CUC Connect Webinar Library
Welcome to the CUC Connect Webinar Library. Here you will find access to the the last twelve months of live webinar recordings offering additional information for professional development across the spectrum of conflict resolution and mediation practice.
An additional webinar will be featured each month from our catalogue. Over the course of your 12-month membership, you will have the opportunity to view a total of 24 training videos.
Make sure to watch the featured webinar during the month it is available, because it will return to our catalogue at the end the month.
Have questions about the material in a recorded webinar? Send an email to [email protected] and it will be shared with our training team who will reach out with additional information and clarification as part of your CUC Connect Membership.
Featured Webinar for October, 2023
What role does the law play in conflict resolution and how can mediators bring it into the rooms in such a way that it doesn’t take over the discussion? In this webinar, Katherine Miller discusses both why to bring the law in and how to do it in such a way that it doesn’t become the elephant in the room.
NOVEMBER
It is natural to surround ourselves with like-minded people while avoiding the discomfort and tension that comes when we engage with those with beliefs and opinions contrary to ours. These days pumping gas or going to the grocery store can put us on the defensive, not to mention talking with relatives at the dinner table or co-workers around the water cooler. The problem with this avoidance is that we rob ourselves and others of increasing the richness of our lives through lost, meaningful connections.
In this webinar, we’ll explore how we can have these conversations in a constructive and meaningful way that is personally satisfying while fostering growth by deploying the principles of the Understanding-Based Model in our everyday lives. Benchmarks will help test these conversations’ value while building on our shared commitment to understanding as a way-station to intimacy.
OCTOBER
Interest-based negotiation is at the heart of leveraging the Understanding-Based Model to help those in conflict reach a mutually beneficial outcome. However, guiding people to look beyond their positions and see what matters to them can be challenging for even the most experienced conflict resolution professional.
Being asked to go deeper and understand the root of why interests matter can be challenging to those entrenched in the emotions, history, and desired outcomes surrounding the circumstances of the conflict. To facilitate a fruitful conversation, we must help people understand their needs and motivations in a way that honors the strength of their feelings.
SEPTEMBER
Delve into the critical importance of organizations adopting a measured and informed approach to conflict resolution, shed light on the detrimental consequences of mishandling conflicts, and highlight the value of proactive and strategic interventions.
Join Katherine Miller and Jennifer Sullivan to learn how conflict assessment tools and effective communication strategies can support a conflict resolution culture, which helps teams unite when faced with stressful situations that could threaten an organization.
AUGUST
Explore the transformative impact of integrating conflict resolution and mediation practices within your organization while fostering a culture of open communication, looping, and collaborative problem-solving to enhance employee morale, increase productivity, and create a harmonious work environment.
Join Catherine Conner, Pat Lau, and guests from Intel, to learn practical strategies that empower teams to address conflicts constructively, resulting in improved teamwork, reduced stress, and enhanced organizational effectiveness.
Additional Resources:
Workplace Conflict and how Workplaces Can Harness it to Thrive (REPORT): https://img.en25.com/Web/CPP/Conflict_report.pdf
Estimating the Costs of Workplace Conflict (REPORT): https://www.acas.org.uk/costs-of-conflict
JULY
Explore why understanding-based mediators refrain from telling people what to do and uncover the transformative potential of giving the power to the parties, using non-directive techniques rather than imposing solutions. Even when we might really want to step into the driver’s seat, supporting individuals to take ownership of the decisions made all the way through the mediation process will foster more lasting resolutions. Join Catherine Conner and Ivan Alter and gain a deeper understanding of why it’s worth taking a consistently non-coercive approach and how we can do it.
APRIL
Resources come in many forms, not just material possessions. In a conflict, the party with more knowledge, time, money, social capital, or something else can wield outsized control and power in the process and outcome. Join Katherine Miller and Gary Friedman to learn what we, as conflict professionals, can do to create balance, ensure active, meaningful participation in the process, and promote developments that serve both parties.
MAY
In every situation, we exist in relationship to others. The groups we all belong to – and our membership and place within them – impact interactions, expectations of each other, options, and outcomes. In a conflict resolution process, we know that awareness of social hierarchies and their impact on parties and us is critical.
Join Gary Friedman and Melanie Rowen to learn how to consider these existing social systems in creating the process and address stumbling blocks as they arise.
MARCH
Every individual who walks into a conflict resolution process brings their style, quirks and ways of relating to others. In pairs or groups, unique patterns of interaction develop. How can we support a process that acknowledges the power dynamics created by these personality differences and relationship patterns and create the opportunity for parties to negotiate a sustainable agreement and possibly even change their relationship?
Join Catherine Conner and Melanie Rowen to learn about building awareness, identifying patterns, developing a process for managing internal reactions, and best practices for guiding change through personality differences and interactional patterns.
FEBRUARY
In this interactive webinar, Gary Friedman and Kim Gordon will discuss the value and benefits of starting a peer group for mediators and ADR practitioners. Drawing from decades of experience in conflict resolution and mediation, centered on the understanding-based model, Friedman and Gordon will share their process for forming peer groups and their foundational importance for developing mediation practices and guidance for creating excellent sources of support in collaborative professional support and self-reflection groups.
JUNE
Power imbalances can skew the entire conflict resolution process in innumerable ways. During the Power Imbalance webinar series, we’ve looked closely at three different kinds of power imbalances: interpersonal styles, access to resources, and relationship to social and cultural privilege. This session will allow participants to join a conversation building on the insights gained from prior discussions and reflecting broadly on how we can approach conflict resolution and difficult conversations skillfully and with mindful awareness of the impact of power on ourselves and the people we’re working with.
JANUARY
Forgiveness can be a powerful force for restoring harmony and wholeness. A harmed person can find their freedom in practicing forgiveness. It can also empower them to move toward an amicable solution and allow the rebuilding of a fractured relationship.
An apology is a fragile beginning without accountability or a plan that acknowledges a release from guilt and responsibility for new or altered behavior that commits to better outcomes. However, many of us have a powerful instinct that a process that does not support accountability can be problematic, unhelpful, or worse. As conflict professionals, how can we create a process that supports taking responsibility and creating space for forgiveness?
DECEMBER
Using our inner experience in the presence of conflict and unblocking ourselves from parties can open channels of communication that help parties understand their problem at a deeper level. Recognizing internal reactions that can get in the way of connecting to a client and working with that reaction to open our connection to the client can also open the way for the parties to communicate better.
Reactions to clients and their situations are essential to our relative effectiveness with them. Stories that clients bring into the room, filled with pain, frustration, anger, hope, and desire, can cause unconscious reactions that remind mediators of their own life. These reactions favor one side over another, create judgments, and lead to positive or negative bias.