REAL-TIME VIRTUAL COURSES

All of BRDGES Academy’s continuing education courses are virtual courses – either live or pre-recorded. Across the globe, conflict resolution practitioners wanting to better understand how cultural differences impact conflict resolution are accessing our courses to improve their intercultural skills and to add credentials to their practice. For our live courses, you and your global classmates attend the courses in real-time with an experienced instructor. View our real-time online courses below.

Courses

Brain Storm: The Organic Origins of Conflict

Our brain is more than just an organ. It is a huge network of billions of pulsating neurons which do not operate in isolation. Joining forces with other disciplines and specialties, neuroscience bridges the gap from an individual cell’s behavior to social conflict. Our mutual journey starts with the cutting-edge research of neuroscience from molecular to social. We will explore how our brain “storms”, how the different structures of the brain are interconnected and how they relate to other parts of our body. We will examine this process in a conflict situation to analyze what impact it has on the way we feel, think and act. With humor and short stories we will focus on how this findings can substantially support your daily practice.

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Commercial Mediation – An International Perspective & Imperative

The use of mediation is rapidly growing globally. In the last decade, it has exploded. Mediation’s growth mirrors the rapid expansion of international business as large and small companies in a myriad of countries shift to a worldwide vision. Few are tied to national boundaries. As globally-linked commerce increases, the likelihood of commercial disputes incrementally increases. The use of mediation has increased exponentially to meet international business and commercial dispute resolution needs. This commercial mediation course will focus on the unique skills and processes needed to take advantage of this international growth as an international commercial mediator.

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Cultural Dimensions in Multi-Cultured Dispute Resolutions

This intercultural course is designed to advance, promote and support professionals in negotiation, facilitation, dialogue, mediation, and, litigation, among others, who are working in increasingly diverse and multi-cultured environments. In this online and in-real time, interactive course, participants will be introduced to Intercultural Theories and Models which give an overview of how to avoid stereotyping and misinterpretations when setting up and participating in conflict resolution practices. Course attendees from all over the world will better comprehend culture as a tool to understand and foresee patterns of cultural behaviors in order to help people from different cultures communicate optimally with one another.

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Cultural Intelligence

Cultural Intelligence is a measure of a person’s capacity to function effectively in a multi-cultural environment. Students will learn the importance and fundamentals of being aware of a world view, and how that worldview impacts the professionals and practitioners of conflict resolution, mediators and parties.

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DemoSapiens: Why Democracy, Freedom and Rights Are At Risk

DemoSapiens, online with global participants, is designed for all conflict resolution practitioners.  This dynamic course addresses the  radical need to reframe what it takes to create and sustain democratic societies, organizations and teams.  As an elemental and critical tool for  mediators, activists, concerned citizens, HR  professionals and students, it is a herald to be actively involved in creating effective and healthy democracies. This course will challenge much of what we think about how a democracy works…. and, how easily it can break down!

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Design Your Very Own BRDGES Course

The world needs to learn more about dealing with multi-cultured conflicts. We offer qualified trainers and teachers a platform to use for relevant teaching courses which will assist in conflict resolution. Contact Lynn Cole at lhc@BRDGESAcademy.com for more information .

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Designing and Conducting Dialogues over Difficult, Divisive and Dangerous Issues

This unique course taught by the preeminent Dr. Kenneth Cloke offers new and experienced mediators a fresh vision of mediation and conflict resolution practice. One central aim of the class will be to examine the essence of the process, rather than the procedure itself. Global classmates will explore the deeper underpinnings of the transformational process of mediation in order to illuminate what exactly happens when people engage in the risky practices of forgiveness and honesty, and reveal their “authentic selves” to one another.

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How Religion Informs Conflict Resolution

Religions have presented many challenges to the world but they have also offered positive guidance on life and society. All religions have had some form of the Golden Rule as well as non-dogmatic principles related to peace and harmony. This course will first look at the peaceful principles of each religion, and then consider the principles shared by all religions. These common set of principles can help peace professionals work cross culturally and internationally.

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Emotional Intelligence: A Critical Quality for Dispute Resolution

Emotional Intelligence: A Critical Quality for Dispute Resolution

This online and in-real-time course instructs mediators, attorneys, psychologists, social workers, human resource personnel and all other conflict resolution professionals working in environments having multi-cultured dimensions. Self-awareness, self-reflection and self-regulation, particularly in intercultural contexts, are critical to the effectiveness of professionals working in conflict resolution. In this global classroom, participants will explore these skills through the lens of emotional intelligence and, through the automatic nature of our thought processes and behaviors. Through interactive learning, class participants generally will explore their own emotional intelligence and the implications to their professional activities.

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Engaging Cross-Culturally in Multi-Party Disputes

Globalization has lead to unprecedented changes in how we interact in an increasingly global world which fosters new channels to interact across cultures, ideologies, countries and communities. This course will focus on way and methods to constructively engage multiple perspectives in building consensus on some of the most challenging issues we face. It will introduce tools to engage constructively in multi-stakeholder and cross-cultural contexts in order to build foundational principles and skills for multi party dialogue and multi-stakeholder consensus building in company-community-government issues and public disputes.

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Ethical Dilemmas in Cross-Cultural Contexts

Ethical Dilemmas in Cross-Cultural Contexts

“Right- wrong”,”just-unjust” values derive their meaning and true value from the attitudes of a given culture. Some ethical standards are very culturally-specific; other ethical values may be culturally disregarded. This course interactively examines these ethical dilemmas. ***This course is accepted for 4 credit hour (in real time) for all Florida Mediators.

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Implicit Biases: Awareness and Management in Conflict Resolution

Biases are unfair personal opinions that influence one’s judgment, whether explicit (conscious) or implicit (unconscious). They impact the information one hears and considers as well as how one interprets that information. Left unchecked, biases impair one’s ability to think critically, and can prevent critical thinking altogether. This course will explain why and how self-awareness is a necessary first step in reducing biases. Class participants will learn to understand of implicit biases, one’s own self-awareness, and the implications of both processes on the their practices, particularly in multi-cultured environments.

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Intercultural Communications in Conflict Resolution

Intercultural Communications Image

Understanding intercultural communications enhances the ability to avoid language barriers and to work in conflict resolution across cultures, an ability increasingly important in a shrinking world. Negotiators, mediators, litigators, human resource managers, social workers, coaches and counselors, among others, can explore and expand their perceptions and practices by interactively processing how to adjust their own communication styles to the preferred styles of participants from other cultures. Global classmates, in real-time, will learn how communications are affected by cultural differences such as gender, age, class and race and, how other variables of attitudes and behaviors impact conflict-resolution communications. The overall goal of this introductory course is to facilitate multi-cultured communications optimally through active, experiential learning.

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Join the ADR Virtual World! An Online Primer for Mediators, Arbitrators and Other Advocates

Join this interactive discussion about online mediation and arbitration with colleagues who online experience using Zoom for mediations and arbitrations.  Topics of Hosting and Scheduling a Meeting will be discussed and interactively experienced. Other experiential topics will include creating breakout rooms and sharing documents.  We’ll share “tips” for a better online experience.

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Trauma-Informed Mediation

Violence against women (and children) reprehensibly continues as a world dilemma.
As a mediator or conflict resolution practitioner, one must have a basic and clear understanding of how violence embeds in a human being’s psyche as trauma. Understanding how that trauma must be dealt with prior to having any capacity to mediate or learn about conflict resolution is critical. This introductory course will discuss that process and whether women who have suffered the trauma of violence and abuse can capably mediate.

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Mindfulness in the Heat of Conflict: Being Clear and Calm

Being mindful gives conflict resolution practitioners of all kinds (mediators, negotiators, facilitators, coaches, attorneys, arbitrator, human resource personnel, and psychologists) the opportunity to respond skillfully to whatever is arising in the moment, even in the heat of conflict. To strengthen your ability to be mindful at work and play, you will be introduced to mindfulness meditation. This 4-hour course increases mental acuity and focus, promotes freedom from habitual judgments and reactions, builds our capacity to be fully present in the moment, lowers stress and promotes clarity and calmness. This highly successful in-person course has been distilled for the global classroom where virtually anyone anywhere with a computer can learn to pay focused, non-judgment attention to experiences as they unfold. By participating in a series of enjoyable exercises and conflict-related role-plays which will help integrate mindfulness into our conflict resolution work and home lives. 4 live credit hours approved by Florida Bar.

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Mediating the Pandemic, Politics, Police and Racism

This intercultural course is designed to advance, promote and support professionals in negotiation, facilitation, dialogue, mediation, and, litigation, among others, who are working in increasingly diverse and multi-cultured environments. In this online and in-real time, interactive course, participants will be introduced to Intercultural Theories and Models which give an overview of how to avoid stereotyping and misinterpretations when setting up and participating in conflict resolution practices. Course attendees from all over the world will better comprehend culture as a tool to understand and foresee patterns of cultural behaviors in order to help people from different cultures communicate optimally with one another.

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PeoplesLab Free Orientation

PeoplesLab integrates tools Dorit Cypis has gathered as an artist, an educator and a mediator, including somatic skills to explore memory, sensation and emotion held within the body unconsciously affecting our perceptions, communication skills for intentional, generative expression and procedural skills to recognize and negotiate our differences. Peoples’ Lab builds awareness between people AND within people, guiding us to examine the roots of conflict, engage across our differences, and recognize the opportunity to build sustainable social change.

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Power in Negotiations

In this Introductory course, you will interactively begin to build powerful negotiation skills.   Learning the needs, concerns, goals, and fears that drive people’s actions and underlie their positions or demands is essential. Understanding how you handle significant power imbalances in negotiation is critical to leveraging your power more effectively.

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Preflection: The Invaluable Benefits of Preparation

[P]Reflections: Invaluable Benefits of Preparation

This online, experiential, real-time, course focuses on the benefits of preparation to both the parties and the professional leading the negotiation, facilitation, mediation, human resource or legal meetings, dialogue, coaching or counseling conflict-resolution sessions. Through the use of interactive exercises, workshop participants will practice and reflect on how to prepare parties and themselves to achieve improved outcomes. This experiential course will demonstrate how effective preparation can lay the foundation for more powerfully meaningful intervention. Workshop participants will learn why global practitioners’ experience demonstrates that 80% of the work in successful conflict resolution happens before participants even walk into their first meeting together. Workshop participants will learn how to assist multi-cultured parties to clarify their purpose, to reflect on what is most important to them and, how they can bring themselves constructively into the room.

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Redesigning the Way We Work: A Post-Pandemic Guide

What are the most important lessons we can learn about the way we work from after the pandemic? What has changed, both for better and for worse? What needs to change, but hasn’t? How can mediators help turn workplace conflicts in a collaborative direction? How can we build better work lives? What skills do we need to redesign the way we work? Every workplace generates chronic conflicts, yet few organizations have rethought or redesigned the way they work; or used conflict resolution systems design techniques to transform the sources of chronic conflict at work; or examined their “conflict cultures” to discover how disputes are being generated and prevent their reoccurrence. Fewer still have conducted “conflict audits”: these reveal where these streams of conflict originate, or designed complex, multi-layered, multi-dimensional, integrated systems to strengthen their capacity for conflict prevention, resolution, and transformation at work.

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Technology for Advocates

The initial goal of this course is to provide each participant with a direct, hands-on experience utilizing Zoom. There will be opportunities for each course participant to examine a witness online, including using an exhibit during the examination. Each course participant will present brief oral argument to the Instructor and other course participants. Course participants will be assessed on their questions and participation in the general session and on the hands-on segment. The course will only be offered by video conference, will be limited to 10 course participants for each course:
Depending on demand, the course will be offered multiple times thereafter.

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The Art of Asking Questions

the art of asking question

Through questions, it is possible to discover, in the thick of discord, how to free ourselves from its all-consuming grip, how to gain insight into what got us stuck, transform the ways we interact with our opponents, turn criticisms and complaints into openings for improvement, and evolve to higher levels of skill in conflict resolution. Through skillful questions we can begin to move into the heart of conflict and initiate open, honest, vulnerable conversations that allow people to work through their conflicts, where resolution, transformation and transcendence suddenly, inexplicably, exquisitely unfold. All dispute solvers – negotiators, facilitators, mediators, coaches, attorneys, human resource practitioners, psychologists, among many others – can enhance their skills to ask deeper questions that reveal some new element or facet of the problem that unexpectedly transforms it and makes it solvable; that expose its hidden dynamics and suggest new paths forward.

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The Art of Listening

We will distinguish hearing from listening neurologically. Active listening is a critical skill of conflict resolution practitioners. Together, we will interactively explore listening strategies and technique to develop the most important aspect of communications.

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The Magic in Mediation: From Revenge to Apology, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation

In this two-hour video course by Dr. Ken Cloke, you will recognize that every conflict, no matter how trivial, points us toward a crossroads in our lives. One road leads toward anger, fear, confrontation, bitterness, and revenge, and draws us into quarrels over the past. A second leads us toward empathy, acceptance, honesty, collaboration, and mutual respect; it draws us into negotiations over the future. Yet there is a still deeper third road that is largely hidden from view, which invites us into insight, discovery, wisdom, affection, and heartfelt communications; it draws us into awareness of the present. It encourages us to apologize; reach forgiveness; seek release, renewal, and reconciliation. It allows us to sustain openhearted relationships. It wakes us up, makes us more mindful of ourselves and others. It nurtures us. This is the path of transformation and transcendence, of wisdom and heart. While revenge is complex, apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation are simple, yet powerful transformative tools, and doorways to inner and outer peace. They can be gigantic, or nearly unnoticeable, and can be integrated into every kind of mediation practice. They can free us from the past and allow us to reach closure, to let go of whatever has kept us trapped in conflict, and move in healthier, more positive directions, toward deeper levels of resolution and relationship.

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