Up Coming Mediation Training

The Athens Area Mediation Service is sponsoring an intensive training in mediation skills. Those participating will learn to use the listening skills and thoughtfully structured approaches of mediation to respond to a wide variety of conflict situations. Past participants have reported being more effective in addressing conflict in the workplace and in their family lives.

Our training style is informal, participatory, and fun. Over four hundred people have enjoyed this training over the last six years.

When: December 7,9,14 & 16

8:30 – Noon each morning

(Participation in all 4 sessions is encouraged)

Who: Faculty, classified staff, administrators, students & community members. Space is limited.

Where: On or near campus

Registration: contact John, Megan or Rimma @ 594-6169 or aams@frognet.net

Monday Nights in Training

The last two Monday nights, 15 of us have gathered for advanced mediation training. The group is wonderful and diverse. Men and women from 21 to 77 years old. The presentations and practice sessions have been rich and rewarding. The discussions have been particularly insightful and thought provoking. Below is a list of some of the topics and questions we will tackle during these sessions.

• How do you stay neutral?
• How do you work with power dynamics?
• Transitions from mediation to other roles we must play (supervisor, e.g.)
• Are religion and cultural heritage part of the history we take into account
• How does it work when ideas of right or wrong are at the core
• When to hang a case to a professional
• Way to show insights without losing your role
• What to do when you feel people are ready to give up (& so are you)
• How to relate mediation to work place and school
• How to teach skills to participants during mediation
• Accountability
• When or if to present solutions and suggestions
• Issue focus or focus on person
• Aggression in the background
• Unbalanced numbers on each side of the table- what to do
  
• When is it a retreat?
• When is it Mediation or Facilitation?
• Conflict- ongoing bad behavior needs to stop
• Teach people to listen and how to encourage people to speak up for themselves
• Men and Women and Emotions- Gender issues
• What to do if conflict has become addictive
• How can we create a desire for resolution?
  

In Community,

John

Advanced Mediation Training

Advanced Mediation Training

Mondays in October

October 4, 11, 18 & 25

We will be meeting at 16 W. Stimson Ave from 6:30 - 9:00 PM

Parking is available in the Hocking Valley Bank parking lot or on the street

More Thoughts on Advanced Training

Hi. I wanted to share a few of my thoughts on the advanced training we'll be having in October. I know a lot of us enjoyed and appreciated the ways we were able to come together in the various Fundamentals of Mediation trainings we've held over the years. The sense of community and the joy of learning together was lovely.

I'm excited about the many opportunities I think this new series will present:

• The chance to recreate some of that community with a new collection of smart, caring people.

• The chance to hone our skills together as people who want to play a better role in responding to challenges conflict brings forward.

• The chance to grow our mediation services in important ways.

By the end of the series, I'd like to have several "mediation gangs" formed.
These might include:

• Folks who won't be doing formal mediation but want to be effective conflict resolvers at work and in our personal lives.

• Those who want to focus on workplace mediation

• Those who want to focus on mediation for couples and families

• Those who want to focus on court related mediation.

• ......and more.

I have a number of ideas and topics already in my head and expect to return from a national conference next month with even more. As usual, we'll do our best to reflect the interests and concerns that you bring to the training. I'm excited about this and hope you will be able to join us. I'd love for everyone to make all 4 sessions, of course. If you can only make 3, please come anyways.

In community,

John

Advanced Training in Mediation and Conflict Resolution

Advanced Training in Mediation
and Conflict Resolution

Monday Nights October 4, 11, 18, and 25
6:30-9:00 PM

Open to all who have attended training or have significant related experience.

Free to OU folks thanks to our contract through Provost.
Donation encouraged from others ($30-200)

Our trainings are designed to be lively, interactive, and practical

Sessions will include review of basics, new ideas and approaches, time for questions, practice and sharing.

Topics will include:

• Best Practices in mediation
• The key role of listening well
• Reframing is fun
• Working with "difficult people"
• The transformative model
• Mediating in the workplace
• Making small claims mediation work
• Working successfully with families, couples, teens, college students, and elders

We will meet on or near campus

Contact John or Megan 594-6169 or aams@frognet.net

Slipperiness and Mediation

I had the pleasure of teaching a graduate class in mediation and public policy dispute resolution this spring. Boy did I learn a lot. I'm pretty sure most of the students did, too.

One of the things I learned is just how slippery the essential approaches of mediation are for many people. In mediation, we don't tell people what to do or decide who wins. We try to help people have a conversation, to express the things they need to say. We work to create an environment where they can hear each other.

In the culture we live in, people are often in a hurry, often on the offensive, and often offering advice, solicited or not. It's difficult to find the space, and the patience, to engage with someone we disagree with. I was challenged in this recent class, to help students find this new perspective of patience and listening and engagement on a deeper level. I found that I was struggling at times to be patient myself.

Fortunately, it was a rather bright and curious group, and we were able to wrestle together to figure out some interesting things. Sometimes when I'm being passionate in trying to show people how important it is to listen, surprise surprise, I need to temper that passion by listening myself. Listening to the students helped me "get it" about what was not being presented clearly enough and what they needed to move forward.

Advanced Training in Mediation and Conflict Resolution

Advanced Training in Mediation
and Conflict Resolution

Monday Nights October 4, 11, 18, and 25
6:30-9:00 PM

Open to all who have attended training or have significant related experience.

Free to OU folks thanks to our contract through Provost.
Donation encouraged from others ($30-200)

Our trainings are designed to be lively, interactive, and practical

Sessions will include review of basics, new ideas and approaches, time for questions, practice and sharing.

Topics will include:

• Best Practices in mediation
• The key role of listening well
• Reframing is fun
• Working with "difficult people"
• The transformative model
• Mediating in the workplace
• Making small claims mediation work
• Working successfully with families, couples, teens, college students, and elders

We will meet on or near campus

Contact John or Megan 594-6169 or aams@frognet.net