Mediation Workshops

NEW WORKSHOP

We will be holding the new five-day Mediation Workshop in Sydney on 3-7 May and 13-17 September.

If you handle conflict on behalf of your own business, you know that it can cost you time, money and energy you don’t have to spare. If you represent clients and handle conflict on their behalf, you know that they want you to work effectively and efficiently to minimize the cost of conflict to them and to obtain the best possible result. If you want to understand how to increase your capacity to resolve conflict effectively, to learn how to participate in or run a mediation in the business context, and perhaps to add to your professional designation and act as a neutral, then this workshop is for you.

The workshop leaders (Frank Handy, Steve Lancken, Paul Gibson) have extensive commercial mediation experience as litigators, mediators, and management consultants.

The workshop will meet the educational requirements for accreditation under the National Mediator Accreditation Standards (NMAS).  It also qualifies for 40 MCLE points.

Upon completion you will receive a certificate from the AGSM (Australian Graduate School of Management) Executive Program.

The price of the workshop will be $ 3,500.00 (including 10% GST).

You will learn:

• The interest based negotiation theory that underpins effective mediation.
• A mediation model that optimizes the chance for effective resolution of disputes and wise decision making.
• The skills that a mediator needs to be successful in the business context, including effective listening, issue framing, creating options, handling difficult parties, maintaining impartiality, reframing inflammatory comments, managing representatives, managing limited authority, bargaining value exchanges, assessing the settlement options, and mediating in the shadow of the law, among others.
• To manage ethical challenges such as power imbalances, parties who lie, and people who attempt to misuse the process or avoid commitment.
• The nuts and bolts of case management and organisation.
• How to adapt mediation processes to suit the situation.

Here is a brief outline of the workshop:

• On Day One we will identify the common behaviours that generate conflict and show how they can be addressed in a more effective way. We identify a decision-making model of negotiation that will maximize opportunities for good results and provide the foundation for assisted negotiation, or mediation. 
• On day two there will be opportunities to practice this model in conflict settings, in order to cement the use of the model and show the intersection with mediation, and provide experience in managing the negotiation process in advance of mediating with it. We will also demonstrate the interest based mediation model, one that optimizes the chance for effective resolution of disputes and wise decision making, and introduce two of the fundamental communication skills that mediators must use: active listening and issue framing.
• Days 3, 4, and 5 comprise nine simulations in various business contexts. The role plays are coached. The coaches give feedback on the skills demonstrated by participants, and in addition to the ones referred to above, there is further instruction on the specific skills that a mediator needs to be successful in the business context, including creating options, handling difficult parties, reframing inflammatory comments, managing representatives, managing limited authority, bargaining and value exchanges, assessing the settlement options, and mediating in the shadow of the law, among others.
• Some of the role plays also specifically raise ethical challenges such as power imbalances, parties who lie, people who attempt to misuse the process or avoid commitment, situations that challenge the mediator’s impartiality, and how to modify the mediation model to suit particular circumstances. In addition to the process coaching, we conduct large group debriefs that deal with these issues and help you develop best practice responses to them.
• You will also receive materials that you can use to develop your own mediation management tools, such as a draft mediation agreement, draft introductory checklist and notes on all of the debrief topics.
• We will provide morning and afternoon tea and lunches; the course runs from 8:30 to 4:30 five consecutive days in the Sydney CBD. All materials will be provided: there is some pre-course preparation and some work in the evenings to prepare for the next day’s work.

More information about this workshop will be posted on the website shortly.  Please email us at enquiries@thetrilliumgroup.com.au.

Who should attend?

The five day mediation courses are designed for people who deal with disputes, either their own or those of others. Managers, lawyers, government employees, businesspeople, consultants, team leaders, HR professionals, educators, health care professionals, accountants, union and management representatives, people who resolve employee issues or complaints, people who want to be professional mediators, and others who negotiate or deal with conflict can all benefit from attending. Please visit our participant experiences page to read about how our training has benefited others.