13 March, 2017
Collaboration can address key business challenges, including communication breakdowns and leveraging resources to produce more and better solutions, but collaboration needs to be managed to reap its benefits. Unstructured collaboration can lead to conflict, loss in productivity, and employee disengagement. There are a number of ways that organizations can improve their collaborative efforts through assessment, skill-building, coaching and use of collaborative processes. Collaborative solutions in the workplace are our specialty.
23 February, 2017
As an attorney, I have attended many discussions and panels on civility in the courtroom and how our profession benefits from encouraging and modeling civility and respectful communications in and out of the courtroom. So, the concept of civility is not foreign to attorneys; it’s something we hear throughout our careers frequently in response to an often-undeserved reputation that we are not as civil as we could be with one another. Well, it turns out that all those CLEs and panels were supported by extensive research that shows increased civility in the workplace helps teams perform better, and environments that create mechanisms to hold people accountable for displaying rudeness are happier and “psychologically safer” workplaces.
As my career has evolved and afforded me the opportunity to lead others, I have aspired to model civility, inclusion and respect for diversity, while simultaneously promoting a safe space for people to express divergent opinions and ideas. I have personally seen how environments that are rife with discontent and not practicing civility are destructive to teams and trust building. Over the last decade, I have worked with leaders, organizations and individuals to promote respect, trust, and inclusion – in turn trying to create better places to work. So, when I read the most recent article How Rudeness Stops People from Working Together, by the Harvard Business Review and SHRM, I had a moment of self-reflection on how civility helped me as a young attorney and now as a practitioner working with others to do the same.
https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/employee-relations/Pages/How-Rudeness-Stops-People-from-Working-Together.aspx
Marcia K. Thompson, ESQ.
Vice President
20 January, 2017
Every four years the political landscape in the US undergoes a dramatic change. Even when the President or the party stays the same, many of the people change. New priorities and points of view shape the future. As we approach such a shift, it’s timely to think about how change affects us and how we can affect it for ourselves and others.
As a coach, I know that change can be unsettling and even frightening and at best uncertain. But there’s energy in that uncertainty, which, when we can keep our bearings and harness and direct that energy, can lead to greater opportunities than we would have otherwise known.
So, what do we need to keep our bearings and channel our energy
First — Confidence to believe, however difficult it may be, that we have the power to create the change we need;
Second — Competence to apply ourselves, maybe learn new skills or shift our mindsets but always knowing that we are capable of it;
Finally — Persistence to work at it, taking it one step at a time, until we succeed.
“We don’t ask you to believe in our ability to bring change, rather, we ask you to believe in yours.” ― Barack Obama
Dianne Lipsey
President
01 February, 2016
The EEOC requires federal agencies to assign EEO Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services to an external contractor for cases where there is an apparent or perceived internal conflict of interest, in the assignment of neutrals and, in some cases the program administration. ADR Vantage is well-equipped to address these changes with our history of managing and providing both EEO and non-EEO workplace ADR processes through facilitation, mediation, and settlement conference services.
Read the full text of the revised MD-110 here http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/directives/md-110_chapter_1.cfm
For more information about how ADR Vantage can help your agency comply with this new mandate, please contact our Director of Programs, Rick Buccheri at rbuccheri@adrvantage.com
