We provide complete design and facilitation services for virtual and in-person meetings, retreats, conferences, and workshops.  We’ll make sure your event is designed to maximize the value of the time and talents of the participants to accomplish the work you need to get done.

We work with you starting with the end in mind—the achievement you want from the event.  Then we work backward designing all the details—from the agenda to the tools, to the materials, to the participant interactions—all to bring out the best in your participants and create the specific deliverable you want from the event.

Got Conflict?  You get extra value when we facilitate meetings.  Because we are also mediators, you automatically have expert conflict resolution skills in the meeting room should they be needed.

Our Role.  In today’s work environments, it is impossible not to attend meetings.  Staff meetings, project meetings, task force meetings, planning and coordinating meetings… the list is endless.

Why use meeting facilitation?  The best facilitators help groups efficiently cooperate to reach their goals by creating an inclusive and open process for all attendees to share their ideas and views.  Facilitators don’t come armed with a personal agenda or opinions about the topic.  Instead, they are unbiased leaders who are experts at guiding groups through the decision-making processes.  That’s what we do for you.

Look to us for two kinds of mediation,

We do Formal Mediation.  When your solution must simultaneously find a creative compromise and build positive future relationships, mediation is the right choice.  This option is attractive to stakeholders because they feel in control.  When they work to jointly create a solution instead of having a solution imposed upon them there is commitment after the meeting to ‘make it work.’  We facilitate face-to-face and virtual meetings to improve communication and negotiate lasting agreements, usually in writing.

We do Conciliation.  When the issue is small and you just need to find an agreement so you can move forward, conciliation is the right choice.  Using a form of shuttle diplomacy, we talk separately with the parties (usually by phone but occasionally in person) to seek compromises.  The parties are asked to make offers which we broker back and forth until there is an agreement—a solution that all parties accept with the stipulation that it will end the dispute.

Our Role.  Mediation is a procedure where the parties discuss their disputes with the assistance of a trained, neutral third person who assists them in reaching a settlement.  A mediator is a person with patience, persistence, and common sense.  She/he uses negotiation, problem-solving, active listening, and communication skills as a facilitator to help the parties find their own resolution to the conflict.

Why use mediation?  Parties who negotiate their own settlements have more control over the outcome of their dispute.  When that happens, they are more likely to live by those agreements.  If a fight is costing time, money, and productivity mediation is a way to avoid these losses and preserve future working relationships.