Relationship Building to Foster Productive Conflict: Insights From Collaborative Research to Spur Food Systems Transformation.

BACKGROUND: Community-academic research partnerships can benefit from diverse perspectives, but these may lead to conflicts that either unify or divide efforts. OBJECTIVE: We present lessons learned in developing a relationship building and conflict management approach for a food systems-change intervention implemented and evaluated using community action research. Our partnership included people from academia, community-based organizations, and grassroots initiatives within a historically redlined urban setting. METHODS: Our approach emerged from iterative and adaptive processes conducted over 18 months through ongoing feedback, application, and refinement with partners. LESSONS LEARNED: The prevention strategy emphasizes relationship building to enhance connections, accountability, and mutual benefit among members of the partnership to reduce destructive conflict. The management strategy is focused on fostering productive conflict management through mutual understanding, mediation, and forward paths post conflict. CONCLUSIONS: Findings offer practical guidance for leveraging productive conflict to innovate and ignite transformative change through community-academic research partnerships committed to community-driven leadership.