Departure day

I head for Minneapolis this evening. MTI is sponsoring a conference in Bloomington which is the precursor to the ones I will be hosting in Chicago, Detroit, and Portland this fall. The Cities is where I get a chance to work with Dan (The Conflict Doctor) one more time before I do these on my own.

My affiliation with MTI and Dan goes back about eight years. I was searching for some informed way to deal with all the conflict that found its way to my desk while I was at H&C. We had come through four years of concerted effort to improve our products, our delivery and our relations with customers and with our employees. The one thing lacking was a structured method of having people effectively resolve conflict as they worked closely together. I had trained them in all sorts of group processes and team work, but it always seemed that when conflict arose it froze the members in place. They were unable to get past it. So they either stopped working on the improvement or went around, which wastes time and costs money. I took the training and came back and told all I came in contact with about it. I did several seminars at the Hospital and taught the HR folks there the skills.

Mediation Training Institute came to my attention through the internet. Dan Dana, the PhD in psyschology from Kansas City area, had devised a system and materials to get people over the hump, so to speak, of dealing effectively with conflict. I liked what I saw and ended up working with him in Toranto, Chicago and on the Carribean cruise two years ago. During this time Dan noticed my interests and skills and we partnered on several projects since I left the hospital. Just this summer he decided to turn over certifying trainers in his system and materials to people like me. He has become so busy putting these "cer-cons" on and demands on his time have become so great, he is asking for help from a few people he knows well enough to risk his business reputation on. I feel somewhat honored.

Anyway, that is where I am headed and why and I look forward to the deal we have worked out. I have a second conference on the calendar for Portland in February, so that is driving some of our winter activities.

Off to the Farmer'sMarket.