This article was published during the COVID-19 pandemic, a day after the count of globally-documented cases surpassed one million. I felt it was necessary to write this as much for you, dear reader, as for myself. At this point, we don’t really know what the world will look like when the pandemic is over. What I do know is that uncertainty breeds anxiety. Stress clouds our ability to focus on much of anything, let alone resolving conflicts between adversaries. It would be easy to just tell everyone to forgive and forget, but in reality, conflicts only escalate if left to fester indefinitely. After 25 years as a mediator, I assure you, it’s possible to manage conflict in stressful times. In this article, I offer a few options.
