Government Best Practices Training Course:

Registration: 8:00 AM

Program Starts: 8:30 AM

Wrap-up: 4:00 PM

Course materials, continental breakfast, refreshments included.

About This Course

In the current environment of change and limited resources, it is imperative to find ways to minimize workplace tension and reduce disputes that can hamper productivity and introduce delay and extra costs. Ironically, as government agencies move toward tougher performance management systems, workplace tensions may actually increase. The combination of tensions, tight resources, and high productivity requirements places difficult demands on managers.

An answer to these demands is a systems approach to workplace conflict – Integrated Conflict Management – which combines strategies and practices to help managers anticipate and prevent conflict as much as possible, linked to cost-effective was to resolve it if it emerges.

Attendees of this workshop will learn about causes and common patterns of workplace conflict, techniques for early intervention to reduce the tensions that can feed fires, personal negotiation skills for dealing with the demands of the new environment, and ways to deal effectively with tensions that escape the bounds of containment. Also included will be information on how to use alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to assist with the most difficult problems.

Integrated Conflict Management will provide detailed instruction and Q&A sessions with experts in the area, hands-on opportunities to examine practical situations that commonly arise, and case studies that demonstrate all elements of how workplace conflict displays itself and can be contained. The workshop also will emphasize personal skills that managers can use to deal with conflict.

Course Syllabus

Overview
- The current environment: NSPS, A-76, “rightsizing,” change

Common underlying causes of workplace conflict
- Typical course of development of a workplace dispute
- EEOC and other findings about the nature of most workplace conflict
- Direct and indirect costs of conflict
- Case study: analyzing a workplace conflict scenario

Best management practices for building trust and avoiding conflict
- Setting and managing expectations and performance plans
- The art of timely response
- The principle and practice of accessibility
- Trust-building practices and pitfalls
- The good and bad of e-mail
- Active listening for supervisors

Conflict coaching and mentoring as conflict management tools
- Case study: working with a conflict coach

Personal “interest-based” negotiation skills for managers and supervisors

Difficult conversations in the workplace: communication skills for managers and supervisors

Intervention strategies for systemic issues &, team conflicts

Developing support systems for integrating conflict management responses
- Systems design principles
- Identifying and working with key parts of the organization – EEO, attorneys, human resources, counseling, others

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) for workplace disputes
- Overview of ADR and its underlying principles
- Most common workplace ADR methodologies
- Mediation
- Arbitration
- Facilitation
- Ombuds
- Peer/management panels
- Federal requirements and opportunities for ADR
- How managers can participate most effectively in ADR

Tying it together: adapting general learning to specifics of your organization

Who Should Attend

• Contracting Officers and contract administrators & their private sector counterparts
• Other individuals involved in the procurement process
• Private sector and Government lawyers
• Human resources personnel
• All those involved in the employee selection process
• Military managers
• Individuals concerned with personnel evaluations
• Operating executives
• All those interested in honing their ADR skills

A Sample List of Early Registrants Include:

• Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Human Resources Advisor
• Information Technology Agency, Contracts & Acquisition Administrator
• National Guard Bureau, Complaint Management Branch
• National Guard Bureau, Equal Employment Specialist
• TSA, Model Workplace Program Office, Program Manager
• Telos, Alternate Program Manager
• U.S. Army (ITA), Director, NISO
  
  
  
  
  
  

About Your Instructor

John Settle is a certified mediator, trainer of mediators, and consultant in conflict management and other subjects related to alternative dispute resolution (ADR), EEO and other workplace conflict, and employee relations. He is a member of the Virginia Bar. He is President of SETTLEment Associates, LLC, and of counsel to the Alexandria, Virginia, employment law firm of Riselli and Pressler.

John specializes in mediation of EEO and workplace disputes. He has mediated hundreds of EEO/workplace disputes for private companies and throughout government (including such agencies as USDA, NASA, CPSC, NOAA, NIH, FDA, ATF, Navy Department, and others). He serves as a contract mediator for the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore offices of EEOC, and also serves as a workplace mediator and trainer for the World Bank. He also helped develop the agency-wide policies on ADR for the International Broadcasting Bureau and the Central Intelligence Agency.

John is certified by the Supreme Court of Virginia to mediate court-referred cases and to provide training in basic mediation, mediation of workplace disputes, and the judicial system. The Court also has certified him as one of its Mentor Mediators, authorized to train and evaluate new mediator candidates. John also is an External Mentor Mediator for the Navy Department’s Tier 3 and Tier 4 mediator apprentices.

John holds the designation of “Advanced Workplace Mediator” awarded by the Association for Conflict Resolution.

Contact Us

• For registration information, contact Pamela Greenstein, (703) 807-2758
• For speaker or agenda information, please contact Laura Johnson, (703) 807-2747
  
  

Registration Fee

• Government attendees: $345 per person
• Industry: $545 per person

Registration Options

Online Registration for this workshop is closed, but seats are available for walk-in registrations.
Simply bring a copy of the attached registration form with your payment to the registration desk.

Registration form requires Acrobat Reader.

Registrations are payable by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, company check or government purchase order.

CANCELLATION POLICY: You may designate a substitute in writing any time before the conference. If you need to cancel your registration, you must send your notice in writing and will be subject to a $50 processing fee. No refunds are given for cancellations received 3 business days prior to the event start date or later. PLEASE NOTE: No shows will be liable for the entire registration fee.

Location Information

The workshop will be held at the Holiday Inn Arlington Hotel at 4610 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203. The hotel is 3 short blocks from the Ballston Metro stop on the orange line. There is a small sleeping room block at this hotel at $153+tax per night. To make a reservation, call (703) 243-9808 before August 29 and ask for the "Conflict Resolution" room block.

Ballston Metro stop information

For driving directions or other information about this location, visit their website at www.hiarlington.com. The Holiday Inn offers complimentary day parking and $5 overnight parking.

On-Site Training

Have a Large Staff to Train? Can't Make These Dates? Tight Travel Budget?

Market*Access can provide Conflict Resolution or ADR training, wherever and whenever you need, including on-site at your facility. Our staff will cost-effectively implement training customized to your needs. If you have group of attendees (usually 20 or more), we can bring this course to you and help save you time, travel costs, and more!

To request a proposal and schedule training, e-mail Laura Johnson, Director of Conferences & Strategic Planning, at ljohnson@marketaccess.org or call (703) 807-2747.

Marketing, Conference Management and Production by:

Market*Access International, Inc.
4301 Wilson Boulevard
Suite 1003
Arlington, VA 22203
(703) 807-2755