Mediation Services

University of Michigan Campus Conflict Resolution Network Newsletter

May 2005

“Knowledge, theory, and practice: Bringing UM together to advance positive resolution strategies."

The Campus Conflict Resolution Network is a voluntary, informal group of students, faculty and staff members interested in conflict resolution. Anyone is welcome to attend Network discussions. To join our email list, send your name to Heather Catron, hcatron@umich.edu

In this issue:

UPCOMING EVENTS
CCRN Update: YOUR HELP NEEDED!
TRAININGS & CONFERENCES OF NOTE
Recommended Articles and Webs
Final Note: Input, please

1. UPCOMING EVENTS

Campus ADR Dialogue:

Monday, May 16, 2005
N oon – 1:30 PM
Multicultural Initiatives Conference Room
3009 Student Activities Building

Since January, a small group has been exploring the state of alternative dispute resolution on this campus. Currently they are making plans to “map” the existing conflict resolution resources available to members of the campus community. Your help is needed! Please bring your lunch and join us on Monday.

CCRN Brown Bag: Zena Zumeta

Thursday, June 9th, 2005
Noon – 1:30 PM
Michigan League

“The Evolution of a Unique Career”

Zena Zumeta is an attorney, mediator, trainer and facilitator. A pioneer in divorce mediation and a founding member of the Academy of Family Mediators, Zena has more recently moved into organization development, helping organizations, departments, and teams work together effectively and productively. Zena will talk with us about her experiences that have culminated in the work she does now.

A graduate of Smith College and the University of Michigan Law School, Zena is also co-founder and past director of the Ann Arbor Mediation Center (http://aamediationcenter.com ), and is president of Mediation Training & Consultation Institute ( http://learntomediate.com ) and The Collaborative Workplace ( http://collaborateatwork.com/ ).

2. CCRN Update: YOUR HELP NEEDED!

Your current steering committee, and Mediation Services director Sally Johnson, will need your help if this newsletter and the network are to continue. In addition to the coming events above, we do have plans for Fall 2005 brown bags, but beyond that, we will need new steering committee members. Will you consider whether you might be able to serve in such a role for one or two years?

Also, this is the last newsletter that Sally’s office will have time to produce. Is there anyone out there who could pull items together and send out an e-newsletter, perhaps 3 or 4 times, over the 2005-2006 year? PLEASE let us hear from you.

Here are our tentative plans for the fall, with dates yet to be set:

U Hospital has had profound success with a ground-breaking training program, using the techniques of the Harvard Project on Negotiation, for supervisors and union stewards in its facilities. Union grievances have declined dramatically. We have invited the creators of this program to describe what they have done.

IGR, the Program in Inter-Group Relations, is a for-credit, undergraduate program, co-sponsored by Student Affairs and the Psychology Department, that takes groups of students divided by some clear difference and assists them in exploring their communication across that difference. Classes have included – male-female groups, Jewish-Christian groups, gay-straight groups, and so on. Originally invented here at UM more than a decade ago, this approach has now spread to other universities across the country. We will be inviting students in the fall term sections of the course to meet with us to describe the experience.

One of the least understood areas of human difference is that of gender identity, and misunderstandings in this area can be among the most difficult to mediate. We are inviting specialists in the area who have handled such disputes to talk with us about their work.

We hope you will plan to join us for these programs next fall – and we also hope that you understand that we need new volunteers, if such programming is to continue. Please consider how you might add to this Network’s continuation. Let us hear from you at ccrn-steering@umich.edu.

3. TRAININGS & CONFERENCES OF NOTE

The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) Annual Conference
September 28 – October 1, 2005
Minneapolis, Minnesota
http://www.acrnet.org/conferences/ac05/index.htm

Start planning now for the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) annual conference. ACR supports professional sections in several areas of conflict resolution. The Workplace Section announces this event that may be of interest to you:

ACR – Workplace Section, Labor Arbitration and Mediation Committee: will hold a third annual workshop for advanced labor arbitrators on September 28, 2005 at ACR’s Fifth Annual Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is a one-day, hands-on program on the development and management of a successful labor arbitration practice.

Questions? Please contact Jeremy Cohen at jvcohen1936@yahoo.com.

Other ACR sections that may be of interest are: Education, Health Care, and Training.

Authentic Leadership Conference: Conflict, Culture, and Creativity: Navigating the Deep Waters of Organizational Life
June 22-July 1, 2005
Halifax, Nova Scotia
http://www.shambhalainstitute.org/2005/cm_lebaron.shtml

How can we work creatively with tension and difference in our organizations? How do we approach conflicts that are intertwined with what is precious for each stakeholder, including identity, worldviews, and territory?

Long-standing, intractable conflicts have roots in the underlying, symbolic dimension of organizational life, where we continually develop our sense of identity, meaning, belonging, and culture. Few conflict-resolution training programs address this dimension, yet it is key to shifting stuck dynamics and to helping people move through conflict.

In this course you will

Cultivate cultural fluency needed to work with the underlying forces at play in your work environment.
Learn how to engage multiple ways of knowing — emotional, intuitive, imaginative, spiritual, and somatic — in order to create conditions that make turning points in conflict more likely.
Learn practical and creative strategies for bringing about more satisfying, durable results in solving problems and resolving conflicts.

4. Recommended Articles and Webs

Article:

"Well, Bully for You!" by Tony Belak is available here:
http://www.mediate.com/articles/belak5

Editor's note: Workplace bullying, and its financial and human costs, are receiving well-deserved attention recently.

See this annotated bibliography: http://www.mediationworks.com/mti/certconf/bib-bullying.htm

Websites:

http://v4.crinfo.org/

This is the new version of the Conflict Resolution Information Source. CRInfo is a free, online clearinghouse, indexing more than 25,000 peace- and conflict resolution-related Web pages, books, articles, audiovisual materials, organizational profiles, events, and current news articles.

http://www.adr.org

The most comprehensive site for up-to-the-minute information about mediation, arbitration and other forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

Final note: Please let us know what kinds of information you would like to see here. We welcome suggestions and requests. Let us know how we can make this newsletter more interesting to you. You can e-mail the steering committee at ccrn_steering@umich.edu.