Friday, February 20, 2009 (8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.)

The Activist Mediator: Styles and approaches to mediation and the role of the mediator

• Can you be too neutral and too rational?
• Why ‘Hawks’ win, and risk taking
• The depth of the allure of conflict: lessons from evolutionary psychology and neuro-science.
• Who is your client: the court, attorneys or parties?

Managing conflict: theory, techniques and skills

• Rational, non-rational, and irrational: myth and reality
• Lawyers’ and mediators’ responses to conflict
• Controlling conflict: managing the natural energy of conflict
• Neuro- linguistic techniques
• The use of metaphors, reframing, and spinning
• “Mediator, heal thyself” – Confronting our little biases, assumptions, and professional scripts

Negotiation rituals and strategies: Beyond the “interest/needs” model

• Would John Wayne negotiate, and why we hate it.
• Negotiation as ritual
• Cultural, moral and psychological resistance to negotiation
• Mapping the negotiation terrain: pragmatic, cooperative, competitive and moral: ‘The Protean Negotiator’
• Asking the right questions at the right time: tricksters, ‘the wise fool,’ and other ‘crazy wisdom’ techniques
• Persuasion: the limits of logic and paradoxical injunction
• Gaining commitment—dealing with resistance to negotiation/mediation
• Constructive deceptions, the art of the ‘bluff,’ and other tactics
• The mediator as negotiation coach
• Mediator authenticity, credibility, trust

Strategies for avoiding and managing impasse

• Applied theory: Systems and field theory
• Mediating with ideologues
• Value conflicts
• Mediator-induced impasse
• Participant simulation work

Creative problem-solving

• Escaping flatland and learning to think laterally
• The beauty of conflict: jazz, visual arts
• Mindfulness strategies
• Mediation as theatre and negotiation as performance art: Improvisational theatre techniques
• Forgiveness,   reconciliation, apology, and revenge in conflict management practice

Ethical and professional issues in negotiation

Saturday, February 21, 2009 (8:30 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.)

The politics of professional mediation practice

• Professional legitimacy: Certification, licensure and approval
• Mediation and the courts: the Uniform Mediation Act and the impact of other legislative/regulatory constraints
• Professional rivalries: Law, counseling, and mediation
• Professional vs. community mediation
• Mediation as a free community service vs. a private pay for service
• Restraint of trade and the unauthorized practice of law: Real or imagined

Marketing mediation

• A message that connects: How people choose to purchase a product or service; “freakenomics” rule
• The audience: Where do clients come from? (professionals or the public? lawyers, judges, clergy, counselors, real estate agents, AARP meetings, etc.)
• The medium: Considering web sites, speaking engagements, brochures, newspapers, radio, TV
• The value and limits of specialization in practice and marketing –New opportunities: Estate and probate, health care, workplace, eldercare

Economics of practice

• Factors in setting and collecting fees; cancellation fees, sliding-fee scales,“free” services
• Retainers (refundable/non-refundable)
• Written agreements to mediate: Terms and a mediation clause
• Office place and interior design
• Mediator dress
• Panel participation

Professional and ethical Issues in conflict management practice

• Confidentiality
• “Good faith’ participation
• Ethical issues in collaborative law: The Colorado Bar Association
• Working in the Shadow of the Law: Managing lawyers and legal systems
• When program structures and ideology constrain professional practice
• The ‘unauthorized practice of law’ or counseling

The Future of the Field

Register online now or download a registration form.