Gary Ford, Training Manager of Nintendo of America Inc., has graciously provided the following reference. Master Trainer Wallace Wilkins is Dana Mediation Institute's representative to Nintendo.

Nintendo has worked with the Dana Mediation Institute, Inc. since August 2000. We've benefited from the partnership in two significant ways.

First, we've replaced our previous conflict resolution workshop with the Self-as-Mediator [Seminar]. It has been one of our most well-attended workshops since we began offering it. My method for evaluating workshops has been to follow up with participants one month after the workshop and again after six months to hear how they've applied the workshop content to increase their effectiveness. There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence that supports the claim that this workshop is effective at helping people resolve conflicts that are short-circuiting their effectiveness on the job.

Secondly, we've been able to add a workshop on managerial mediation [the Manager-as-Mediator Seminar] to our curriculum. Both our management staff and our employee relations group have found value in the skills presented in this workshop. One manager, who had recently lost a valuable, hard-to-replace employee due to an unresolved conflict had this to say:

"I felt that the class offered the exact tools needed to resolve the conflict I experienced. It is my feeling that if mediation would have been implemented, we would have been able to retain our employee."

An employee relations representative, who had attended the workshop two months ago, recently shared with me the success she'd had mediating for two co-workers in conflict. Productivity was suffering due to the two employees' inability to work together. The employees and the employees' managers continue to report improved relations and improved productivity since the mediation.

Not only have we had noticeable results since the workshop was offered, but we've added the Manager-as-Mediator [Seminar] without ongoing external consultant costs. I was certified to deliver the program for a nominal fee, and the cost of materials for each workshop is very reasonable.

Based on the results we've experienced at Nintendo, I highly recommend the training programs available from the Dana Mediation Institute.