Happy Holidays fellow ACR-Hawai‘i members! On behalf of the Board of Directors, a hearty mahalo nui loa to all who joined us at the Annual Meeting on November 30th. We enjoyed connecting with you and trust you all enjoyed your time as well. The meeting gave each one of us a chance to “stand on the shoulders” of our local conflict resolving giant, Peter Adler, as he shared his thoughts on the future of alternative conflict resolution in Hawai‘i. Remember his Ten Ideas for moving into areas outside our usual “narrow and now mainstreamed world of ADR”? The Ten Ideas: Prepare a 10-year strategic “vision” statement that describes as precisely as possible where you want to be in 2029. Write a “Getting To Yes” field manual on cooperation strategies for leaders who have no choice but to be in charge. Create a short, impeccably well-done executive training workshop on cooperation strategies for local leaders. Identify specific research needs and send your list to UH and HPU. Assemble and publish a list of free and low cost cooperation resources around the State and counties. Write and run a very challenging simulation for cooperative leaders who want to learn and organize it as a “Leadership Lab”. Create a quarterly public lecture series and find sponsors who will help bring in the best national and international thinkers on cooperation to us, people like Daniel Kahneman, Franz de Waal, and Robert Mnookin. Provide annual awards to the best local “Beacons” around: one for usable research, one for organizational leadership, and one for innovative new practices. Organize 1-day “Devising Seminars” for stubborn problems: energy independence; climate resilience; Hawaiian/non-Hawaiian relationships. Make podcasts, TED talks, and short movies on how leaders can work together. There you have it, ten great ideas. What shall be the 2029 BIHAGs…
Category: Articles
Aloha, We just learned that one of our members, past chairman of the board of ACR Hawaii Chapter, and a great friend, Frances Mossman, passed away in July. Frances made significant contributions to our country and dispute resolution community as you can see in the obituary that appeared in Honolulu Star Advertiser and her biography shared by ACR, which is attached below. Despite her numerous achievements, she was always down to earth and passionate about solving various community issues, including homelessness in recent years, as shared in her brief profile that was posted on ACR Hawaii member page. We hope to be able to continue building on the legacy she left in the dispute resolution community to help solve community issues. Frances I. Mossman, JD, AICP – Sustainable Systems Dynamics Areas of Practice: I have experience mediating a wide variety of types of disputes. Particularly concentrate on land planning, development, international, military, and public policy issues. Personal: I served in the USAF and retired as a Brig. General. I was appointed by the Veterans Administration to the Homeless Veterans Task Force for Hawai’i and to Chair the Housing Committee. I enjoy travel and have visited all 50 US States, Canada and many countries in Europe, South America, Asia and the Pacific Islands. This is the last biographer Frances provided to ACR. Frances I. Mossman, Esq., AICP, is President of the Hawaii International Dispute Resolution Group LLC. Ms. Mossman is a Planning and Policy Consultant, who has over forty-five years of combined experience in national security and defense, international relations and domestic programs at the federal, state, regional and local levels of government. She specializes in urban development, infrastructure, land use planning, legislation and policies and procedures. She is a Mediator and Facilitator, with experience in a wide range…
If you have a great idea for Conflict Resolution Education for youth, there is an opportunity to seek funding through 2019 funding cycle of the JAMS Foundation-ACR partnership! Please see Notification of Funding Availability (NOFA) attached below. ACR_JAMS_Notice_Of_Funding_Availablity10.31.2019
It has been a difficult year filled with conflicts. Excessively aggressive behaviors lacking concerns for others were observed at all levels of our society. The skills we offer as practitioners or advocates of dispute resolution and facilitation are desperately needed! Let’s take a moment to focus on what each of us can do to positively contribute to the world on this Conflict Resolution Day, October 18, 2018. We can: Start small by being kind to others (see 5:1 Kindness Challenge Pledge), Sharing with your friends and family in dispute that there are ways to peacefully resolve disagreements (see Options to Resolve Conflicts Peacefully), or Offer peacemaking skills to help your community solve challenging issues (see Calling All Peacemakers!), etc. Let’s do it!
5:1 Kindness Challenge Pledge Be Kind, Small Kine and Bank’um. What separates healthy and happy relationships from miserable ones is a balance of positive to negative interactions. Studies in the field of social psychology1 show that it takes five positive interactions to make up for every one bad encounter you have with someone. It is called the 5:1 Magic Ratio. Think of it as a simple formula for building healthy relationships (at home or at work2). And, consider the impact beyond building relationships. We experience approximately 20,000 individual moments in a waking day each lasting just a few seconds.3 The moments that make an indelible mark on our memory are not the neutral encounters we have with others, but the ones that are either positive or negative. Even though these encounters are only seconds long, they can be life-changing. If you can change someone’s life in just a few seconds, why not make it for the better! Pay someone a compliment. Offer a few encouraging words. Give a two thumbs ups. Smile and gesture a show of appreciation. Make someone laugh. These simple actions can make someone’s day. The good news is that you can bank good actions or encounters. After all, we are human and we all have momentary lapses in judgement, or mindless, rushed moments when we don’t know what we are leaving in our wake. So, while you are consciously making someone’s day with a kind gesture, you are banking positive encounters to balance the scale when your lesser self takes over. We challenge you to the Magic Ratio Kindness Challenge: Be Kind, Small Kine. By signing the Kindness Challenge Pledge you commit to banking five (5) positive encounters each day during the month of October (that is 155 kind acts if you start on October 1,…
ACR Hawaii will be answering phones for HPR Pledge Drive on Monday, October 1, 8-10 a.m. Call in to pledge at 808-944-8800 or 877-944-8800 and support another vital community service. Mahalo! #SupportHPR
By Thomas DiGrazia The ACR Hawai`i is calling all peacemakers to volunteer to provide peacemaking services on Oahu to government entities and officials in need of assistance to help resolve public policy disputes. Here is a recent example: The facilitation services several of its members provided to the Kailua Neighborhood Board’s Subcommittee on Homelessness At the instigation of Sen. Laura Thielen and invitation of the Kailua Neighborhood Board, an experienced team of professional peacemakers over an eight to nine month period, assisted the two Subcommittee co-chairs and community participants in designing, organizing and implementing a facilitation process to address the Kailua community’s homelessness challenge in an initially contentious atmosphere. At our first meeting, the room seemed to be divided into two camps. One camp wanted the homeless just to leave and the other camp wanted to help the homeless not be homeless. There were some immediate safety concerns that were referred to law enforcement and the mental health providers. What our team provided was a calming down facilitation process in which each side was given the opportunity to listen and be listened to. We worked together using a very light facilitation touch in keeping the meeting very peaceful and positive. The ACRH members supported the diverse stakeholders participating in the Subcommittee’s work to better respect each other’s points of view; find connection on homeless issues and programs; educate themselves through expert advice and information; and begin to find local solutions and remedies to the challenges represented in the Kailua homeless population. Each facilitation team member spent approximately 5-7 hours per month engaged in this project. A testimonial in support of the ACRH members’ contributions to the project by the Subcommittee’s co-chair can be viewed, below. At a time when the need for community members to be heard and channel their energies…
by Micah Fisher and Tina Sablan Synopsis by the authors: Environmental conflict is complex and variable, and over time, a concerted field has developed to study processes for collaboration and resolution. This article examines the evaluations of multistakeholder collaborative processes underpinning the field of Environmental Conflict Resolution (ECR). Specifically, we analyze ECR evaluations from over four decades, across different approaches, geog- raphies, and scales. We also corroborate our findings through interviews and discussions with key scholars and practitioners in the field. We highlight the valuable empirical data from evaluations and point to a three-pronged approach for reinvigorating evaluations that support prac- titioners and projects and promote broader ideals of ECR collaboration. Fisher M, Sablan T. Evaluating environmental conflict resolution: Practitioners, projects, and the movement. Conflict Resolution Quarterly. 2018;1–13. The authors credited ACR-Hawai‘i Board member and officer Anne Marie Smoke, among others, with providing “invaluable advice and guidance throughout the course” of the study. Read the article
Giuseppe Leone has been a mediator since 1997 and is a former Board member of ACR-Hawaii. One of his recent articles, Small Claims Courts 2.0 – Online Dispute Resolution at Franklyn County Municipal Court, may be viewed on Mediate.com. Read his article and see how Franklyn County successfully uses present-day technology to resolve small claims disputes.
Quick Tips for Mediators by Robert Lillis, ACR-Hawai‘i Director Shut up and listen (“Ripples from the Zambezi” Chapter 9 by Ernesto Sirolli) Establish rapport (“Never Split the Difference” by Chris Zoss) (“Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini) (“The Art of Negotiating the Best Deal” by Seth Freeman Lecture 6 Credibility and Rapport) Start with a hand shake (HBR June 04 2014 “To Negotiate Effectively, First Shake Hands) Good introduction (Mediation Training) Grinning is winning, be likable. (“Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini) Be more interested in the parties then their problem (“Ripples from the Zambezi”, Chapter 2 by Ernesto Sirolli) Ask “What’s going on?” (“Never Split the Difference” by Chris Zoss) Initiate small talk. See if you have a common enemy e.g. traffic in Honolulu, problems with the rail system, bloated bureaucracy.(“Getting More” by Stuart Diamond”) (“The Art of Negotiating the Best Deal” by Seth Freeman, Lecture 6 Credibility and Rapport) Be respectful of the parties and their problems. Remember it is their problems. (“Ripples from the Zambezi” Chapter 2 by Ernesto Sirolli) Deal with the feelings and emotions before tackling their problems. (“Never Split the Difference” by Chris Zoss) (HBR January 2013 Negotiating with Emotion) Let them solve their own problems (“The Art of Negotiating the Best Deal” by Seth Freeman, Lecture 6 Credibility and Rapport) (“Never Split the Difference” by Chris Zoss) a. Ask questions, let them educate you. (HBR June 27, 2014 Win Over and Opponent by Asking for Advice) (HBR Sept 2007 Investigative Negotiation) b. Be respectful of their problems, do not offer your own solutions(“Ripples from the Zambezi”, Chapter 2 by Ernesto Sirolli) It is O.K. to nudge them towards a possible solution. Nudge them to their own solution even though it might have started as your idea. (“Nudge” by Richard Thaler) Ask this question. For you, what is the other side not seeing? What are they not…