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Baltimore Mediation’s systems approach and transformative model which focuses on the quality of the dialogue and interaction has proven to be highly successful in bringing clarity and understanding to multiple issues and often complex histories as well as emotional topics, generating creative solutions and helping to maintain important relationships and productivity.

Another hallmark of Baltimore Mediation’s work is the comprehensive written summary of the dialogue after the facilitation capturing essential ideas, identified barriers, issues, options, consensus, differences, decisions, and action steps generated during the facilitated dialogue. Furthermore Baltimore Mediation facilitators are regularly called upon to facilitate meetings thus allowing all participants, including Chairs, Presidents, Directors and other leaders who would otherwise have lead a meeting to instead have the ability to participate as fully as the others or to have the ability to observe without having to juggle the management of the meeting. Baltimore Mediation facilitators are experts and are also regularly asked to provide meaningful team building workshops for groups of all sizes.

What makes Baltimore Mediation facilitators unique is that they are professional transformative mediators who know how to work with group conflict rather than muzzle it. They also know how to bring out the best in a group for diversity of ideas and thoughts to create more meaningful outcomes and organizational transformation. In addition to being nationally certified as Transformative Mediators and facilitators, they have extensive backgrounds in law, human resources, counseling, finance, business management, organizational development and psychology.

The Benefits of Facilitation from the Transformative Approach:

It is Designed to Fit the Situation:

• Public Policy Consensus Building
• Difficult Interactions that Need to be Overcome
• Congregational Conflict that Needs to be Faced
• Family or Business Decision-Making that Needs to Be Well Thought Through with Buy-In from All
• Board of Directors Decision-Making that Needs to Be Practical and Enduring
• Strategic Visioning that Is Visionary and Doable
• Team Building that Is Meaningful
• Organizational Restructuring Dialogue and Decision-Making that is Comprehensive and Compassionate
• Executive Retreats that Energize
• Staff Retreats for Personal Development
• Retreats for Future Planning & Implementation with Clear Next Steps and Responsibilities

It is Designed to Fit the Size of the Group, Big or Small (6 to 250):

• Provides opportunity to discuss hard, complicated or difficult subjects
• Provides opportunity for all to speak
• Provides opportunity for all to hear others
• Provides third-party “Presence” who captures ideas that the group may miss
• Provides third-party “Presence” who identifies areas of disagreement and makes it safe to explore them
• Provides third-party “Presence” who keeps the group on track
• Creates environment for Quality dialogue
• Highlights opportunity for changes in interaction to more constructive and positive
• Surfaces better understanding of barriers and differences
• Surfaces better understanding of how to work best with commonalities
• Builds team-work and cohesion
• Anchors responsibility
• Provides a comprehensive written summary at the conclusion which captures group’s ideas and decisions for future reflection and implementation

For more information contact Baltimore Mediation. Better Process…Better Outcome.

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Louise Phipps Senft has facilitated groups as small as 2 people and as large as 800 people. For groups larger than two or three, we have a more in-depth process that includes possible interviews, review of documents and design of the facilitation process that serve to open dialogue and foster informed decision-making. We welcome the opportunity to work with your group to design the best facilitation possible.

The post Public Policy Facilitation appeared first on Baltimore Mediation.

The requirements for successful mediation of multi-party, multi-issue disputes, particularly in the public-policy arena, are somewhat different from the usual prerequisites for successful mediation of two-party disputes.

In public dispute resolution, the agenda of issues is not limited to what can be litigated or what the court would find relevant. Any and all issues can be linked in the world of politics and public affairs. In public dispute resolution, the product of a multi-party dialogue, even one that extends over several years is almost always an informal, non-binding agreement.

The mediator in a public policy dispute resolution effort is often expected to convince the parties to come to the table, to help them structure a “work program” and ground rules to guide their interactions, and to broker agreement when it becomes too difficult to bring large numbers of parties together in a public forum.

Similarly, the mediator is usually the one who drafts the agreement, presents it to the public, monitors its implementation, and helps the parties reconvene if someone suspects someone else of non-compliance. Call upon Baltimore Mediation’s team to assist you in such matters.

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When a community is in distress or faces a community dispute or crisis, community members may seek different means of resolving the dispute. Facilitation from the transformative approach is popular with communities because it allows community members to discuss their views and hopes for the future in an informal setting with a neutral person facilitating conversation that is focused on what is important to the participants and in the best interests of the community. Baltimore Mediation’s expertise is in managing large numbers of people in such a gathering, as well as in fostering quality interaction.

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It is not unusual for conflict to develop when group members struggle to articulate common ground and a common vision amidst differences and diversity.This lack of clarity almost always derails an organization’s growth, while hindering the ability to adapt to change. Louise Phipps Senft and Associates/Baltimore Mediation’s Strategic Planning expert(s), working from the transformative approach as the neutral third party facilitator(s), will assist your group with quality conversations about goals, mission, vision and action plans. Unique to your LPS facilitator is his or her ability to combine the transformative orientation (the “group members know best” approach) with the use of a graphic language that literally helps groups “see” a future roadmap for sustainable action.  The experience is ideal for retreats and for specially convened meetings of 5 to 50 people. Strategic Visioning with an LPS/Baltimore Mediation facilitator can be designed for a half day or up to two full days. The group will have visuals and pictorials for decisions made, as well as a written summary.

Action Planning

Groups are often in agreement about the need for a certain direction, but could use help aligning interests, mobilizing resources and identifying tasks and deadlines. Louise Phipps Senft and Associates/Baltimore Mediation’s facilitators can custom design a half-day process to help groups meet short-term goals by completing high priority tasks. Part of the design includes working with key stakeholders ahead of time to create a responsive agenda of tasks and deadlines. The result is a quick and responsive action plan where roles and responsibilities are clear and accountability and consequences are articulated which energizes the mobilization of the group. The experience of Action Planning with an LPS/Baltimore Mediation facilitator is ideal for pulling a group together, which is already used to working together, prior to embarking on the implementation of an already articulated strategic plan.

Consensus Building

Louise Phipps Senft and Associates/Baltimore Mediation’s facilitators are called upon to assist business groups, departments, and Boards of Directors with reaching consensus around top priorities, especially where there is dissent or many diverse opinions. Consensus Building through Louise Phipps Senft and Associates/Baltimore Mediation neither assumes compromise nor middle of the road outcomes; rather, it assumes that groups that learn new information through interaction will make responsive choices that benefit and are aligned with one or more core values and needs. This daylong process respects diversity of opinion, while honoring the wisdom of the whole. When facilitating from a transformative orientation, the LPS/Baltimore Mediation facilitator helps ensure that the group reaches consensus of the whole without avoiding its diversity of opinion or experience, or diluting the individual values for the sake of compromise and consensus.  The results are stronger and more viable organizations and strengthened relationships between participants as well as clarity of direction. The experience is ideal for retreats and specially convened meetings.

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Baltimore Mediation is now a GSA approved contractor for the following two schedules:

Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services (MOBIS) (click here for contractor catalog)

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