Group Decision Making: A Nonviolent Communication Perspective (5/30/10)
Ike Lasater, Julie Stiles
Making a group decision is a form of conflict resolution, whether a group of friends is deciding which movie to see or a community is deciding on public policy. In Nonviolent Communication (NVC) terms, people in the group advocate for a particular strategy based on the needs they are seeking to meet.

Standing In The Fire: The Inner Art Of Facilitation (3/29/10)
John Folk-Williams
Facilitation is too often an underrated art. Both the practice and its practitioners are often characterized with some disdain as all process, no substance. Yet, everyone knows facilitation is necessary for tough meetings when the room is expected to bristle with tension, and a lot of skill will be needed to get a good result. Larry Dressler has written a book about the inner experience of the facilitator stepping into those highly charged meetings.

Zena Zumeta: Spiritual Side to Mediation - Video (3/19/10)
Zena Zumeta
Zena Zumeta speaks to the spiritual dimension of the work she does - how helping people learn how to respectfully and effectively be a part their workplace and family is a sacred task.

Negotiating Prejudice At U.C. San Diego (3/01/10)
Victoria Pynchon
As the New York Times reports this morning, things are not going well at my old alma mater. Shades of my late-60's, early '70's campus life, students have actually "occupied" the Dean's office even though the trigger for the racial dust-up was not University policy but the activities of a few dunderheaded frat boys who staged a "Ghetto Night" to "mock" Black History Month.

Collaborative Rationality (2/22/10)
Larry Susskind
In their extraordinary new book, Planning With Complexity (Routledge, 2010), Judith Innes and David Booher make the case for a new way of knowing and deciding.

What Do You Do When Consensus Fails? (11/23/09)
John Folk-Williams
This is the nightmare scenario for any consensus process: After months of hard work by 20 or 30 participants, one or two holdouts, perhaps representing narrow or personal interests, block agreement and frustrate the entire effort.

Real-Time Online Video Meetings (11/16/09)
John Folk-Williams
Despite my share of disappointments with the latest “revolutionary” computer technology, I’ve become quite optimistic about online video meetings. In contrast to promotions about the potential of “game-changing” breakthroughs, the newly available services look not just promising but extremely useful right now.

Multi-Party Facilitation - Improvisation: How to ‘Do The Jazz’ in Multi-party Facilitations (11/12/09)
Alex Azarov
Multi-party facilitations often reach such levels of complexity that the facilitator must be thoroughly prepared. However, things often don’t eventuate the way we predict and preparation alone is not enough to avoid a possible de-railing of the process. A skilled facilitator must be able to manage unexpected group dynamics in a similar way to a jazz musician taking part in an improvised performance.

Facilitator Tips (10/05/09)
Jeff Thompson
I recently came across Penn State's website and when searching "conflict resolution", I found this gem of a page. It gives various tips and questions to consider when issues arise within a working group/team. The tips listed are easily transferable for a facilitator who is planning to bring a group together.

Whole System Change: The Future Search Conference (9/21/09)
John Folk-Williams
The Future Search Conference is one of several collaborative planning methods that take a “whole system” approach. These processes try to replace shelf-bound plans with agendas for action that are developed collaboratively in the course of intensive large-group meetings.

Should Age Matter? (6/08/09)
Jeff Thompson
Is it ok to ask for age specific facilitators? Over at the wonderful NY-DRC listserv hosted on the CUNY John Jay servers (see below on how to join the listserv), there has been many comments on the following request.

Green Technology Innovation (5/11/09)
Larry Susskind
I believe the consensus building approach to collective decision-making is the only way we will be able to promote green technology innovation at sufficient scale to achieve a meaningful shift to more sustainable patterns of development.

Governing Communities Of Faith (2/09/09)
Larry Susskind
One response I often get to the idea of a taking a consensus building approach to governance is that it won't work because people with conflicting values and interests can't possibly reach agreement through informal conversation. The only way to settle their differences (peacefully), or so the argument goes, is to let the majority rule. While I don't agree, what possible reason, then, could there be for communities-of-faith (i.e. groups associated with particular temples, parishes, or churches) to operate by majority voting? They are, by definition, groups that share common values and interests.

Judgment call: everyone benefits when decision making is improved (9/16/08)
Diane J. Levin
In a recently published paper, experts in decision making Dolly Chugh, Katherine L. Milkman, and Max Bazerman asked an important question, “How Can Decision Making Be Improved?” (PDF): We propose that the time has come to move the study of biases in judgment and decision making beyond description and toward the development of improvement strategies. While a few important insights about how to improve decision making have already been identified, we argue that many others await...

A Credo for Facilitators (7/07/08)
Colin Rule
Peter Adler, head of the Keystone Center and a giant in the field of dispute resolution, recently published a great "credo for facilitators" that he first came up with some years ago. I really like his set of seven beliefs at the end of the credo:   "1. A GOOD FAITH CONTRACT.   We believe the job of the “facilitator” involves a three way good faith contract that must be honored by (a) those who are sponsoring or convening the process; (b) those who are serving as facilitators of...

A Credo For Facilitators (6/23/08)
Peter Adler
I recently was asked to state clearly and unequivocally to a group of prospective clients what my “philosophy” of facilitation is. To prepare for that, I went back through my files and dug up a “credo” that various colleagues and I put together in 1998 in Hawaii. The statement grew out of a series of discussions about the use and occasional abuse of “facilitation” in the public, private, and civic sectors. The following tenets have held up well over the years and may be of use to others. We encourage readers to copy and disseminate the statement to other groups and individuals who have an interest in facilitation, collaboration, and consensus-building.

When two heads aren't better than one (6/17/08)
John Windmueller
There’s a common expression that “two heads are better than one,” and that may often be the case. However, since we often bring groups together to work on resolving conflict, it’s also important to recognize when and why groups may fail at producing high-quality deliberations. Two U Chicago scholars have released an interesting working paper on this issue, available here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1121400 Below is the paper’s...

Consensus Building Tips from Work Life Bridge (4/14/08)
Victoria Pynchon
Thanks to WorkLifeBridge for including us on its resource page.  We're happpy to reciprocate and pleased to find another good source of information on collaboration, dispute resolution, and making life and work better for everyone.  In their post Creepy Crawly Consensus, the authors of WorkLifeBridge direct their readers to some good consensus building resources.  See below for their recommendations and click here for the full post.  Here are some resources and ideas to ...

A Useful Tool For Mapping Concepts And Discussions (3/04/08)
John Windmueller
I recently discovered a terrific tool for mapping concepts and group discussions: Compendium. Compendium was designed with an eye toward the IBIS (Issue-Based Information System) approach to structuring and recording group conversations. These are typically conversations done with the goal building a better understanding of a complex problem and exploring ideas for tackling what emerges. (For a good introduction to this take on facilitation, I’d recommend Jeff Conklin’s >Dialogue...

Mediación entre víctima y ofensor (2/11/08)
Josefina Rendon
La mediación entre víctima y ofensor es el proceso por el cual la víctima de un crimen enfrenta al causante de éste en la presencia de un tercero quien ayuda a las partes a dialogar sobre los hechos y sus consecuencias. En dicho enfrentamiento, la víctima tiene la oportunidad de expresarle al ofensor su coraje o su temor, de echarle en cara el impacto de su conducta criminal, de preguntarle las razones de esta conducta, o simplemente, de satisfacer su propia curiosidad sobre que tipo de persona es el acusado. Por su lado, el ofensor tiene la oportunidad de explicar los hechos, explicar la razón de su conducta, comprender el punto de vista de la víctima, y hasta pedirle perdón.

Note to Board of Directors: Women Make a Positive Difference (2/11/08)
Victoria Pynchon
Why diversity?  Uh . . . . because that's how life successfully evolved on planet earth?Now a new study prepared by Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business and the Wellesley Centers for Women concludes that corporations benefit from the presence of women on the Board of Directors in Critical Mass on Corporate Boards: Why Three or More Women Enhance Governance. (for the same reasons noted below, we also make pretty darn good mediators and settlement officers)We find that...

A Protean Negotiator: An Interview with Peter Adler (8/28/07)
Gini Nelson
This is an interview of Peter Adler, President of The Keystone Center and one of the world's leading public policy facilitators by Gini Nelson. Peter speaks to his perspective on the nature of negotiation, conflict and our field, or lack of field, currently and in the future.

CaliforniaSpeaks: Working Together for Better Healthcare (7/30/07)
Susan Dupre
Facilitators are needed for California's state-wide health care conversation. Thousands of Californians will come together on Saturday, August 11th, to evaluate proposals for reforming California’s health care system and send a message to state leaders about their priorities. Interactive television will link together public meetings in eight cities to create a true state-wide conversation.

The Dynamics of Group Decision-Making (6/18/07)
Geoff Sharp
A great resource today from Bill Waters' Campus ADR Tech Blog on the Dynamics of Group Decision-MakingIt's an animation showing the phases a group goes through when making a decision - another example of how the web is enriching our learning as mediators.

The Art of Disagreement (2/27/07)
Dale Eilerman
Most of us would likely say that we do not care to be around disagreeable people. This choice of behavior is typically discouraged in organizations as being disruptive and unsettling. It can generate negative emotional reactions and a sense that the disagreeable person is being uncooperative and is not “on board”. However the act of disagreeing is essential to identify problems, provide contrary perspectives, consider alternatives and make changes. What we need to recognize is that there is a skill and “art” in offering a disagreement that plays an important part in the success in taking this position. It is not what is said, but how it is said.