ARCHIVE OF COURSES FROM CIIAN'S SPECIAL WORKSHOP SERIES

A Strategic Approach to Evaluating an Informal Conflict Management System

All Canadian Federal Agencies have now instituted some form of Informal Conflict Management System (ICMS). These systems have now been in place long enough to warrant being evaluated regarding their effectiveness in helping the agency achieve its mission and strategic direction.  This two-day seminar will provide participants with an approach to evaluating an ICMS and identifying program improvements to achieve strategic goals.  We will work with participants to prepare a strategic planning and assessment process for their ICMS based on a proven approach to strategic planning that encompasses the following elements: 

• Initiate the Planning Process: Identify appropriate members for the planning team, including both consumers and providers of the services offered by the ICMS, and design the process to be followed.
• Define Fundamental Values and Desired Outcomes: Identify the agency’s fundamental values and a sense of purpose and how the ICMS supports those values.
• Articulate a Desired Future: Develop a picture of what the agency should strive to become under ideal conditions and how an ICMS can help it get there.
• Examine Trends and Trend Implications  Identify the nature, magnitude, and sources of demands likely to be placed on the agency in the future and how those demands might affect the internal conflicts to be addressed by an ICMS.
• Conduct an Organizational Assessment  Identify how internal conflicts affect the agency’s capabilities to meet current and future demands, and how ICMS can resolve those conflicts in a way that promotes the agency’s fundamental values and desired future.
• Identify Strategic Issues and Develop Comprehensive Strategies  Identify the policy choices that affect the agency's capacity manage conflict to respond to present and demands and promote its fundamental values and desired outcomes, and develop strategies to address those policy choices.
• Implement the Plan and Monitor Progress.  Develop detailed action plans and methods for continuously monitoring and evaluating the performance of the ICMS in resolving conflicts to promote agency’s fundamental values and desired future.

Learning Objectives

As a result of this workshop, participants will be able to: 

1. Describe the key steps in a strategic planning effort;
2. Develop and promote an ability to engage in strategic thinking;
3. Identify methods for maintaining momentum during a strategic planning process;
4. Design and conduct a strategic planning process for evaluating their agency’s ICMS; and
5. Design an ICMS evaluation aimed at promoting their agency’s fundamental values and desired future.

Who should take this course?

The course is designed for top leaders, upper and mid-level managers, and ICMS directors in all Federal agencies.  It should also be of interest to legislators interested in evaluating the outcomes of the ICMS program and expanding its reach. 

The workshop leaders will Drs. John A. Martin and Steven Weller of Boulder, Colorado. 

Dr. John Martin is recognized as an innovator in strategic planning, and institutional development for justice and human service organizations. 

Over the past 35 years, he has consulted with courts, justice, and human service agencies of all types.  He is also a trained mediator and has mediated disputes across a wide range of venues.   

Dr. Steven Weller has more than 34 years of experience working with justice system organizations across the United States and internationally to help them respond to the changing demands of society. In addition, Weller is a trained mediator who has mediated multi-party disputes in organizational and public policy contexts and conducted mediation training for judges, attorneys, administrators, county commissioners, and police officers. 

Leadership Development for Organizational Transformation

Leadership has a broad definition and is often misunderstood and restricted in meaning as well as in intention. Leadership has no boundaries when the intention is to have a well functioning organization. Therefore Leadership development for Organizational transformation seeks to improve the organization for the better, and not only for the organization itself but for the people who work in it as well. 

Organizations should view Leadership skills workshops/training as a transformational process that can help them remain competitive in their day to day business. This 2 day workshop is designed to equip participants with leadership skills that will start them on a leadership journey and awaken the skills lying dormant and untapped for both individual and organizational growth.

The goal of the workshop is to teach/share leadership skills that can be applied immediately to start the transformation process. Through an interactive, participatory process, including role plays and games participants can share experiences and brainstorm ways to improve their work environments and solving problems that they encounter on a daily basis.

 Learning Objectives

As a result of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Articulate organizational values and ethics.
2. Develop critical awareness of themselves and awareness of root causes of organizational problems.
3. Discover the power of shared values.
4. Employ empathy in dealing with staff and others.
5. Empower others to act.
6. Identify leadership commitments that can guide their purpose and help them grow.
7. Listen to themes in regular conversations and distinguish between strong emotions, motivation and apathy.
8. Identify personal motivations, and how to effectively use them for organizational transformation.

Who should take this course?

This course is designed for beginners and middle-level managers in all types of public and private organizations, both unionized and non-unionized, such as

• Government agencies
• Community organizations
• Service organizations (universities, hospitals, other public and private social and health sectors)
• Private companies. 

The workshop leader is Senzeni Mapendere, MA.

Senzeni Mapendere is an associate Trainer for the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation.  She holds a Masters of Arts in Leadership and Training from Royal Roads University in Victoria, Canada. She has facilitated Leadership training workshops in the USA and in Canada.  Senzeni ‘s training expertise is also drawn from twenty years of Foreign Service experience  in Africa, Asia,  Australia, Eastern Europe and North America.

Mediator Wellbeing: Taming the Burnout Beast

Mediation practice demands that we remain on the outside of difficult conversations and simultaneously enter the heart of challenging, sometimes violent situations with calm certainty. Our clients project their hopes and expectations for constructive outcomes on to us against a backdrop of impossible odds, and we must continuously prove that their trust is well placed.   

Mediators support others to balance conflicting needs, and then help them to carve a path forward that makes sense. We are the “third party”, and tend to think in terms of others who are in conflict with one another. But what do we see when we focus that same lens on the conflicting needs and interests that are present in our own lives? How well are we doing with balancing personal and professional demands? Are we ensuring our own wellbeing and taking care of business? 

The goal of this one-day workshop is for you to evaluate how you manage these tensions and then to devise a personal plan to manage conflicting needs without being torn apart. In other words the goal is for you, as participant, to align your actions with your beliefs about self-care. 

Wellbeing is a critical component in working with others and is foundational to your professional success. Bring your toughest challenges, your nightmare moments, and your celebrated victories. All are fodder for learning in this dynamic, interactive workshop. 

Learning Objectives

The outcome for this workshop will be, and is not limited to, a synthesized plan that ensures your wellbeing by: 

1. Identifying the values that guide your professional aspirations,
2. Analyzing competing demands and assumptions that interfere with your success,
3. Integrating apparently opposing motivators,
4. Reconciling differences that hold you back so you can conceive your way forward. 

Who should take this course?

This workshop is designed for professionals who work with others in intensive, sometimes emotionally-charged environments. This includes mediators, negotiators, nurses, doctors, social workers, lawyers, therapists and counselors. It is intended for those who are accomplished and are aware that their original attraction to their work has lost some of its luster, for those who are finding it increasingly difficult to kick start their week-day mornings, and for those who love their work and want to keep it that way.

It is not for people who have achieved perfect balance in their lives, nor for the faint of heart who are ill-prepared to face their “burnout beast” with eyes wide open.

Sylvia McMechan pioneered collaborative conflict resolution in Canada as program officer with the Fund for Dispute Resolution, executive director of The Network for Conflict Resolution, first core professor in the Master of Arts in Conflict Analysis and Management at Royal Roads University, and is now in private practice. She is a principal with Diamond Management Consulting Inc. based in Victoria, BC.

Mediating Human Rights at Work

This interactive, experiential, two day course explores the dynamic possibilities for resolving human rights disputes in the workplace without recourse to rights based processes.  Effectively intervening within a human rights framework requires a strong understanding of the governing legislation as well as the context of human rights at work. Participants will gain an understanding of how human rights issues can be redressed in ways which take into account the unique needs and interests of all parties.  

Through role-plays and simulations, attention will be devoted to the question of communicating and negotiating by framing human rights issues in ways which respond to the parties’ interests. Case studies will be used to analyse human rights and conflict management dimensions of complex situations (e.g. sexual harassment, accommodation of disabilities) in order to build participants’ awareness of the need for an integrated approach to intervention and assistance. Experiences from participants will be important to the learning process and opportunities will be provided to improve communication, negotiation and analytical skills. 

Learning Objectives

As a result of the workshop, participants will be able to: 

1. Interpret and analyze human rights legislation which impact conflict management processes.
2. Determine the appropriate conflict management process in human rights disputes.
3. Adapt traditional ADR processes to effectively address human rights disputes.
4. Intervene effectively as a third party in human rights issues and the role of public interest.
5. Achieve and draft settlements which are wise, enduring, and consistent with human rights legislation.

Who should take this course?

This course is designed for individuals in conflict management systems in both public and private organizations and will be of particular interest to dispute resolution practitioners.  As this workshop builds on the skills and experience of the participants, prior training in dispute resolution and/or mediation is required.

The workshop leader will be Maureen Gauci of CanMediate International, former Chief, ADR with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Transforming Conflict to Promote Collaboration

Traditional approaches to conflict resolution focus on mitigating destructive behavior.  But conflict resolution is not just a mechanism to repair damage.  It is an integral part of making organizational decisions.  Bold, creative organizational change is complex, requiring the coordination of many different parts of an organization. Such change inevitably causes conflict as new processes, priorities and goals are established. But rather than allowing conflict to impede change, organizations can use it to strengthen their decisions. Conflict promotes thought.  And often, conflict is necessary to spur progress.  

Instead of treating conflict as a threat, something to be ended, organizations should be thinking of it as an opportunity, something to promote positive action. This one-day workshop is designed to teach organizational leaders how to channel the power of conflict toward making better decisions, to move from conflict resolution to organizational improvement.   

The goal of the workshop is to help organizations develop approaches to conflict management that promote collaboration within the organization. Collaboration requires that individuals merge their personal agendas, group identities and loyalties, and organizational and institutional boundaries in a way that promotes a more effective organization. Constructive collaboration between units promotes innovation which can lead to better organizational performance and new products.  Collaboration between personnel units can facilitate the identification of a conflict and the implementation of a unique win-win solution. The workshop will consider the organizational factors that can promote or hinder successful collaboration and how a positive environment for collaboration can be developed.

Learning Objectives

As a result of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the possible sources and underlying causes of conflict within an organization;
2. Identify the organizational characteristics that have been shown to promote successful collaboration within an organization; and
3. Identify the steps necessary in their organizations to develop a conflict management system that promotes collaboration throughout the organization.

Who Should Take This Course?

The course is designed for top leaders and upper and mid-level managers in all types of public and private organizations, both unionized and non-unionized, such as: 

• Government agencies;
• Community organizations;
• Service organizations (universities, hospitals, etc.); and
• Private companies.

The workshop leaders will Drs. John A. Martin and Steven Weller of Boulder, Colorado and Richard Moore LL. B. 

Dr. John Martin is recognized as an innovator in strategic planning, and institutional development for justice and human service organizations.  Over the past 35 years, he has consulted with courts, justice, and human service agencies of all types.  He is also a trained mediator and has mediated disputes across a wide range of venues.

Dr. Steven Weller has more than 34 years of experience working with justice system organizations across the United States and internationally to help them respond to the changing demands of society. In addition, Weller is a trained mediator who has mediated multi-party disputes in organizational and public policy contexts and conducted mediation training for judges, attorneys, administrators, county commissioners, and police officers.

Richard Moore is the Associate Executive Director of the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation. He is a full time ADR practitioner, consultant and trainer. He has mediated many disputes in a broad range of areas in the private, public sector and not for profit sectors. Internationally he has consulted in rule of law and ADR, and trained mediators in Guyana, the Philippines and Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.