25th and 26th March - two workshops presented by Bernard Mayer on behalf of the

Centre for Mediation and Conflict Resolution at IFT

5 category A CPD points each day

Cost: One day - £120 Both days - £180

Beyond resolution: the art and skill of conflict engagement

25th March

This workshop is aimed at practitioners who are not familiar with Bernard Mayer's work. Mayer writes "The heart of our work as conflict professionals lies in the challenge of helping people work on conflict at the level that it has the most meaning for them. Mediators, negotiators and other conflict professionals are often limited by their understanding of their purpose, their role, and their intervention procedures. But to realise the potential of our work as conflict professionals, we have to be willing to delve into the heart of conflict and to expand our concept of our role.

The workshop will look at practical ways in which conflict proressionals can explore the nature of the conflict, design intervention strategies and help people work on the emotional, behavioural and cognative dimensions of conflict. Emphasis will be placed on beliefs that shape our response to conflict. The role of the conflict coach and conflict advocate and how these can be incorporated into a conflict professional's practice will be considered.
 

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Staying with conflict: working with on-going disputes

26th March

This workshop is based on Bernard Mayer's new book of the same title. Mayer writes: "We think of conflict as a linear process requiring effective resolution. But the most important conflicts in people's lives do not end - they endure in one form of another, sometimes for many years. This presents both a major challenge and a major opportunity for ADR practitioners, including mediators, advocates and systems designers."

This workshop will look at the most significant conflicts participants face and consider how to intervene in them, working specifically on how to reconstruct conflict narratives in ways that can be constructive for the future. The workshop will also explore the powerful tendencies to avoid conflict which inadvertently exacerbate it further, and seek ways to establish durable communication procedures, how to understand and assist people through the inevitable power struggles that are part of long term conflict, and how to use agreements as a platform for a constructive approach to ongoing conflict.

Presenter: Bernard Mayer, PhD, Professor, Werner Institute of Negotiation and Dispute Resolution, Creighton University, and Partner at CDR Associates. He has worked since the late 1970s in the conflict resolution field as a trainer, mediator, facilitator, researcher, programme administrator, and dispute systems designer throughout the United States, Canada and many other countries. He has written three seminal books on Conflict Resolution, the latest Staying with Conflict: A Strategic Approach to On-going Conflict (2009) which is the focus of the workshop on the 26th.

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