Mediation
and Arbitration For Business
Course
Description:
In
this intensive thirty-hour course, participants
will gain a clear understanding of how to
manage and resolve all kinds of business-related
and workplace conflict, and how to prevent
most lawsuits efficiently and ethically.
The
instructor will use classroom lecture and
discussions, hands-on practice exercises,
and analysis of video examples, to familiarize
students with the main aspects of interest-based
negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and
hybrid alternative dispute resolution processes,
and with the basic concepts of conflict
management.
Participants
will conduct several simulated mediations
and arbitrations to
experience
the perspectives of disputants and of the
neutrals who decide their cases.
Readings
will provide a solid foundation for understanding
the principles and applications of ADR.
Participants
can expect to spend an amount of time on
assigned reading and written work approximately
equal to the time spent in the classroom.
Participants
will receive a full set of model forms and
drafting guides. They will be expected,
as a major part of the written work for
the course, to create their own step-by-step
process for preventing and resolving disputes
in their business or area of interest.
Designed
for:
Managers,
supervisors, forepersons, dispute resolvers,
contract administrators, small business
owners, business professionals, and others
who would benefit from better conflict management
skills.
Background:
This
course was designed as the first step toward
developing a professional series in dispute
resolution and conflict management, pursuant
to a contract with UC Extension.
Its
focus and structure were developed over
a one year period with the active participation
of local bar association leaders, corporate
counsel, business professionals, dispute
resolution professionals, court ADR administrators,
and Business and Management Department staff.
This
course was selected as the winner in its
category in a 1997 worldwide competition
for conflict resolution trainings.
Main
Course Units and Objectives for Each:
Overview
Of The Field (First
Evening)
Give
you an introduction to the most common alternative
dispute resolution processes, typical areas
for their use in the business world, and
the most common participants in business
conflicts.
Discuss
the differences between conflict management
and dispute resolution.
Elements
Of Conflict Management (First
Full Day Morning)
Give
you an understanding of the central causes
and dynamics of human conflict and approaches
for managing it in ways that maintain working
relationships. Introduce concepts of conflict
assessment and conflict prevention.
Provide
familiarity with the use of some basic conflict
management tools for business-related and
workplace conflicts.
Designing
Dispute Resolution Systems (First
Day Afternoon)
Enable
you to clearly distinguish between different
ADR processes, and to understand the basics
questions which need to be addressed in
designing dispute resolution processes,
including procedural protections and ethical
standards.
Provide
detailed framework for analysis and decision-making
in designing in-house dispute resolution
systems.
Conflict
Communication Skills
(Second Day Morning)
Develop
appreciation for the specialized skills
needed for effective communication in high
emotion situations, to defuse conflict,
and to provide for productive negotiation
and resolution of conflict.
Includes
discussion of active listening, reframing,
understanding clashes of communication styles,
and why and when to allow emotional venting.
(In class: view and discuss video.)
Elements
of Negotiated Dispute Resolution
(Second Day Afternoon)
Provide
you a fundamental understanding of the difference
between interest-based and positional negotiation,
and between dispute resolution systems based
on power, rules, or interests.
Includes
discussion of procedural negotiations on
where, when, with whom, for how long, and
about what to meet.
Review
of required reading on negotiation and strategies
for building voluntary settlements.
Mediation
Basics (Third
Day Morning and Afternoon)
Provide
you with an understanding of the core concepts
of mediation, and some of the important
procedural protections provided by law.
Familiarize them with various common models
and methods of mediation.
Provide
a working understanding of how to get mediation
started, and how to prepare for productive
mediated negotiations to settle lawsuits,
claims, and disputes through mediation and
med/arb.
Simulated
practice exercises will enable you to experience
how a dispute looks from the mediator's
view as well as from a disputant's perspective.
(In class: view and discuss video.)
Arbitration
Basics
(Third Day Afternoon)
Provide
the basic understanding needed to make better
decisions about using arbitration, including
whether and when to initiate, how to choose
an arbitrator or arbitration service, and
what specialized hearing procedures to set
up.
Provide
an understanding of important procedural
issues in arbitration, the main elements
of proving an arbitration claim, and examples
of different arbitration strategies and
tactics.
Simulated
arbitration role plays will allow you to
experience the arbitrator's and disputants'
views of typical business disputes. (In
class: view and discuss video.)
Specialized
and Hybrid ADR Processes
(Fourth Day Morning)
Introduce
you to the variety of different specialized
and hybrid processes that are in common
use in different areas of the business world
today, to provide insight into the latitude
with which ADR systems can be designed.
Conflict
Prevention
(Fourth Day Morning)
Introduce
you to methods for preventing many claims,
liens, and lawsuits, including growing use
of partnering, team-building, communications
training, and other means of identifying
and preventing potential disputes.
Writing
ADR Contract Language (Fourth
Day Afternoon)
Enable
you to analyze the risks and benefits of
proposed ADR contract provisions in common
business contracts and to draft better customized
conflict prevention and dispute resolution
agreements and contracts of their own.
Contact
us
to provide this invaluable mediation and arbitration
training for your business and resolve disputes
with respect and relationships intact.
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