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A "Full Service" Approach to Conflict Resolution

© Joan Fumia

An interesting situation that occurs in some mediations is that what the parties think they are fighting about is not what they are really fighting about. Sometimes the apparent, immediate problem can be resolved without delving into underlying issues; sometimes not. Sometimes the parties' mere acknowledgment of deeper problems can free them up to solve the dispute at hand, even without working on the buried issues, because the acknowledgment itself meets a need.

The success of the mediation process in these more complex circumstances, especially when the issues are personal, can be hit or miss. The skill of the mediator in uncovering the parties' true interests and the capacity of the disputants to recognize what their real needs are will determine whether the mediation leads to a mutually satisfactory agreement.

But what if each of the participants had the benefit of private, comprehensive preparation prior to the mediation that included a detailed analysis of all the conflicts contained in the dispute, both stated and unstated, an assessment of the true interests of the parties, and the best strategies for meeting those interests? Would the likelihood of reaching an agreement through mediation be a good bet? More likely than not.

The Conflict Management Group (CMG) offers just that type of preparation and more. In fact, their program could be billed "full service," including everything from analyzing conflicts to designing institutional structures to handle ongoing problems. There's just one catch, and you've probably figured it out already. CMG serves groups, large groups such as countries and corporations, and the conflicts they analyze are those that arise from issues of public concern.

The CMG site is at http://cmgonline.org/. The group describes itself as providing "strategic advice and training in negotiation, dispute resolution, and crisis management," and professes complete neutrality in regard to any substantive issues disputed by the entities they serve.

The site is searchable, and among other things, provides a general explanation of the type of work they do. The main categories of their enterprise are Diagnostic Analysis, Consulting, Third Party Assistance (this includes providing trained mediators), and Training. The site also includes reports about the various projects around the world that CMG has handled.

For those of you who may have an interest in the history of the conflict resolution field, you will want to know CMG was founded by Harvard Law School in 1984 and is closely allied to the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the group responsible for the classic work in conflict resolution, "Getting to Yes."

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