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…

adr vantage logo

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…

No Thumbnail

Organizational Resilience

So often in the discussion of resilience the focus is on the individual – how can they relieve, manage and reduce stressors and learn to become more resilient – and resilient people who are engaged, empowered and supported are indeed a core component of a resilient workplace culture. A resilient…

No Thumbnail

How Collaborative is your Organization?

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…

marcia thompson

Civility Rocks!

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…

No Thumbnail

ADR Vantage services support compliance with revised EEOC MD-110

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…