Thank you to everyone who joined us for the webinar. “Challenge of conflict resolution in a COVID context”.” held on Thursday, June 18, 2020. On this occasion Javier Perla (Libélula) together with Marcial Medina (Statkraft), Gonzalo Quijandría (MINSUR) and Martha Ly (Golder Associates) exchanged ideas on how companies can strengthen trust with their different stakeholders in a COVID-19 context.
One of the central messages was the importance of human creativity to rethink every day the way to address the pandemic, as well as to have diagnostic information to monitor the effectiveness of the measures implemented.
Below, we share the most relevant ideas and strengths of the session:
“Conflict resolution depends on building trust.”
Javier Perla (Libélula) detailed the complexity of dealing with conflicts in a normal context and how this activity becomes even more difficult in a context such as the current one. He mentioned that for conflict resolution it is important to build trust and have 4 basic principles: preparation, consent, impartiality and inclusiveness. For Perla “it is important to generate trust that translates into agreements in the new situation”.
“It is important to follow the diagnostic and temperature measurement steps for each project or initiative.”
In response to the feeling of lack of control in these situations, Martha Ly (Golder Associates) mentioned that it is essential to carry out a rapid diagnosis, since decisions must be made quickly. Then, making an analogy with COVID-19, she indicated that it is necessary to “measure the temperature” of how the different initiatives are being executed. In his words: “We have to evaluate and address the increasingly large gaps that are generated in the populations and local actors”.
“All actions can work, but it is necessary to test their implementation.”
Marcial Medina (Statkraft) pointed out that we are in a constant learning process due to the current context. In his words: “It is time to create, fly and get out of the box we are in to keep moving forward”. In order to face the current situation, the implementation of several actions must be tested, since each community lives a very particular reality.
“It's time to reaffirm that we have a common dream with the community.”
Gonzalo Quijandría (MINSUR) reminded us that there is a great challenge to build trust with the communities in the current situation. In addition, he stressed that the mining sector seeks to protect the communities and that MINSUR, in particular, is implementing protocols that seek to provide calm and security. In his words: “Together, as a community and a company, we will succeed in moving forward for a common dream.
Watch the full presentation here:
