Business Mediation and Workplace Mediation Training

24-Hour Intensive Workshop

This workshop is for anyone interested in developing skills for use in business mediation and workplace mediation. The program provides a hands-in training and a framework for mediating business and employment-related disputes. This training is not primarily a commercial or civil mediation training. Our focus is on

• business mediation, with attention focused on family businesses;
• workplace mediation, especially one-on-one employee grievances; and
• employment mediation, including EEO and discrimination related to age, race, and disabilities, and sexual harassment complaints.

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is relevant for attorneys and managers interested in workplace mediation, human resource professionals and persons responsible for staff development in their own organization, as well as private practitioners and mediators who want to expand their practice.

What Does this Workshop Include?

The workshop, with a 400-page manual, covers the basic content areas of business and workplace mediation. The training will lay out a six-stage model of the mediation process. We will focus on the skills involved in becoming an effective workplace mediator.

We will use employment exercises and simulations selected for their relevance to real-life situations businesses and professionals confront, enabling each participant to practice and develop his/her skills.

The training will include components on:

• Family businesses
• three core paradigms for dealing with conflict
• legal vs. business perspectives on decision-making
• the role of mediation in corporate dispute resolution systems
• working effectively with attorneys in mediation
• generating settlement options
• confidentiality
• using caucus effectively
• how co-mediation adds value
• mediator ethics and standards of practice
• writing effective agreements
• mediating federal discrimination laws

A distinctive feature of this training is extensive use of videotapes for instruction.

What Credentials Will I have from this Workshop?

Graduates of this program may join the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). This program also meets the 40-hour training requirements for Practitioner Member status in ACR.

A certificate of completion, suitable for framing, will be issued to you upon successful completion of and full attendance at the training course.

Who are the Faculty for the Course?

The course will be led by Carl Schneider, Ph.D., director of Mediation Matters.

Experienced mediators will provide individual coaching for participants in small group role plays.

What Should I Read Beforehand?

We recommend you read two books before the workshop.

Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith, Resolving Conflicts at Work (3rd ed. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011. $12.61 pb)

Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, & Sheila Heen, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (Penguin, 2010 $9.49).

These books can be ordered on-line at Amazon.com or BN.com.

The 400-page Training Manual for the workshop will be distributed the first day of the training.
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