OVERVIEW OF THE COLEMAN RAIDER WORKSHOP DESIGN

Developed by Ellen Raider and Susan Coleman, Conflict Resolution: Strategies for Collaborative Problem Solving is a highly interactive workshop typically con­ducted in a three-day or six-day format.

Module one presents an overview of conflict resolution, with emphasis on distinguishing between competitive and collaborative resolution strategies.

Module two introduces a structural model, the Elements of Negotiation. In this module, we focus on the difference between positions and needs or interests, as well as the skill of reframing and the use of a prenegotiation planning tool.

Module three describes five communications behaviors or tactics that are typ­ically used during negotiations, and it emphasizes the difference between the intent and the impact of any communication.

Combining the learning from the previous modules, module four gives the learner a sense of the flow of a collaborative negotiation by introducing a stage model.

Module five describes how cultural differences affect the conflict resolution process.

Module six helps participants understand and deal with emotions, which typ­ically arise during interpersonal and intercultural conflict.

In its short form, module seven introduces mediation as an alternative if negotiation breaks down. The longer form teaches participants the general skill and practice of mediation.

Although the information contained in these seven modules is the founda­tion for every workshop, the material presented is customized to meet the needs of each client. This is accomplished through selecting or creating case simula­tions, including previously recorded video examples of negotiations or mediations from our library, and prior assessments of the trainee group.

This pre-course assessment and customization is an important part of our work. During the assessment, the training team builds rapport with the client and discovers many of the conflicting issues currently in the client’s system. This infor­mation enables the team to anticipate, recognize, and then incorporate relevant “teachable moments” during the training, that is, to link the training material to real concerns of the learner as they emerge. In this way, we have been able to teach this course to such diverse groups as schoolteachers in New York, Dallas, and Skopje; corporate executives in Buenos Aires, Paris, and Tokyo; grassroots community groups dealing with tenant organizing and environmental justice; diplomats from the Association of South-East Asian Nations and the European Union; and United Nations staff throughout the world. The course has been taught over the past twelve years to over ten thousand people. The materials have been translated into French, Spanish, Arabic, and Macedonian, and a book based on our manual has been published in Japanese.

So far, we have trained thirty individuals from diverse backgrounds to teach our workshop. To be certified as a trainer, an individual must acquire important content, presentation, and group dynamics skills and successfully apprentice with us for three or four workshop trainings. Some trainers are certified to teach in certain cultural or organizational settings but not in others; we feel there are important contextual differences between educa­tional, diplomatic, and business settings as well as between people with differing cultural norms and values.