Being Present for a Friend Navigating Conflict (Flamekeeper Series #2) [public]

​This conversation is part of the Flamekeeper Series.

​Helping a friend navigate conflict can be a complex dance of roles and desires. We might face challenging questions:

• ​How might I offer genuine support without “taking sides”?

• ​How might I help expand someone’s perspective without being patronizing?

• ​How might I empower my friend’s own autonomy as they seek advice, and be clear about our own limits and involvement?

​To explore these questions, we glean wisdom from organizational ombuds and conflict resolution practices. Organizational ombuds serve as in-house third-party neutrals to help manage grievances and disputes within institutions. Conflict resolution practices can yield insights into interpersonal frictions we encounter in our daily life. We will learn how we can apply wisdom from these practices into our own lives and relationships.

​Amanda Dean is the Ombudsman for Staff and Faculty at Austin Communtiy College, where she helps resolve difficult or sensitive issues among staff and faculty. As a conflict management specialist, she has also helped companies and organizations create culture inside and outside the workplace through facilitation and mediation. She formerly served as the Assistant Ombudsperson for Students and Postdocs at UC Berkeley, and holds an MS in Conflict Management is from Kennesaw State University. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Ombuds Association.

​Maya Pace is from the redwoods of Northern California and grew up amongst a group of people dedicated to community and service. She is currently the Curriculum Director at Trust Labs where she designs and facilitates workshops on the adaptive challenges of belonging, isolation, and conflict. Prior to this most recent chapter, she spent 6 months traveling across the US as a Harvard University Sheldon Fellow talking to people impacted by our changing climates about how natural disaster has shaped their relationship to place and belonging. She graduated from Harvard Divinity School with a Masters of Theological Studies after working as the founding Chief Program Officer of Lead For America, an organization that equips young people to build capacity in their hometowns. Maya seeks to infuse her work with experimentation, learning, and practice around the orienting question: how do we live well together?

​The session will be moderated by Seanan Fong, Founding Director of the SF Contemplarium.

​We will have a lively fireside chat in the first hour, followed by an interactive skill-building workshop in the second hour.

​​🕕 Agenda

• ​​2–2:10pm: Arrive & Check-in

• ​2:10pm: Fireside Chat begins

• ​​2:40pm: Q&A

• ​3pm: Interactive Workshop

​​📍 Finding 550 Laguna

​​We'll meet in 550 Laguna (the corner of Hayes & Laguna). Once you arrive, go down the stairs to the basement level to enter space, check in, and please take your shoes off at the door.

​​​We are grateful to partner with The Commons to host this event in their incredible space. The Commons is a modern-day town square for communal meaning-making, personal discovery, and self-expression in the heart of San Francisco. Learn more about The Commons here.

​​About the SF Contemplarium

​​​​Presented by the San Francisco Contemplarium, a neighborhood institution creating space for honoring our human journey.