Conflict is an inevitability, but most of us are surprisingly bad at dealing with it. We fall back on habits like avoidance, passive aggression, or lashing out. In a cooperative, when we’ve come together to increase our collective capacity, unresolved tensions can quickly bog us down, drain the energy and lead to disengagement.
So what does it look like to handle conflict well?
This month Punchcard’s guest is Paul Kahawatte, a member of Navigate and an experienced mediator working with communities, cooperatives, and social movements. In my interview with him, he shares the structures and processes he uses to ward off conflict, catch it early, and resolve it in ways that strengthen, rather than fracture.
🎧 Listen to the full interview with Paul on workers.coop/punchcard or wherever you get your podcasts
Catching Conflict Early
One thing Paul emphasised throughout our conversation was the importance of noticing conflict early and asking for support if you can’t face it alone. Too often we ignore tensions because they feel too small to bring up.
Conflict doesn’t always start with dramatic confrontation. More often it begins with small frustrations: someone feels another member isn’t pulling their weight, messages go unanswered, or two people quietly disagree about the direction of a project. On their own these moments seem minor, but over time they can build resentment and slowly erode trust and hold us back.
The good news is that small conflicts are easier to resolve. Addressing something early might mean a five-minute conversation instead of a five-month standoff. And like any skill, the more often we practise it, the easier it becomes.
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What to Do When in Conflict
A key take away from this interview was Paul’s step-by-step approach navigating conflict once it has arisen:
Level 1 – Listen to yourself
What has upset you? What value or need feels threatened? Sometimes this can be enough
Level 2 – Share it with someone neutral
Tell a neutral figure who is a good listener and won’t take sides.
Level 3 – Talk with others involved in the conflict
Sit down together and talk openly. Can you understand each other and agree on a way to move forward?
Level 4 – Silent observer
Another member attends the meeting, sitting in silence but adding a layer of accountability and support.
Level 5 – Mediation
A trained mediator facilitates a structured process and helps make agreements.
Level 6 – Uni-lateral action
If resolution isn’t possible or someone refuses to engage, the co-op may have to step in and resolve the conflict
👀 We’ve pulled this breakdown into its own 10-minute clip — watch it here
Agree the Process Before You Need It
Just as you set up a kitchen before you get hungry, you need infrastructure in place that will address conflict before you urgently need it, because that is the hardest time to agree on one.
In Navigate’s living system work, they highlight a few preconditions for creating and maintaining an effective system: Members need to fully understand and consent to the process in advance, it needs to be easy to find and simple to use, and the co-op needs to make space for the members to engage with it.
With these foundations in place, even small conflicts have a clear path toward resolution, and the co-op’s culture of trust and collaboration is preserved.
📚You can find Navigate’s free living systems resources here
❤️ Support Punchcard
After the positive response to Ai Van’s episode featuring the £1 model, I’ve been working on getting more guests on Punchcard who have practical solutions to worker cooperative challenges.
If you found this episode useful, and want more like it, help us by supporting Punchcard on Open Collective. Your contributions are helping us to create an archive of practical resources that strengthen workplace democracy.
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