feedback and exploring differences. I’ve built on this foundation with a certification course in Equity-Informed Mediation and a class in Trauma Aware Conflict Transformation.
After surveying members of this org, I drew out their tangle as a way to start sorting the threads and re-weaving a new story. 
Org conflict and redesign: breaking down the steps 
The 3 layers of conflict 
Goals made by 2 staff members in a workplace mediation process 
Story of how a community evolved into complex tension – starting place for healing 
We are made of so many layers! When our layers interact, we can inadvertently cause harm if we don’t have the awareness or language to explore differences 
“Snapshot of Now: Structural Issues” – made during an organizational healing/updating process 
“Snapshot of Now: Communication/Emotions issues” – made during an organizational healing/updating process
Group conflict mixing interpersonal and structural issues
When working with groups mired in complex group-scale conflict, I support them to learn communication skills that build trust and authentic listening, separate personalities from issues to approach problem solving together, visually see the issues in new ways, and unwind many tangled threads in order to address needs step by step. Successfully moving through tension and conflict is magic for building community!
Group conflict over a pressing decision
The parent community of a local independent elementary school was in heated conflict regarding their masking policy: parents had very different needs for their children, and didn’t have the communication or relationship baseline for a collaborative conversation. I facilitated a series of meetings that built authentic connections, unpacked the issues into manageable pieces, and not only created an agreement but also left everyone feeling energized and excited to foster more community among the parents!
The puzzle is at the center, not the personalities: we struggle with the challenge not each other as people 
Breaking apart the elements of the decision 
Understanding the conflict on three levels 
Offering feedback on the masking proposal 
Getting to know each other 
Diving into the issues 
Weaving relational webs 
The flow of the 3 conversations
John, Executive Director of the school:
“Our school parent community was fractured around what our masking policy should be for the 2023-24 school, and we looked for a facilitator to help us work through the issues. Luckily, we found Jenny Leis! From the very start of the process, Jenny was collaborative, insightful, positive, and most of all, really listened to understand our community and situation. We were unsure how this would work out, but with skillful guidance, targeted activities, and kind honesty, Jenny helped us come to a resolution that was beyond what we expected. Not only did we bring our community closer, and ignite a desire to build a strong parent body again, but we wrote our sick/mask policy during the sessions! It was remarkable. Jenny used humor, personal stories, kind and honest communication, organization, and flexibility to the fluid and changing atmosphere to guide us to our goals. We had many comments from our parents about how effective the sessions were, and specifically about how good Jenny was. We cannot recommend Jenny highly enough.”
Concern Map!
Getting to know each other more builds empathy. 
Group working on a concern map together. 
Worksheet the groups used to explore concerns. 
Handout for beginning the concern mapping exercise. 
Exploring concerns in an engaging way where people’s thoughts were shared visually on this wall-based activity.
Neighborhood conflict about a houseless pod village
I find it energizing to help a very diverse set of stakeholders shift from animosity to amicability. I facilitated a series of 3 conversations with representatives of 22 neighborhood groups who were struggling to integrate a houseless pod village into an empty lot. By the end of the sessions, they were able to connect around a shared love of the neighborhood and commitment to working together through differences.
Members of the neighborhood process:
“I learned there is a lot of goodwill in this group and I will stay with this process.”
“Feels good to feel safe to express concerns.”
“It’s refreshing to see where our commonalities are even though we have big differences.”
“The problems are enormous but I now see the solutions are here.”
“With 15 groups here, it’s pretty unique that we can collaborate without agreeing on everything.”
“I have more empathy for the fears and concerns that I didn’t want to hear.”
“These conversations will carry us through other hard discussions in our future.”
Tension after an incident
A community suffered a trauma together and had very different responses as they sorted through what happened. With a co-facilitator, I helped them make sense of the stories and co-create a shared path forward.
Member of the community:
“By the end of the two sessions, genuine healing had occurred and our entire community was deeply grateful to Jenny and her partner for helping us to re-position ourselves.”
Trainings and culture building for conflict prevention and transformation!
Healthy communication and a culture of feedback can prevent conflict! I lead dynamic trainings to practice good listening, stay regulated in moments of tension, seek to understand each other’s needs, compassionately advocate a perspective, and – most people are terrified of this one – give or receive feedback. I have developed many gentle and connective formats including playful worksheets to help a group develop a healthy communication culture. Bonus: people find these skills immensely helpful in their personal lives, too!
My special sauce when working with groups in conflict is:
Compassion based in systems thinking – understanding that each person is the center of a complex series of “cause and effect” experiences that have shaped them, and each situation is an amalgamation of people’s stories to that moment. No blame, just understanding and care.
Loving enthusiasm for collaborative efforts – I named my business Your Enthusiasm Is Contagious because that phrase has been said to me word-for-word for decades. I believe that my energy helps enormously in moments of tension and complexity. I’m told I help people feel more comfortable while speaking about our society’s stickiest topics and moments.
Equity analysis – for 25 years I’ve been immersed in community social change and I am well aware of the patterns and responsibilities I have as a white, cis-gender, middle class, temporarily able bodied, extroverted woman. I try to be humble and effective with my positionality, while continuously learning and opening myself to feedback. Besides understanding the structural and cultural aspects of the “isms,” I assume most people are dealing with some kind of trauma, grief, neurodiversities, and other unseen dynamics that affect relationships.
Deep experience with groups and individuals trying to work things out – living and working in consensus-based groups means always seeking to meet a plethora of needs in as creative and compassionate a way as possible. Besides the ~80 groups I’ve worked with, I spent 20 years living with 20 people in an intentional community on a volunteer nonprofit social change education land project. We spanned all aspects of race, class, gender, ability, and neurodiversity – and addressed deeply personal needs while working together, sometimes harmoniously and sometimes heart-wrenchingly. I learned a lot.
Visual thinking and other formats that allow more authentic participation – my specialty with group process is creative formats for engagement, including visual thinking. I find visuals especially helpful with people in conflict – to see the “layers and players” involved, mind maps or drawings bringing new light to the interlocking issues at play, and offering interesting formats to “separate the problem from the personalities.” Plus, colors and new ways of participating bring levity to otherwise heavy conversations.
