An Inconvenient Truth: Are Conflict Management Systems Really Sustainable?
As conflict management professionals, we constantly tout the benefit of conflict management systems and the effectiveness of resolving disputes through alternatives to litigation. Many of us are involved in collaboratively creating conflict management systems with groups, organizations, communities, governments and international entities. But what happens once the “buzz” dies down and the program moves into roll-out and implementation? Are conflict management systems self-sustaining? What can conflict management professionals do to increase the likelihood that the system will be used and will be sustainable?
Using a case study from a stakeholder-derived systems design with the Montgomery County, MD Public School System, Cathy Costantino, Esq. will facilitate a practitioner discussion focused on these issues.
Cathy Costantino Esq. has facilitated conflict management systems in the government, business, education, judicial, and international arenas. She is counsel at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Washington, DC where she handled complex commercial litigation matters during the savings and loan crisis and where she continues to mediate, arbitrate and litigate class action employment matters. She teaches at Georgetown University Law Center, consults with clients in Singapore, New Zealand, Great Britain, Canada and Africa, and is a frequent speaker at judicial conferences. Her book, Designing Conflict Management Systems, was awarded the Best Applied Book Award by the International Association for Conflict Management in 1996.
Please RSVP to clodge@law.harvard.edu.
