change minds

Change Minds

To change the mind of other people you must be open to changing your own mind first. If others cannot observe that you are willing to change at all, they are going to hold onto their beliefs tighter. But changing your own mind doesn’t mean that you have to stop…

dianne lipsey

Wanting Resolution May Not Be Enough

I’m betting that most of us who work in conflict resolution, whether formally as a neutral or informally in our roles within our organizations, know well a certain sinking feeling. That is, when the people involved have had a good dialogue and worked hard to come together and yet seem…

adrvantage move forward

Looking Back to Move Forward

In our professional field, we engage in a practice of reflection to support continual learning and development. Reflection is also a valuable way to learn from mistakes, gain perspective, generate ideas and acknowledge and celebrate achievements. As we close the year, our team has come together to share their reflections…

dianne lipsey

Exploring Conflict Engagement in Workplace Mediation

Last month my colleague posted a blog and hosted a webinar exploring the question of whether the language we use to talk about conflict limits the outcomes in conflict resolution and whether the term Conflict Engagement might open more possibilities. This subject, combined with some very unsatisfactory recent mediations, has…

rick buccheri May024

Conflict Engagement: Changing our language to change our attitudes and approaches to conflict

Why is it so challenging for us to develop productive and meaningful approaches to conflict when conflict, in varying degrees, is something we live with daily? Conflict is a normal and inevitable aspect of our lives that can be a stimulus for positive change, and yet, the language we use…

aware listening engaged

Effective Listening Means Helping Others Feel Heard

Having been a mediator for nearly eleven years, I can’t say that I have seen it all, but I’ve certainly found myself amid plenty of intense conflicts. I’ve sat calmly at a table while people a foot away from me stood screaming into each other’s faces, or pounded on the…

be an active listener

Cultivating our talent for Active Listening

Listening or active silence is like a “wonder drug” for communication. Staying silent but attentive to conversations, staying curious and asking questions to draw out others and clarify meaning, and sharing our own views as a reflection of what has been said, opens new possibilities. It helps people feel their…

listen to understand

Deep Listening

In this quiet month of August, it’s a good time to reconsider the art and practice of listening. Let’s kick it off with a proposal to update the phrase “Active Listening” to “Deep Listening” or listening to understand. This differs from the transactional way we too often listen when, rather…

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We’re Hiring: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

ADR Vantage, Inc. has an immediate opening for a Business Development Manager in Washington, DC with a background in professional services, preferably Organizational Development, Conflict Resolution, Training, Coaching or related. We are committed to our mission of helping people work better together, and our new team member must share the…

growth mindset

Do you have a fixed or a growth mindset?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, and what it teaches about the role of mindset in our embrace of the new, sometimes hard, and always unknown of transition.  Those are the very conditions that often trigger a fixed-mindset in which it’s…