The Training
This series of workshops consists of the following: (a) Negotiation & Cross-Cultural Communication Skills; (b) Mediation & Peacemaking Skills; and (c) Advanced Mediation Training
In each IDRS workshop, instructional strategies are interactive and may include mini-lectures, demonstrations by trainers, small group discussions, simulations, role-plays, self-administered questionnaires and instructional videos. We emphasize experiential learning. Having participants practice new skills under the trainer’s watchful eye is the best way to reinforce each individual’s understanding of the concepts taught.
The Courses
NEGOTIATION & CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
This workshop prepares people to get more of what they want, more often. But it is not about intimidation, threats and forcing opponents to “agree” to your demands. The workshop teaches participants to practice their powers of persuasion and to satisfy the interests/ expectations of the other side while not sacrificing ones own vital interests.
This workshop promotes age-old concepts of consensus-building that Indian tribes and other traditional societies utilized for thousands of years to support what is today called “win-win” decision-making. You will learn how to: talk and listen respectfully; persuade, convince and influence others; negotiate procedural ground rules that help to make the negotiations safe and predictable; identify your and the other side’s interests, put together an agenda, offer and exchange proposals; defuse anger and disruptive behavior; identify common ground; break impasse; identify your sources of leverage; and build written agreements that are clear, fair, lasting and enforceable.
The segment on “intercultural” communications does not focus on any one culture but rather provides “tools” for dealing effectively with all cultural differences, defined broadly to include ethnic differences and differences in religion, gender, generation, education, income, social status, historical experiences, etc.
The workshop is for everyone at all levels of the community and organization. The skills learned will improve communication and decision-making in the family, in the workplace, in an organization and in government.
MEDIATION & PEACEMAKING SKILLS & PROCESSES
This intensive three-day workshop is designed to build on the lessons learned in the Communication and Negotiation workshop. The training focuses on how, as an impartial third party, to minimize, manage and resolve differences among other people. The training offers new perspectives and skills on how to enlist 
and engage people in collaborative problem-solving; take ownership of the problem, process and solutions; break down complex problems into manageable parts; get parties to identify their interests in ways that can be satisfied; separate substantive from emotional issues; create settings that lend themselves to open and respectful discussion; generate options; and formulate agreements which are explicit, fair, legal, enforceable and lasting.
This workshop is intended to train mediators. However, it is also designed to teach people mediating skills. It is particularly useful to people who work in intermediary roles (e.g. directors, department and program managers, personnel specialists or committee or Chairperson of Boards & Committees), who must balance differences among competing interests and get people to work effectively together. Reconciling the differences between staff members, departments, Management, Boards and the community is but one example. The skills and techniques taught in the workshop are also useful to department managers and line supervisors who must manage and resolve employee grievances and disputes in the workplace. Completing this workshop is a prerequisite to taking the Advanced Mediation Workshop.
ADVANCED MEDIATOR TRAINING
This three-day workshop is for people who have completed the first two workshops and have decided that they would like to become certified and placed by IDRS on its Panel of Professional Mediators.
This workshop builds on the negotiation and mediation principles and concepts that are learned in the preceding workshops. Primary emphasis is on obtaining more practice with more complex and challenging role-plays and direct feedback from experienced mediators who serve as trainers and coaches during the training. A segment of the advanced training deals with “ethics of a mediator” and provides up-dates on state laws that address disclosure, confidentiality and other issues pertaining to mediation.
Testimonials For IDRS’ Training
“Over the past decade, Northern Circle Indian Housing Authority has had the opportunity to participate in numerous trainings presented by Indian Dispute Resolution Services. I have found the training to be excellent in both content and presentation style. The trainers are always well versed in the topic and have a personal commitment to increasing the capacity of those of us who live and work in Indian country to address our issues in healthy and constructive ways. It is especially valuable when several people from the same tribe or organization can attend and then support each other to implement their new skills as a team. I encourage everyone to take the opportunity to attend training presented by Indian Dispute Resolution Services.”
Darlene Tooley, Executive Director
Northern Circle Indian Housing Authority
Ukiah, California
Secretary of the Cal-Neva Indian Housing Association
“The Training was clear, very instructive and fun. I wish everyone in my Tribe could take this course. It is sensible “problem solving” and it would work wonders in
improving relationships at home, in the work place, in the community, and in tribal government. I feel that I have finally seen the light and have been given the tools to take the stupid inter-personal struggles out of my life. I feel that now I can usually ‘work things out by talking things through.’ Thank you so much, the IDRS trainers were great.”
Unsigned statement on participant questionnaire
Training Workshop conducted by IDRS with
the Executive Staff in the Torres Martinez Tribal TANF program
“IDRS’ 3-Day Workshop on Cross-Cultural Communication & Negotiation was just what my staff needed to get beyond problems in the work place that had festered apparently for many years before I got there. All 26 staff members were required to participate for all three days. The training was excellent and engaging. Several days after the workshop we scheduled a staff meeting. We agreed to use the tools we learned during the training to address and resolve some divisive issues. After five hours of discussion we reached a series of win/win decisions and all were delighted both with the process we followed and the results we achieved. In my opinion, those three days with IDRS trainers changed our organizational culture. Since then the improvement in staff satisfaction and productivity has been enormous.”
Robert Eben, Superintendent
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Southern California Area Office
Riverside, California
About our Trainers
Steven Haberfeld, Ph.D. currently serves as the Executive Director of Indian Dispute Resolution Service, Inc. (IDRS). He is a professional mediator and has expertise in strategic planning, facilitating collaborative decision-making, dispute resolution, and in “government to government” negotiations. Steven has been working with Indian tribes since 1976, assisting leaders to resolve internal differences and to effectively negotiate their interests in complex transactions with governmental, political and private sector interests. Steven was primarily responsible for designing IDRS’ training program and has over the years not only served as the lead trainer in hundreds of IDRS workshops but has trained tribal negotiation teams and served as a mediator in every major mediation IDRS has been involved in. Steven also has extensive experience in community economic development. Prior to his work with IDRS, he served as the Executive Director of the Center of Indian Economic Development and as a senior planner/organizer for the National Economic Development and Law Center in Berkeley, CA. Steven has a BA in Economics and Labor Relations from Reed College in Portland Oregon, a MA in International Relations, a Ph.D. in Public Law & Government and a Certificate in African Studies from Columbia University in New York.
Stanley Sitnick, JD, has served as a Senior Associate of Indian Dispute Resolution Services for the past twelve years. He has conducted over a hundred training workshops in Cross-Cultural Communication and Negotiation Skills and Processes, and has helped train and certify new Mediators, and provided mediation services to IDRS clients Mr. Sitnick currently serves as an Associate Professor at Portland State University in Portland Oregon where he teaches core courses in Conflict Resolution in the Graduate Program. He also maintains a very active private mediation practice where he provides a broad range of mediation and conflict resolution services primarily in domestic relations, civil litigation, family, workplace and public policy settings. Mr. Sitnick serves as a Trainer in private practice, providing training to governmental units, businesses and organizations in conflict resolution, interest-based negotiation, mediation, team-building and intercultural communication. He earned his B.A. at Georgetown University and his J.D. at the University of Chicago Law School
Workshop Rates
Each course is $400 per participant.
Includes manual, certificate of completion, and continental breakfast.
Discounts for Groups of five or more
$350 for each participant
Registration
Click the button below to register for the training. From here, you will be directed to the IDRS Training Store. You have the option to pay via check or with any major credit card through Paypal. For any question at all, please call IDRS at 916-482-5800.
