"What's Happening?" Blog is a weekly round up of the all the ADR news, jobs, events and more.  Check it out each week and view past news [HERE]

In This Corner: Behavioral Change Stairway Model 

Brains on Purpose: Traits and States to Shape Your Conflict Fate

Patricia M Porter- Our brains are changing all the time. We can be in control of those changes or we can have accidental brains, ruled by habit. Stephanie will show you how you can break bad habits, set and reach goals, and maximize your ability to handle conflict through the process of self-directed neuroplasticity. By using some basic techniques, you can take charge of how your brain changes. You can rewire your brain on purpose. Visit the blog and listen [HERE].

Talking Tough On Twitter: Taking the Sting Out of Social Media Conversations

Jesan Sorrells- Last week, we were a guest of Choose2Talk, a new start-up, restorative justice and mediation agency based out of Detroit, Michigan. We were the guest speaker in a webinar discussion around social media and conflict resolution skill development. Below is a summary of the Slideshare notes ...

Slide #3

Contextual communication happens in online interactions—particularly in the realm of social interactions. Twitter and Instagram serve as the strongest examples of low context communication masquerading as high context communications. As the internet in general and social media in particular transitions more and more to the dominance of images over text (although the signs and symbols involved in text are image-based themselves) more and more of social media interactions and communications will have to be focuses around high-context understanding. In the areas of cyber-bullying and harassment of individuals online, images, videos and text are powerful forces that can destroy individuals if not effectively neutralized.

Read more [HERE]

In the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution, mediators, among other things, help people in dispute come to a mutually acceptable resolution about issues they do not agree on. Each party typically holds a disparate perspective from the other on what constitutes an appropriate settlement. By the time they get to talk it out in the mediation process to see if they can resolve matters, they have often become entrenched in their positions and the relationship is suffering.

Positions reflect what we assert we want as an outcome. The more we defend our positions, the stronger we seem to hold onto them.

Read more [HERE]. 

Conflict, Sherry Turkle, and the RPM

Karen Hollett- The Reasonable Person Model (RPM, see previous posts) is a model of human nature predicated, in part, on our relationship with information and, more particularly, how our voracious human appetite for information affects our reasonableness. In a nutshell, as a species, we love information but our tendency to seek out and consume information drains our attentional capacities. The lack of our ability to direct our attention, which is difficult to self recognize at times, can be very obvious to others as it can make us very difficult to deal with. Depletion of this resource make us cranky, easily frustrated, impulsive, etc. In a word, unreasonable.

Read more [HERE]

NAFCM  Webinar “How Online Mediation Helps Community Mediators Practice & Improve Their Skills” – Agenda, Powerpoint Presentation and Videos (archive)

Giuseppe Leone- Topics included:

• How NAFCM community mediation centers can now help their mediators practice and improve their skills, by participating in online mediation simulations with other mediators – from the same or different centers. All they need is a PC, Mac, Ipad and an Internet connection.
• Why 3 community mediators (in Washington, Wisconsin and Maine) found the 4-part format of Virtual Mediation Lab simulations so effective, and why they liked so much their first experience online.
• How online simulations and their video recordings can add value to a classroom training program; keep students (new mediators) interested in mediation; and create a new source of income for community mediation centers.
• How community mediation centers — no matter their size or location — can now learn from and share with one another their “know-how” and experience with specific kind of disputes.
• Which additional resources — e.g. online training, webinars — Virtual Mediation Lab makes available to NAFCM mediation centers and other ADR organizations.

See the archive, presentation slides, & more [HERE]. 

News, Articles, & More

Werner Institute Newsletter - Fall 2013

Internship: ADR Center Rome, Italy

Florida Mediation Group Launches Series of Mentoring Videos

Dusty Rhoades on Why Transformative Theory Matters

Watch our latest webinar: 

"What Every Mediation Needs to Understand About Attorneys & Effective Advocacy in Mediation" 

Discuss it [HERE].

What Every Mediator Needs to Understand About Attorneys and Effective Advocacy in Mediation from The Werner Institute on Vimeo.

The Werner Institute provides an interdisciplinary program leading to master's degrees and graduate certificates in negotiation and dispute resolution for students from a variety of fields as well as mid-career professionals.