Decision Resources

Presented in collaboration with Joan McIver Gibson, Ph.D.  Mark and Joan each have more than 20 years of experience working with people who face challenging situations with limited time to make tough choices. Their book, A Field Guide to Good Decisions: Values in Action, lays out a practical, proven approach to making values-based decisions. This workshop will develop your ability to fully implement the method in the book. You will be able to encourage dialogue using personal, professional, and organizational values to make ethical decisions when you face difficult choices, alone and with others. When resources are limited, important values are in tension, and stakeholders may be negatively impacted, you will have a clear road map to guide you to a decision based upon what matters most. You will understand how to communicate tough choices authentically and credibly to those who deserve to know.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Decision makers in profit, not-for-profit, and government organizations. Licensed professionals and advisors, e.g. lawyers, physicians, nurses, psychotherapists, clergy, financial planners, and others who assist people with important decisions.

LEARNER BENEFITS

• Identify and apply key values in organizational decision-making processes
• Provide constructive forums for dealing with ethical issues
• Develop a common language for effective organizational decision-making
• Increase your ability to reflect upon and articulate personal values, organizational values, and mission
• Gain insights about diverse, cultural dimensions of decision-making
• Enhance your capacity to model and teach the skills of ethical decision-making to others
• Add value to organizational decisions by avoiding common traps in reasoning and analysis?
• Involve stakeholders productively in consultation

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I regularly offer courses sponsored by organizations to introduce the Mediation Process for a variety of applications. In the past, these courses have been sponsored by The Solutions Group, a major employee assistance program provider, Sandia National Laboratories, The Realtors Association of New Mexico, Santa Fe Community College Intercultural Leadership Program, New Mexico Department of Education, Special Education, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Highlands University and others. A basic skills course is usually 32-40 hours. Contact me about scheduled events in your area.

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Mastery in mediation requires more than a 40 hour training. Whether mediation is your vocation or a serious volunteer activity, this two-day program will enable you to move to the next level and realize your potential as a mediator. If you sense that you have reached a plateau with your practice, come and renew your excitement about mediation. The content of this workshop is always evolving to reflect my current insights and highlight aspects of mediation that I continue to examine with 29 years of experience. You will learn how to leverage your strengths and address your gaps. You will also gain a more complete understanding of the contents of the mediator tool kit. We will apply the growing body of neuroscience knowledge about brain functioning, conflict, and decision-making to the mediation process. Many positive training experiences fail to address the challenge of integration by the learner, limiting the value received over time. During the workshop, you will create your own road map to implement what you have learned. You will also receive one hour of personal coaching with me after the training to provide the support you need to reach your learning goals.

This training is offered publicly and through sponsoring organizations. Past sponsors include the University of New Mexico School of Law, Federal Executive Board, Metropolitan Court Mediation Program, Sandia National Labs, and others.

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In public and private sector organizations, pressures are increasing to improve performance with limited resources. Unresolved conflict often results in poor morale, decreased productivity, employee turnover, and increased training costs for new employees. A peaceful organization performs better because people remain focused on working together. Organizations benefit when they grow their internal capacity to engage conflicts proactively using mediation, when disputes arise. This workshop enables you to conduct a mediation session in your workplace, help participants address the real issues underlying the conflict, and find creative, effective solutions. Leaders, managers, human resource personnel, and employee representatives will also learn to adapt the mediation process informally to resolve conflicts in the early stages of a dispute before formal mediation is necessary.

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Human relations in groups and organizations can be messy. Organizational mission effectiveness in small nonprofits and in large government agencies or corporations requires people with authority and responsibility who have the competence and courage to work directly with conflicts and differences. Many of us have behavior patterns and limiting beliefs about conflict that prevent constructive engagement. This two-day workshop provides participants with the clear understanding AND the practical skills essential to effective leadership and management in the midst of conflict.

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Working Together: Strategic Response to the Challenge of Change

In the operating environment of ongoing change, groups and organizations must find ways to increase their capacity to collaborate and leverage limited human and material resources in order to respond effectively and progress toward their vision of success. This workshop is tailored to the needs of the client.

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• Practical Ethics: the Second Language of Values
• Raising the Bar: Reaching Beyond Compliance to Build the Ethical Organization
• Organizations, Resiliency, and the Challenge of Change
• Transforming Conflict is Everyone's Business: at Work; at Home; and in the Community
• Wisdom in the Midst of Difficulty: Common Sense and the Moral Imagination

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