Conflict Assessment

Conflict assessment helps parties determine whether an issue or dispute is appropriate for dispute resolution or consensus building. An assessment provides an opportunity to clarify the issues in the dispute, choose or design a dispute resolution or collaborative problem-solving process, decide who should participate in the process, and determine the costs involved. The assessment is conducted by a neutral who is skilled in convening parties and designing dispute resolution and consensus building processes.

Consensus Building/Collaborative Problem-solving

Consensus building is a term for a variety of processes based on collaboration in which a facilitator assists groups of individuals with diverse and often competing interests to collaboratively problem-solve and reach agreement. By bringing all affected parties (stakeholders) into the process as early as possible, consensus-building processes have been effective in resolving multi-party, multi-agency problems. Consensus building processes usually result in policies with wide support and a reduced likelihood for divisive community battles or legal challenges. A neutral facilitator assists in defining the stakeholders, getting the parties to the table, designing the ground rules and meeting structure, facilitating the process, providing meeting summary notes and assisting in the writing of the agreement.

Deliberative Dialogue

Deliberative dialogue is a form of public deliberation. In public deliberation, people come together to talk about a community problem that is important to them. Participants deliberate with one another eye-to-eye and face-to-face to explore options, weigh other’s views, and consider the cost and benefits of public policy decisions. Deliberative dialogue forums are structured discussions which range from small study circles held in peoples’ homes to large community gatherings, and are led by trained moderators. Using nonpartisan issue books that outline three or four possible ways to address a problem, participants analyze each approach through dialogue. Participants range from teenagers to retirees, prison inmates to community leaders, and literacy students to university students. Each dialogue focuses on a specific issue such as energy consumption, social security, or juvenile crime. Deliberative dialogue does not advocate specific solutions or points of view but provides citizens the opportunity to consider a broad range of choices, weigh the pros and cons of those choices, and meet with each other in a public dialogue to identify the concerns they hold in common.

Dispute Systems Design

Dispute systems design is a process that helps organizations to develop policies and programs to better manage conflict, both internally and externally with stakeholders. System design experts consult on how to launch conflict management programs, deal with organizational resistance and constraints, ensure that the design fits the larger organizational culture and regulatory scheme, motivate people to use the system, and evaluate the system to determine if it works. The design process involves consulting the legislation, regulations and rules under which the dispute resolution system will operate; assessing organizational systems and goals; interviewing employees and stakeholders; facilitating collaborative and participatory design processes; preparing policies, procedures and forms; recruiting and training neutrals; and orienting agency or court staff on how to effectively use the dispute resolution program or system.

Evaluation

Dispute resolution program evaluation services apply proven evaluation protocols and instruments to collect and analyze data gathered via telephone or in-person interviews and through review of existing documents. The results of the evaluation are delivered in a written report which sets forth the evaluation protocol and evaluation findings.

Facilitation

Facilitated processes assist groups with diverse interests or opinions to work together. A facilitator is an impartial person who assists with structuring and managing meetings, hearings, workshops, or conferences. Facilitators may assist groups to resolve problems and reach agreement or simply facilitate planning, information sharing, public involvement, or the gathering of stakeholder input. A facilitator helps the participants convene the process/meeting, establish ground rules, design and follow an agenda, set-up the meeting space, and make other arrangements. Effective planning and meeting management enhances the participants’ ability to communicate, plan and problem-solve in an efficient, effective and productive manner.

Joint Fact-Finding

Joint fact-finding helps stakeholders in a consensus building or collaborative problem-solving process build a shared understanding of technical/scientific issues and their implications for policy. It can also help resolve disputes about scientific and technical methods, data, findings and interpretations. Joint fact-finding was developed as a response to the common problem of “dueling experts” in policy making. In a joint fact-finding process, the stakeholders work jointly to define the questions to be answered, identify and select qualified resource persons to assist the group, and work in collaboration with the resource persons to refine the questions; set the terms of reference for studies; monitor, and sometimes participate, in the study process; and review the study results. If stakeholders are able to accomplish these steps jointly, they can dramatically reduce the amount of time and effort spent on debating scientific issues, build a shared understanding of the range of uncertainty where there are not definitive factual answers, and create a firm scientific/technical foundation for the decisions they make.

Mediation

Mediation is a form of assisted negotiation in which an neutral third-party professional helps the disputing parties create a voluntary settlement to their dispute. The mediator meets jointly and separately with the parties to review the issues and explore possible proposals for resolution. The goal is to arrive at a mutually agreeable settlement as quickly and amicably as possible, thereby avoiding the time, expense and uncertainties of protracted litigation. Participation in mediation is voluntary and confidential. (G.L. c.233, s.23C). Agreements reached as a result of mediation are binding by mutual consent of the parties. During a typical mediation session, the mediator helps the parties to explore underlying issues, clarify misunderstandings and ambiguities, and address personal, emotional and relationship issues. The mediation helps the parties gain a different view of the dispute and better understand each other’s interests and needs. The mediator provides an impartial perspective on the issues in dispute and assists the parties in exploring opportunities for mutual gains and realistic trade-offs. Mediation offers participants a way to test proposals before committing to them, and enables parties to shape settlement terms that insure prompt, reliable compliance. The efficiency and reliability of mediation is helpful even when a case does not settle, because the issues are often narrowed and clarified. The flexibility of the mediation process makes it well-suited to highly complex, multi-party public policy disputes.

Public Participation

Public participation or public involvement refers to processes that ensure that the ideas, interests and concerns of the public, including a broad range of perspectives and values, are considered in public policy development, planning and decision-making. Public input enables policy-makers to make informed decisions with increased legitimacy, and to build mutual understanding with the public. Direct engagement can give stakeholders a sense of ownership of the process and the outcome. Public involvement processes can also provide direct education on issues and allow stakeholders to understand the need for compromise and collaboration in making collective decisions.

Regulatory Negotiation

Regulatory Negotiation (“Reg-Neg”) is a collaborative approach to policy development and the adoption of regulations by government entities. Reg-neg is a process that brings together regulators, those affected by a proposed regulation, and other interested parties to develop a regulation from the beginning through negotiation;thus, outside parties are included before a draft regulation is developed or issued. It is usually managed by a mediator with strong facilitation skills, and may be used to develop new regulations or revise existing ones. By definition this makes the interaction between the agency and interested parties much more constructive and far less contentious. Further, once the regulations have been developed, they are then usually issued as the agency’s proposed rule for public comment and finalization. Having negotiated the contents of the regulation, this then marks the end rather than the beginning of the process and enables the process to conclude much more smoothly, quickly and efficiently.

Training

Dispute resolution training is provided to state and municipal officials and employees, and citizens involved in public projects. A broad variety of skill-building trainings are offered, including Negotiation, Mediation, Consensus-building, Arbitration, Conciliation, Conflict Resolution, Facilitation, Meeting Management, Workplace Violence Prevention, Cultural Competency for Mediators, and Communication with the Public. Trainings range from half-day workshops to a complete 30-hour mediation training. These training programs provide a full exploration of negotiation, mediation and conflict resolution theory as well as diversity issues. Participants also have an opportunity to learn skills that will help them handle conflicts in their organizations, and in most cases, participants are able to practice these newly learned skills through role-play exercises in a safe learning environment. Skill-building can focus on a variety of areas, from conflict analysis and prevention, to creative problem solving, to negotiating with challenging personalities. Trainings are custom designed by identifying the specific needs of potential trainees through a needs assessment, focus groups, surveys and/or interviews. The goal of trainings is for each participant to walk away with real and useful skills for resolving conflict and problem-solving effectively and a higher sense of confidence in dealing with conflict and managing diverse views.

Workplace Climate Assessment

Climate assessment is a process for identifying and diagnosing internal workplace conflict by conducting in-depth interviews of internal stakeholders that reveal interpersonal and structural dynamics in an organization. A neutral consultant conducts the assessment, analyzes the findings and make recommendations for improving the workplace climate through collaborative problem-solving, mediation, training and other dispute resolution alternatives. Such assessments have proven extremely beneficial in helping managers and employees determine where conflicts exist, and how they may be contributing to communication breakdown, lack of clarity, and/or other possible barriers to successful collaboration and teamwork.