When to Confront – What’s Your Measuring Stick?

Most people dread having to confront a conflict at work or at home. Unfortunately, ignoring the conflict will not cause it to disappear. At some point the conflict will need to be addressed to allow people to work and live together well and to avoid permanently damaging the relationship. Determining when to raise and issue […]

Turning Conflict into Collaboration

Conflicts are part of almost every interaction, be it between individuals or businesses. The differences in habits, attitudes, convictions and individual preferences ensure that no two entities operate in the same way. The usual outcomes of conflict Depending on the importance of the relationship between the parties, the possible outcomes of conflicts include: • Avoidance: […]

The Best Ways A Manager Can Strive to Overcome Workplace Conflict

Although a dispute often arises from a single incident, it can easily become an ongoing conflict situation if not quickly resolved. The presence of an unresolved conflict in the workplace can drastically impact an entire team of employees. This can result in a decrease in morale, lower productivity and an overall toxic workplace atmosphere. Common […]

Stitt Feld Handy Group & Windsor Law: Celebrating 25 years of partnership Windsor Law Access

Read this article about our long standing relationship with Windsor Law School and about Allan Stitt. To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions. To improve your negotiation skills […]

Solving workplace conflict starts with self-awareness

Getting to the root of problems means understanding everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, including one’s own Originally published in:Canadian HR ReporterNovember 8, 2004 Dealing with office conflict is one of those management tasks with high risks, low rewards and seemingly no end in sight. Negative patterns can develop despite a manager’s best efforts. Standard approaches become ineffective, and breakthroughs […]

Maclean’s magazine – Higher education

Overcoming our brain’s shortcuts

JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS What do cows drink? Your final answer may have been “water” but was “milk” the first thought that came into your head? If so, that’s an example of a mental shortcut that your brain took without you even knowing it. This is a simple example of the ways in which our brains […]

Feedback or Criticism: What’s More Effective

To optimize the performance of the team, a manager has to let the team members know what is expected of them. The broad guidelines given at the beginning of an assignment may not be enough to ensure a smooth flow. By providing periodic assessments and timely feedback to team members there is a greater likelihood […]

Feedback for Success

Feedback is something that we all have to give and receive at different times in our lives. Daniel Goleman says the following about feedback in his book, Working with Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books: New York, 2006): “People with an intense need to achieve are voracious in seeking out new ideas and information, particularly as it […]

Fairness: An Evolutionary Construct?

How important is fairness to negotiated agreements? The question of whether fairness is a learned behavior through social or cultural influence or has an evolutionary basis may have been answered. A recent study has shown that we are not the only species to value fairness.(1) Researchers studying brown capuchin monkeys, which are a highly social […]

Does Gender Affect Negotiations?

Men and women might interact with each another in different ways when compared to how they interact with members of their own gender. The manner in which a negotiation is conducted could be one of those ways. The differences in gender may cause varying levels of comfort (or discomfort) in negotiating with someone of the […]

Diversity@Work Awards: Promote Achievements in Diversity

Continuing our commitment to cultural change for a more cohesive Australia, The Trillium Group has partnered with Diversity@Work as a supporting partner of its 2006 Awards. The annual Diversity@Work Awards recognise, celebrate and promote achievements in diversity. Over the past 6 years since the Awards’ inception, companies and individuals have received community recognition of their […]

Distinguishing Your Mediation Practice

To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions. To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more […]

Dispute resolution a challenge to Bahamians, says PM Christie

Press Release© 2005 The Official Website of The Government of the Bahamas. NASSAU, The Bahamas – Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, Friday addressing the closing session of the five-day Alternative Dispute Resolution Certificate Workshop at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Studies, The College of The Bahamas on May 28. Participants in the […]

Conflict is like Water

“Conflict is like water: too much causes damage to people and property; too little creates a dry, barren landscape devoid of life and color. We need water to survive; we need an appropriate level of conflict to thrive and grow as well. How we manage our natural resources of water through dams, reservoirs, and sluices […]

Changes at the Ontario Human Rights Commission

As you may know, the Ontario Human Rights Commission is one of the many government bodies that offers mediation as process to help resolve the complaints that it receives. You may have also heard that there are going to be some changes to the way that the Ontario Human Rights Commission handles complaints. I was […]

Canadians teach Ethiopians to mediate

By Allan Stitt of the Stitt Feld Handy Group This article originally appeared in the April 2006 issue of the Canadian Government Executive (www.netgov.ca).There was certainly a bit of culture shock for us from the moment we landed at the airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I was coming from Toronto with my wife and some […]

Best-Practices in Negotiation: The Dos and Don’ts

We are in negotiations everyday, with family, friends, and especially colleagues. While negotiating, it is important to do so in such a way that the needs and wishes of both parties are met, so that the relationship continues in a positive way. In a business environment, it is necessary that you, as a negotiator, concentrate […]

Arbitration Course in Ethiopia

I just returned from another fascinating experience teaching in Ethiopia. While I’m not yet over the jet lag (I got back last Friday), I’m also not over the excitement. Ethiopia is a wonderful country with proud people. We have much to learn from them. The course I taught was an introductory arbitration course. We were […]

Arbitration Clauses in Web-based Contracts

DELL COMPUTER CORP. V. UNION DES CONSOMMATEURS2007 SCC 34 – JULY 13, 2007 The Supreme Court of Canada recently released a decision that originated from a case based in Quebec. A number of organizations were granted intervener status, including ADR Chambers and the ADR Institute of Canada. The case involved Dell Computer Corporation and a […]