SEMESTER MEDIATION AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT – ONLINE
Course Dates: Mondays, beginning January 27, 2025 and ending on April 7, 2025 from 6 to 8 p.m. ET
(Note: There will be no class the week of February 17, 2025)
Faculty: David Seibel and Stevenson Carlebach
After years working on Wall Street and on the launch team of a Cambridge start-up, the PON seminar changed my life. The seminar broadened my thinking about conflict management in our families, businesses and communities and the perspective and skills I learned gave me a sound grounding from which I developed a rewarding career advising enterprising families on managing conflict when continuing relationships matter. After 15 years, the teachings from the seminar continue to have practical, daily relevance to the work I do and I highly recommend it.
Blair Trippe, MBA
Managing Partner, of Continuity Family Business Consulting
Author of Deconstructing Conflict: Understanding Family Business, Shared Wealth and Power
This highly interactive, online course is designed to raise your awareness of your own approach to conflict, introduce a range of theories about mediation and participatory processes, and improve your conflict management skills. While we will discuss a wide range of dispute resolution processes that involve third parties, we will focus on mediation.
Each class moves back and forth between theory and skills practice, using theory to improve real world effectiveness, and using experience to improve understanding of theory. Students will participate in multiple mediation simulations designed to enhance skills, demonstrate concepts, and provide opportunities to experiment. When role playing, students are strategically grouped based on experience level to maximize learning for everyone, from complete novices to experienced conflict management professionals.
The well-tested syllabus includes a wide range of guest experts and enough flexibility to respond to student-generated topics of interest. Core content often includes: Mediation Styles; Diagnosing Conversation; Ethical Dilemmas; Dealing with Difficult Behavior; Mediation in Litigation Contexts; Managing Conflict in the Workplace; and Mediating Complex Public Policy Disputes.
Eligibility Requirements: PON seminars are open to participants from all disciplines and professional fields. Fluency in English is a must (suggested minimum TOEFL score 570).
Course Materials: Canvas will be used as the learning management platform. Digital materials will be provided to students. Students will also be required to purchase a couple of books for the course:
- Getting to Yes (3rd Ed.); (Fisher, Ury and Patton; New York: Penguin, 2011).
- Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations; (Ury; New York: Bantam, 1993).
- Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most; (Stone, Heen and Patton; New York: Penguin, 2000).
Location: Live sessions via Zoom.
Online Requirement: Students taking the course remotely are required to attend every live session via Zoom. Online students are expected to communicate regularly with instructors and classmates within the virtual classroom. In order to connect to class, students must have reliable internet access, a microphone, and speakers. Participants must meet the attendance requirements and complete the program evaluation to receive a certificate of completion.
Tuition: General Tuition: $2,497; Graduate Student Tuition: $1,997 (Currently enrolled, full-time graduate students are eligible for a discounted rate.)
Certificate: When you complete your training program you will receive a certificate from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School signed by Program on Negotiation Executive Committee Chair, Professor Guhan Subramanian.
Our Faculty
David Seibel
David Seibel is an expert in negotiation, communication, mediation, and dispute resolution. He wears many hats as a trainer, consultant, mediator, and professor. The former president of the Harvard Mediation Program, Seibel has mediated a wide range of criminal and civil disputes on behalf of clients all over the world, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to Iraqi Parliament members.
In addition to teaching, Seibel is also the co-founder and president of Insight Partners, a training and consulting firm that helps companies, governments, and individuals negotiate and communicate more effectively. He also leads Insight Collaborative, a nonprofit dedicated to resolving conflict and improving relationships around the world, and the Insight Peace Education Project, which teaches conflict management skills to youth in postconflict regions.
Stevenson Carlebach
Stevenson Carlebach is an independent trainer and consultant in the field of negotiation. He has also taught negotiation at Georgetown University Law Center.
Outside of the classroom, Carlebach works with Fortune 500 companies throughout the world in the area of strategic relationship management. He designs programs, consults, and coaches executives through his firm, Eque LLC.
In the public sector, Carlebach has worked with senior appointees at the White House. He taught negotiation to action officers at the Pentagon. He worked with country directors at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS to help them manage their difficult conversations. He has also worked with the ministries of education in Israel and Argentina to bring conflict resolution to educators. He is the single father of six children, four of whom are teenagers living at home who give him daily opportunities to practice his skills … as well as learn humility.