MTI delivers the most intensive, comprehensive, and effective workplace mediator training available anywhere. Hence, we are the recognized global leader in developing mediators for workplaces — how is workplace mediation different? Learners will be prepared to perform successfully as full-time or part-time mediators within their employing organizations, or as external consultants.

The content and design of this course was developed by MTI founder Dr Dan Dana, drawing upon his 35-year career as a practitioner, author, scholar, and educator dedicated to workplace conflict resolution — an authentic mediation pioneer who is recognized worldwide. The result is a supremely practical and original approach that is unlike any other mediation course you may have experienced. Indeed, it may be considered an advanced skills course for previously trained mediators who wish to retool for a more lucrative practice in workplace mediation.

Normal session hours are 8:30am to 4:30pm daily.

Day 1 consists of Modules 1 and 3 of Managing Workplace Conflict: The Manager-as-Mediator Seminar (click title for detailed description). See also topic outline and sample resources.

Day 2 consists primarily of Module 2 of Managing Workplace Conflict: The Self-as-Mediator Seminar (click title for detailed description). See also topic outline and sample resources.

Day 2 also contains Strategic Management of Organizational Conflict: Weaving Mediation into the Fabric of Organizations, a one-hour PowerPoint-supported presentation suitable for a wide range of educational and informational events. Graduates will receive this resource for use in their organizations and professional practices.

Days 1 and 2 combined consist of the Certification Course in Managing Workplace Conflict for Professionals, Managers, and Trainers (click title for detailed description). Graduates may elect to become Certified Trainers of Managing Workplace Conflict.

Learning and discovering:

• The Mediation Map: The road from disagreement/conflict to agreement/cooperation
• Building on the core competencies: Toward professional mediator competence
• The three illusions about conflict that cripple every person:
  - Win/Lose: The illusion of the zero-sum outcome ("Only one of us can be right.")
  - Bad Person: The illusion of blame ("It's your fault, so you must change.")
  - Boulder-in-the-Road: The illusion of hopelessness ("We can't get there from here.")
• The three kinds of issues in every conflict (de-mystifying conflict behavior):
  - Substantive: Objective self-interest
  - Emotional: What's at stake beneath the surface
  - Pseudo-substantive: Emotional issues disguised as Substantive issues
• Balancing competing concerns: Relationship vs. preferred outcome
  - Ambivalence and its consequences
  - Power imbalance and intensity imbalance
  - The strong bargainer vs. the weak bargainer (avoiding the predictable outcome)
• Power, rights, interests: The (only) three approaches to any conflict
• BATNA's, WATNA's, and MLATNA's: Alternatives to negotiated agreement
• The ambivalence/projection/polarization sequence: How intolerable uncertainty leads to fault-finding
• The defensive/aggressive complex: How feeling threatened produces hostile behavior
• The unconscious psychology of attitude change: Conciliatory gestures and the inhibitory reflex
• Conflict management strategies: Individual styles and organizational cultures
• The paradigm shift of the professional mediator: A different way of thinking about conflict and how it is resolved
• Defining your own practice theory

Learning, observing, demonstrating, and practicing:

• Transforming understanding into effective mediator interventions (from theory to action, and back)
• The Mediation Map, revisited: Planning the route from conflict to cooperation
• Perspective-taking: Seeing through others' eyes
• The three primary tasks of the mediator, revisited
• Nudging Past Impasse: The power task of the professional mediator
• Nudge type 1: Reframing: Creating new perspectives to change beliefs
• Nudge type 2: Uncovering self-interests and common interests: Turning impractical demands into opportunities for compromise
• Nudge type 3: BATNA / WATNA / MLATNA: Uncovering each disputant's best, worst, and most likely alternatives to a negotiated agreement
• Nudge type 4: Informing and reminding (rules, goals, facts): The mediator's authority as "process leader"
• Nudge type 5: Balancing power to ensure fair solutions
• Nudge type 6: Preventing bullying: Dealing with aggressive/intimidating behavior
• Nudge type 7: Managing emotions: Anger, fear, despair
• Guiding brainstorming: Leading synergistic thinking
• Formalizing agreement: Making deals that work
• Concluding the mediation

Observing, demonstrating, applying, practicing, and planning:

• Conducting preliminary meetings
  - Demo by instructor
  - Demo by star student
  - Practice by each learner, coaching and feedback
• Doing mediation
  - Demo by instructor
  - Demo by star student
  - Practice by each learner, coaching and feedback
• Extensions of mediation and professional issues
  - Mediation of group/team conflict: Applying the Mediation Map beyond two-party conflict
  - Mediator as coach of self mediation: Using MTI's coaching video CD
  - Mediator ethics: Ethical dilemmas in workplace mediation
  - Mediator practice management: Marketing and managing the private practice (if applicable)
  - The future of mediation
• Application planning: Each participant leaves with a personal action plan

Lunch each day is "on your own." Information will be provided regarding dining options. The group or subgroups typically share lunch time although doing so is entirely optional.

Times may be adjusted to meet the needs of the group. Early departures are discouraged; should such be necessary, please advise the instructor in advance.

Full attendance is expected, as fellow participants' learnings are negatively impacted when others' partial absences impair their ability to participate effectively in interactive class activities built upon previous ones. Please plan accordingly.