**EEO - Alternative Dispute Resolution**

**BLM National Training Center Telecast**

**March 20, 1997**

This transcript is from the closed-captioning file produced during the
telecast.

It may contain errors in transcription and omissions.

Announcer: the Bureau of Land Management Satellite Network Presents Live
from the BLM National Training Center In Phoenix, Arizona, \"Alternative
Dispute Resolution, A Seminar for Managers and Supervisors on ADR For
EEO and Human Resource Management. And Now the Host Of Your Program,
Robin Stoebe.

Stoebe: Good Morning, and Welcome to Alternative Dispute Resolution
Employment Opportunity And Human Resource Management Programs. In this
Program We Will Be Discussing Alternative Dispute Resolution, or ADR, as
a Problem‑solving Option When Dealing with Interpersonal Conflict in the
Workplace. During this Broadcast, We Will Look at Departmental and
Bureau Policy. We\'ll Talk about When to Use ADR. We\'ll Consider
Circumstances Which Make the Use of ADR Desirable and Beneficial. We\'ll
Present an Overview of What ADR Actually Is, as Well as A Primer on How
the Mediation Process Works. We\'ll Look at the Bureau\'s Plans For
Expanding the Use of ADR and We\'ll Briefly Consider the Common
Application of ADR to Resource Programs. By the End of this Broadcast,
We Hope That You Will Have a Good Understanding of Alternative Dispute
Resolution and Be Able To Begin Building an Effective ADR Program Within
Your Organization. People Throughout the BLM\'s Nationwide Organization
Are Interested in ADR. This Is Clear by the Fact as Of Air Time Today a
Total of 284 Managers, Supervisors And Other Key Program Officials Have
Registered to Participate in this Seminar At 54 Satellite Downlink
Sites. Others Who Are Unable to Be With Us Today Have Indicated Their
Intention to Make this Seminar Available to Their Employees by Videotape
Presentation at a Later Date. Joining Me for Our First Segment Today Is
Carolyn Burrell, Assistant Director for Human Resources Management.
Carolyn, We\'re Glad You Could Be With Us Today.

Burrell: Thanks, Robin. I Am Happy to Be Here. It\'s Great to See You
Again. I Am Looking Forward to Participating in this Forum Today with
You and the Other Panel Members.

Stoebe: Also Here from Washington Is Gloria Inniss, Group Manager of the
Washington Office EEO Group. Welcome, Gloria.

Inniss: Thank You, Robin. I\'m Glad to Be Here. It\'s Nice to
Participate in This Seminar, and I\'m Looking Forward to a Meaningful
Discussion on This Topic, Which I Consider To Be of Such Importance to
The Bureau of Land Management.

Stoebe: and We Are Pleased to Have with Us Today Dr. Marvin Johnson, Who
Is the Director of The Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution at
Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland. Thanks for Joining Us Today,
Marvin.

Johnson: Thanks, Robin. Glad to Be Here. I Am Looking Forward to a Very
Lively Discussion on This Important Topic.

Stoebe: Joining Us Later in Our First Segment Live from Washington, D.c.
Will Be Norman Schwab of the Office of Hearings And Appeals. Also in the
Second Half of Our Show We Will Hear from Jackie Jackson Representing
the Office Of the Solicitor General. And We\'ll Get a Special Report
From Bill Calkins, BLM New Mexico State Director, Who Will Give a Line
Manager\'s Perspective on ADR with Respect To Potential Crossover
Applications. Before We Begin Our Discussion, I Would like to Mention
That Throughout this Program You Will Be Able to Communicate with Us Via
Telephone and Fax Using the Numbers Provided to Your Offices. You Can
Send Us a Fax Question At Any Time. Use the Form Provided with Your
Written Materials. Please Print Your Question with A Dark Marker. You
May Call Us Whenever You Like. Our Operators Are Standing By. In Most
Cases, However, We Will Only Be Putting Calls on the Air During Our
Scheduled Interactive Segments. But Right Now Joining Us Live From
Washington, D.c. Is Mat Millenbach, BLM Deputy Director. Mat, Thanks for
Taking the Time From Your Schedule to Be with Us Today.

Millenbach: Thank You, Robin. Good Morning. The Bureau of Land
Management Is the in the Process of Refining its Strategic Goals for the
Future. Underlying These Goals Is Unprecedented Emphasis on
Communication, Collaboration And Teamwork. These Are All Vital Factors
In Assuring the Success of Our Varied Operating Support Programs in an
Era of Increased Oversight and Fiscal Constraint. The BLM Is Faced with
the Need to Address Increasing Work with the Prospect of Static or
Decreasing Personnel and Dollars. Therefore, We Can Ill Afford To Spend
Unnecessary Time, Money and Attention on Issues That Might Be
Expeditiously Resolved Through Focus and Timely Consideration and
Attention. Alternative Dispute Resolution, Known More Popularly as ADR,
Is the Subject of this Telecast. ADR Provides Alternative Methodologies
to Traditional Time‑consuming and Costly Methods of Dispute Resolution,
Internal Adjudication, Appellate Review and Litigation. ADR Promises to
Promote Productivity in the BLM by Offering an Effective Timely And
Cost‑saving Process for Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts That Occur
Within The Organization. That Is Why We\'ve Sponsored Training for
Mediators and Have Developed this Program Specifically for Managers And
Supervisors in the BLM. In Order to Meet its Goals For the Future, the
BLM Will Need to Foster an Environment of Constructive Cooperation and
Collaboration in the Workplace. This Will Require the Ability to Resolve
Interpersonal Disputes. The Mechanics of Mediation Are Consistent with
These Objectives. They Facilitate Open Communication, Provide a Means
for Clarifying Issues And Ensure That Participants On Both Sides of an
Issue Have the Opportunity to Speak and to Be Heard. It Seems Probable
Based on The Experiences of Other Organizations That the BLM Will
Ultimately Expand its Use of ADR to All Resource Management and Program
Support Processes and Apply It to the Resolution of Issues Involving its
Various Customers and Publics as Well. I Recognize the Already Tough Job
That the BLM\'s Managers and Supervisors Face in Today\'s Complicated
And Extremely Stressful Work Environment. Therefore, I Endorse Efforts
To Find Creative Ways to Solve Conflicts That Will Obviate the Necessity
for Costly and Time‑consuming Litigation and at the Same Time Foster
Satisfactory Solutions to Problems with Equity and Fairness. Managers
Are Well Advised to The Consider Taking the Extra Step of Using ADR on
The Assumption That Some Disputes May Be Quickly Settled by Clarifying
Issues And Improving Communications And Providing an Opportunity For
Constructive Third‑party Intervention. Certainly ADR Is Appropriate For
Use Where Individual Circumstances Indicate a Reasonable Expectation
Success. I Am Hopeful That State and Center Directors Are Watching this
Broadcast in The Company of Their Equal Opportunity Managers, Their
Human Resources Program Managers and Their Senior Staff and Line
Managers and Supervisors. This Presentation Provides a Unique
Opportunity for Dialogue on ADR with Officials Who Are Experts in Its
Use. It\'s Notable That Most State And Center Directors Servicing EEO
Managers Are Now Trained in Mediation and Can Advise You in Establishing
a Viable ADR Program in Your Own Organization. All this Broadcast
Focuses Primarily on the Use of ADR In Conjunction with EEO And Hrm
Programs. The Structuring and Expanding Use of ADR In Natural Resource
Programs Is Also under Careful Consideration Within the Bureau and Will
Be Touched Upon this Morning. I Am Confident ADR Will Provide a Useful
Administrative Tool for the BLM\'s Managers and I Certainly Endorse Your
Creative Efforts in Applying ADR Methodology Effectively To the Full
Spectrum of the BLM\'s Operations. Thank You Very Much for Your
Attendance this Morning. Look Forward to the Broadcast.

Stoebe: Thanks for Joining Us, Mat. Appreciate Your Taking Time Out of
Your Busy Schedule. Glad You Could Be Here. What Is Alternative Dispute
Resolution and Why Can it Be Such a Valuable Tool for Managers in
Maintaining a Productive and Harmonious Work Force? Marvin Johnson Is a
Respected Educator and Authority in the Area of ADR. He Is a Practicing
Mediator and Has Recently Trained Nearly 50 BLM Employees in Mediation.
He Will Address Just What ADR Is And Why it Is Important to the BLM.
Marvin?

Johnson: Thank You, Robin. First Thing I Would like to Do Is to Talk You
about What Conflict Is and the Type of Conflict or Dispute We\'re Going
to Be Dealing with Here, and Then We\'ll Go into What ADR Is. I Have an
Overhead Here on the Types of Conflict. First Type Here Is Conflict
Within the Individual. That Is Intrapersonal Conflict. That\'s Conflict
Within the Individual. This Is the Type of Conflict Where You Decide
What Shirt You Want to Wear in the Morning, What Tie You Want to Wear,
What Shoes, Which Bill You Want to Pay First. This Is Internal Conflict
Within the Individual. This Is Not the Type of Conflict That We\'re
Going to Deal with Today. The Type of Conflict We Are Going to Deal with
Today Is Conflict Between Individuals, Or Interpersonal Conflict. So
It\'s Between Two or More Individuals. So it Could Be Between Two
Individuals or it Could Be ‑‑ a Conflict Between a Individual Or Group
of Individuals or it Could Be Between a Department Or Even Between
Organizations. One Thing I Would like to Say Up Front, It\'s Inherent in
Our Culture to Have Conflict with Competition. We Train Our Youngsters
When They\'re Real Little to Compete In Sports or in Competitions, Be it
Ballet or Singing or Whatever. We Train Them That in the School System.
We Train Them to Get the Best Grades. So It\'s Inherent in Our Culture.
Our Culture Is Capitalism. There Is Nothing Wrong with That, but You
Need to Understand Inherent Within Each Individual Is That to Compete.
So That Goes on Within Each Individual, Which Kind of Heightens Conflict
Within Our Organizations. So We Move, since We Know What Type of
Conflict We\'re Going to Deal With, Then We\'ll Move to Alternative
Dispute Resolution. What Is It? It\'s an ‑‑ I Usually Ask the Question,
It\'s an Alternative To What? Often I Get, in These Days and Times,
Alternative to Violence. Well, it Started out as an Alternative to
Litigation, Alternative to Court. And Surprisingly There Was a Poll
Taken. \"Business Week\" Took a Poll of 400 Senior Executives from 1,000
Top Corporations and They Found That 83% Say Decisions Increasingly
Affected ‑‑ Their Decisions Are Affected by Fear Of Lawsuits. 97% Favor
More Use of Alternative Methods of Resolving Disputes. And 62% Feel Our
Justice System Hampers the Ability of the Companies in the U.s. to
Compete in this International Economy That We Have. So the Society Is
Recognizing That We\'ve Got a Problem Here. We\'re Dealing with
Lawsuits. And Alternative Dispute Resolution, as I Said, Was an
Alternative to That. So Let\'s Talk about the Different Mechanisms Which
Come Under the Umbrella of Alternative Dispute Resolution. Here You See
the Continuum of Conflict Management Mechanisms, And All of These
Mechanisms Come under Alternative Dispute Resolution. I Will Try to
Describe Each of Them Individually for You. Start with Informal Problem
Solving. Informal Problem Solving Is Where You Have Two Individuals Who
Are Working Together, Not Opposite, but Together to Try To Resolve the
Dispute. They Are Sitting down and Trying to Figure out the Best Way to
Resolve It. Trying to Problem Solve, Brainstorm, Do Those Kinds of
Things to Resolve the Dispute. They Are Working Together in Concert. The
next One, Negotiation, Negotiation Is the Process Whereby You Have at
Least Two Individuals Trying to Influence ‑‑ You Have One Individual
Trying to Influence The Other to the Their Point of View. It\'s a Back
and Forth Communication Where One Party Is Trying to Influence the Other
Side to Their Point of View or to Their Position, If You Will. This Goes
on until One Party Either Gives in or Both of Them Accept less than What
They Really Want, Or, Again, it Could Be an Impasse, and If There Is an
Impasse in the Negotiation Process, Then We\'ll Move to the next
Process, Which Would Be Mediation. Mediation Is an Extension of
Negotiations. It\'s Where the Negotiate Eggs Fail or Break down or
Communications Fail or They Break Down, and That\'s When You Use
Mediation. Mediation Is a Process Whereby An Impartial Third Party Comes
In to Assist the Disputing Parties in Resolving Their Dispute. Now, this
Impartial Third Party Is Called a Mediator. This Mediator Has No
Authority To Make the Parties Do Anything. It Just Assists in
Facilitating The Communication in the Mediation Process. The Mediation
Process Itself Is Voluntary. You May Have a Situation Where The ‑‑
You\'re Told That You Have to Go to Mediation, Where Be Mandatory, but
the Process Itself Is Voluntary, Which Means Within the Process the
Parties Can Agree or They Can Disagree. No One Is Going to Make Them
Agree or Not Agree to the Process. Also You Need to Know with Respect to
Mediation That It\'s A Confidential Process. Everything That\'s Said in
That Room Stays in the Room and Does Not Go Outside the Room. There\'s
Certain Legal Exceptions, but for the Most Part, It\'s a Confidential
Process. Next along the Line of the Continuum, You Got Fact‑finding.
Fact‑finding Is a Process Whereby You Have an Individual Called a Fact
Finder Who Should Be an Impartial Individual Who Will Gather the Facts.
The Facts Can Be Gathered in a Number of Ways. It Could Be Done by
Taking Affidavits. It Could Be Done by a Hearing. It Could Be Done Just
by Interviews. The Fact‑finder Will Take this Information and Make a
Report. This Report Is Given to the Parties to Look At. Now, Case in
Point Is the Airline Strike Recently. If You Remember, President Clinton
Stopped the Strike, Issued a Board of Inquiry. This Board Collected
Facts About the Dispute, and I Believe it Was Just Yesterday They Issued
Their Findings of Fact. Well, That\'s What a Fact‑finder Does. It Issues
Their Finding of Facts and Sometimes There Are Recommendations, as Was
the Case with the Airlines. There Were Recommendations as To What the
Fact‑finder Thinks Should Be Done. In Terms of a Fact‑finding Report,
That\'s What You Have, And the Report Could Either Get The Parties to
Change Their Position, Renegotiate or They May Stay the Same. That\'s
What a Fact‑finding Is All About, and That\'s What a Fact‑finder Does.
Next in the Line You Have Arbitration. Arbitration Is a Process Where
You Have an Impartial Third Party Called the Arbitrator Who Decides. The
Arbitrator Decides the Outcome of the Dispute. He Will Decide Who Is
Right, Who Is Wrong. Who Wins or Who Loses. Or How Much Money a Person
Will Get. The Process That the Arbitrator Uses Is the Hearing Procedure,
Similar to a Court, Except for The Rules of Evidence Are Relaxed. What
That Means Is That There Will Be Some Hearsay Coming In. It Also Means
That You Don\'t Have to Be an Attorney to Represent an Individual in an
Arbitration. All Information That Comes into The Arbitration Comes in
Through Witnesses. So There\'s Direct Examination, Cross Examination of
the Witnesses, as Well as the Representative Will Make an Opening and
Closing Statement. And Then a Decision Is Rendered. There May Be Briefs
Filed as Well. A Decision Is Rendered, Usually A Written Decision and
That Decision Is Final and Binding. There Is Also Such a Thing as
Advisory Arbitration, and If You Have Advisory Arbitration, It\'s Just a
Recommendation and I Would Dare Say My Opinion Is You Might as Well Do
Fact Finding with a Report Rather Than Do a Arbitration. But That Exists
and You Need to Know about It. Next You Have the Judicial Decision, and
That Is Going to Court, Which We All Know about. The Impartial
Individual in That Process Is the Judge And/or the Jury, and the Process
That They Use Is a Hearing, and It\'s Much More Formal. The Rules of
Evidence of Strict In Terms of Getting Documents Into Evidence.
Information Come in Again Through Direct Examination and Cross
Examination and You must Be an Attorney to Practice Before the Court in
a Particular State You\'re in or The Federal Bar If It\'s a Federal
Court. Although, You Can Represent Yourself If You\'re Pro Se, but The
Old Saying Is If You Represent Yourself, You Have a Fool for a Client,
and I Wouldn\'t Suggest You Do That. Last on this Continuum Is
Legislative Action. Legislative Action Is Where If You ‑‑ for Instance,
If You Go Back Through Judicial Decision And There Is a Decision That
Comes down and You Want to Change It, Well, What You Could Do Is Lobby
Congress, If It\'s a Federal or State Legislator to Get That Changed, or
There May Be a Dispute in Your Area and You Go to Your Congressman or
Congress Woman and Try to Get Them Pass a Bill Would That Deal with the
Problem, and That\'s Why That Is on the Continuum. Going Back to the
Overall Continuum, If You Look at That, If You Look from Left to Right,
And Try to Analyze What Kind of Things Are Happening, What Kind Of
Things Are Happening as You Move from Left to Right Across The
Continuum, What You Have Is, You See the Line Here, Once You Cross That
Line, There Are Certain Things That Start to Happen. As You Go Across
the Continuum, It Takes More Time to Resolve Your Dispute, a Lot More
Time. Also, Time Is Money, So It\'s Going to Cost You More to Resolve
Your Dispute as You Move from Left to Right Across The Continuum. As You
Cross ‑‑ as You Cross The Line ‑‑ Prior to Crossing The Line at
Mediation, a Third Party Is Involved, Which Means You\'re Losing Control
of Your Ability to Resolve the Dispute. You\'re Going to Give up Your
Control to a Third Party to Resolve the Dispute. Now, You, the Third
Party, Knows Nothing about Your Relationship, Your past History. What
They\'re Say Something I Want Someone Else to Tell Us What to Do Because
We Don\'t Know What\'s Best for Us. That\'s What in Effect Is Going On
When You Go Across this Particular Line Here. What Else Is Happening?
Well, it Becomes More Adversarial. At the Far End, at Least in Terms of
Judicial Decision, Parties Are Going to Really Verbally Fight with
Respect to Who Is Right, Who Is Wrong, Trying to Persuade the Arbitrator
to Their Point of View. Also What Happens Is There\'s Less Focus on the
Relationship. Often These Disputes, Particularly Workplace Disputes,
They Involve a Situation Where You\'re Going to Continue to Work There,
and So Once You Go Through a Win‑lose Process, You Can\'t ‑‑ It\'s
Difficult to Have A Relationship with That Individual Again. So as You
Cross the Line, You Can\'t Deal with That Relationship, or the
Relationship Becomes Damaged And When You Go to Court, Judges Don\'t
Look at the Relationships. They Look at the Issues. What\'s the Issue
Here? What\'s the Issue That\'s Brought Before Me and What Do I Need to
Decide? Whereas in Mediation, You Can Look at the Relationship, Can You
Look Forward, How Can We Deal with this in a Better Way. Whereas the
Judge Looks ‑‑ in Litigation You Look Back. What Happened? Who\'s Right?
Who\'s Wrong? That\'s One of the Advantages of Staying on the Left‑hand
Side Of the Continuum. The Other Thing That I Think Is Implicit Here Is
That It\'s More Formal as You Move Across. The Rules of Evidence Get
Stricter. What You Can Say and What You Can\'t Say Is Part of this
Continuum. So this Is ADR in General, Alternative Dispute Resolution,
And Every One of These Mechanisms Are Part of ADR. There Are Others, but
Would it Take Us More Time. There\'s Subsets of These Mechanism as Well,
but it Would Take More Time to Go Through Them. Next Thing I Want to
Talk about Is Mediation Being a Back‑end Process. What I Mean by a
Back‑end Process, it Means That Mediation Occurs after the Dispute Has
Already Arisen. Some Individuals Think That by Putting in a Mediation
Program That That\'s Going to Resolve Everything, but That\'s Not the
Case Because If You Don\'t Look At Where the Source of the Problem Is,
the Problem Will Continue to Occur, and You\'re Just Having Mediation.
For Instance, the Courts, the Courts Are Overloaded with Cases, So They
Put in a Mediation Program. Well, Only Thing That Happens Is the
Mediation Program Gets Overloaded. So in an Employment Situation, You
Need to Look at Where Those Things Are Coming from. I Have an Overhead
for this to Show You What I Mean. If You Can See That. Here You Have the
Conflict. After the Conflict There\'s Some Response System, a Grievance
System or a Complaint System. And Then You Have Mediation. And Then
Either You Get Settlement or You Continue on With Your Response System.
The Point I\'m Making Is, What Has to Be Done Is Back on this End, on
the Conflict End, What You Have to Do Is Find out Why Are These Things
Happening? What\'s Causing this Conflict? And it Might Be a Rule? It
Might Be a Regulation. You May Have to Implement Training for
Individuals to Increase Communication. There\'s a Number of Various
Things That You May Have to Do To Eliminate the Conflict. Now, Conflict
Happens Every Day. You\'re Not Going to Eliminate It Totally. It\'s What
We Call Managing Conflict. It\'s How You Manage the Conflict Will
Determine What Kind of Workplace You Have. What I Would like to Show You
Next Is Some of the Agencies That Have Used Dispute Resolution and
Alternative Dispute Resolution, and the Savings That They\'ve Had. The
First One Is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation In Terms of Their
Legal Fees And Expenses in \'91, They Saved \$325,000. In \'92, over \$4
Million. And in \'93, over \$9 Million. This Is Just in Legal Costs. The
Resolution Trust Corporation, \$115 Million Between 1991 and 1994. The
Department of Labor Doesn\'t Have a Cost Figure, but They Have
Percentage of Case Processing Time in Terms of They Increased the Time
of Processing Cases, and Time Is Money, So That Equates to Money As
Well. A Couple More for You to Look At Here. The U.s. Air Force, They
Saved \$4 Million. We Don\'t Have a Particular Year On That. And the
Defense Mapping Agency, This Is over a One‑year Period, Because I Did
Work with Them, \$135,000. And Then, Finally, at the U.s. Information
Agency, over \$1 Million in Interest Charges. That\'s Just in Interest
Charges In Terms of What They Saved. So to Conclude Here, What You Need
to Do Is Understand the Various Processes under ADR, And If You Put
Together a Program, You Need to Look for Where the Sources Are in Terms
Of Resolving Those Disputes.

Stoebe: Thanks, Marvin, for That Overview. Now Carolyn Burrell Will
Discuss The Bureau\'s Policy for Use of ADR and Plans for Establishing
ADR as a Conflict Resolution Option Nationwide. Carolyn?

Burrell: Thank You, Robin. Good Morning. The Bureau of Land Management
Is Implementing Mediation as a Part Of its EEO Complaints System. In the
Future, We Expect to Use Alternative Dispute Resolution, Commonly Known
as ADR, for Other Types of Grievances and for Other Major Administrative
Functions Such as Procurement And Contracting. As You Will Learn During
this Broadcast, ADR Is an Umbrella Term for Several Ways to Resolve
Disputes. Mediation Is One of These Techniques. ADR Allows the Greatest
Participation in Problem Solving At the Lowest Cost in Time and Money.
BLM, along with Many Other Organizations, Has Decided to Adopt ADR as a
Management Tool. A Mediation Program Can Be Run Easily Within an
Organization, Using Contracted or Volunteer Neutrals, as Mediators Are
Called. Such a Program Could Also Be Using In‑house People Trained in
Mediation. In Late 1995, Instruction Memorandum 96‑46 Issued BLM\'s
Initial Policy on ADR and a Plan For a Pilot Program to Apply Mediation
to EEO Complaints. Despite an Inconsistent Reaction To this Plan, During
1996 the Washington Office Received a Positive Reaction to Applying ADR
to EEO Disputes. In October 1996 and February 1997, the Washington
Office Sponsored Tuition‑free Training In Mediation for State and Center
EEO Managers. We Also Made Sure That There Was Space for Other
Interested People to Attend. 49 Bureau Employees Graduated From this
Mediation Course. Among These Graduates Were EEO Counselors, Personnel
Specialists, Supervisors, an Area Manager, an Associate District
Manager, One Deputy State Director, One Associate State Director and One
State Director. The Purpose of the Training Was Twofold: First, to Give
Managers A Source of Information on ADR And; Second, to Give EEO
Managers Nationwide the Skills Needed for Setting up Mediation Programs
at the State and Center Levels. States and Centers That Sent People to
this Training Now Have A Source of Information and Guidance on ADR
Consistent with That in Other Field Offices and In the Washington
Office. Let Me Emphasize That Completing Classroom Training Does Not in
And of Itself Produce a Qualified Mediator. To Be to Be Proficient,
Mediators must Have Experience, Gained as Observers, Co‑mediators or
Practicing Mediators. Therefore, We Strongly Encourage You to Support
Your Newly Trained ADR Resource People in Seeking out On‑the‑job
Training In Mediation. You Should Also Let These People Fully Develop
the Skills and Insights They Acquired in the Classroom. To Ensure Full
Participation in Applying ADR, BLM Has Established an ADR Steering
Committee of State and Center EEO Managers and Members from The
Washington Office EEO Group. This Committee Will Advance, Evaluate and
Monitor the Implementing of ADR to EEO Programs Nationwide. This
Committee Will Also Be Producing Literature on ADR. Later in the Year,
We Plan to Conduct a Second ADR Broadcast. This Time Our Audience Will
Be The General Work Force. That Forum Will Explain BLM\'s Conflict
Management Program and How ADR Will Be Used. So, as You May Have
Guessed, Our Purpose Today Is to Set the Stage for the Expanded Use of
ADR in the Bureau. This Broadcast Will Give You a Comprehensive but
Succinct Account of ADR, What it Is, How It Works and How it May Be
Applied. I Would like to Make One Point: In the Past, Some Managers Have
Tended to Deal with Interpersonal Conflict by Putting it Aside in the
Hope That it Would Be Dealt with Later Through Administrative Processes.
But the Courts Have Become Increasingly Favorable in Their Treatment of
Complainants. Also, the High Costs of Drawn‑out Conflict Have Increased,
Not Just Money and Staff Time, but Disrupting the Workplace and
Diverting Management\'s Attention from the Business of Running BLM\'s
Programs. To Further Complicate Things, as BLM Moves Toward the Year
2000, We Are Facing New and Unfamiliar Challenges. These Challenges
Include an Increasing Level of Complexity In Managing the Public Lands,
Uncertainty in Future Hiring Levels, Reduced or Flat Funding, New
Performance Accountability Imposed by Congress and the Public, and the
Escalating Demands of Minorities and Women To Participate in Natural
Resource Management. I Believe That Our Success under These Changing
Circumstances Will Require That We Explore New Avenues of Collaboration
and Teamwork. ADR Is One of These Avenues. We Hope That BLM Will Give it
a Fair Opportunity for Success. In Summary, Our Approach to Using
Alternative Dispute Resolution Has Been to Write Guidance and Policy,
Then Demystify the Process of Mediation Through Training and Orientation
for EEO Managers, Program Managers and Supervisors And the General Work
Force. Our ADR Steering Committee Will Monitor and Evaluate Program
Development, Modify Written Policy as Needed, and Coordinate Mutual Help
Across Organizational Lines. While ADR Is Not a Cure‑all, Timely and
Neutral Intervention Can Go Far in Settling Disputes And Promoting
Harmony and Cooperation at Work. We Ask for Your Support of Alternative
Dispute Resolution And Urge Your Enthusiastic Backing of the ADR Program
Within Your Organization.

Stoebe: Thank You, Carolyn.

Stoebe: to Talk about What Other Interior Bureaus and Offices Are Doing
with ADR, We Are Fortunate to Have with Us Live from Washington, D.c.
Norman Schwab, Administrative Hearings Examiner for the Office Of
Hearings and Appeals. Good Morning, Norman. Or Should I Say Good
Afternoon To You Back East?

Schwab: No, It\'s Just Changing. It\'s 12:00.

Stoebe: Okay.

Schwab: Thank You Very Much. Good Morning, Robin. Good Morning,
Everyone. There Is a General Recognition Throughout the Federal
Government That Litigation and Formal Hearing Processing Often Prove to
Be Far Too Costly And Time Consuming than Necessary. In Addition, These
Processes Can Have the Unintended Consequences of Impeding Both
Cooperative Management, Employee Relationships and Complicating
Relationships Between the Organization and External Parties. Yet for the
past 30 Years or More, Formality Has Been the Trend in Resolving
Disputes. In Many Cases, These Formal Procedures Are Quite Valuable and
Even Necessary. But in Others, Formality Is Inefficient and Potentially
Detrimental as a Means for Solving Problems. The Administrative Dispute
Resolution Act, Which Was Initially Enacted in 1990, And Reenacted in
1996, Requires That Each Department in the Federal Government Develop a
Policy For Implementing Alternative Means of Resolution in its
Administrative Programs. The Act Does Not Require Action in Any
Particular Case. In Fact, a Basic Condition For Invoking the Act in Any
Dispute Is That All Parties Agree to Use Alternative Dispute Resolution.
The Clear Intent of the Congress, However, Is That Agencies like the
Department Of Interior Explore Ways in Which to Incorporate the
Processes So as to Contribute to the Effective Operation of Government.
The Act Does Require That Each Department Review for Potential ADR
Application The Types of Conflicts That Arise in the Course of Managing
its Programs. This Conflict Inventory Provides the Basis for the
Establishment of ADR Policies and Programs. The Office of Hearings and
Appeals Was Given the Overall Responsibility for Coordinating the
Application Of ADR Within the Department Of the Interior. Oha Organized
the Interior Dispute Resolution Council Made up of Representatives From
the Bureaus. Under the Council\'s Direction and Guidance, the Department
Was Then Able to Develop an Interim ADR Policy in June of 1994. This
Policy Was Subsequently Finalized in October of 1996. The Policy Is
Intended to Foster an Understanding of Alternative and Better Approaches
to Resolving Disputes, to Identify Appropriate Cases for the Use of ADR
and to Plan for Necessary Training of Agency Personnel Using the
Guidance Provided by the Interim ADR Policy, the Various Bureaus
Developed Their Own ADR Plans During 1994 and \'95. They Also Developed
the Infrastructure Needed to Facilitate and Encourage the Use of
Complementary Dispute Resolution Methods. ADR Program Plans Are Designed
to Provide Guidance To Bureau Personnel in Addressing Conflicts Within
Their Own Organizations. They Are Not Intended to Be Instruction Books
or Cookbooks for Resolution. Instead, They Provide Ideas And
Alternatives for Managers and Employees to Explore in Managing Conflict.
In Each of the Bureau\'s ADR Plans, Alternative Dispute Resolution Is an
Inclusive Term to Use to Describe a Variety of Joint Problem‑solving
Processes. These Processes Encourage Negotiation That Focus on The
Parties\' Real Interest Rather than on the Parties\' Positions or
Demands That Enable Disputants to Address the Concerns That Actually
Underlie the Conflict. The ADR Methods Addressed in The Various Bureau
Plans Are Numerous and Diverse. They Range from Consensual
Decision‑making Techniques Like Mediation, to Binding Arbitration, a
Common Factor Is That They Emphasize Cooperation and Creativity In
Choosing and Using Processes That Can Result in More Acceptable and More
Efficiently‑made Decisions. When Used, of Course, in the Appropriate
Circumstances. By Emphasizing Problem Solving as Opposed to the
Processes of Gearing up for Protracted Legal Battle May Save the
Organization Considerable Expenses in Terms of Dollar Costs. ADR Methods
Have Already Proven Useful in Many Adjudicative Arenas. These Include
Policy Conflicts That Arise over Complex Regulatory Issues That Are
Outside the Realm Of Adjudication and a Variety of Other Day‑to‑day
Disputes That Develop in Other Areas Such as Equal Opportunity
Employment, Personnel Management, Procurement and Contracting,
Environmental Issues and Enforcement Procedures. During the Recently
Completed Pilot Period for ADR Projects Within the Various Bureaus Which
Extended from 1994 to \'96, There Were Notable Successes In the Use of
ADR Program Development, and Training Has Certainly Been among Those
Successes. All Bureaus Appointed a Bureau Dispute Resolution Specialist
to Manage Their Program and to Monitor Training. The Minerals Management
Service Provided Training For its Personnel Through The Federal
Mediation and Conciliation Service. The Fish & Wildlife Service Provided
Training to All its Equal Employment Opportunity Complaints Processing
and Adjudication Staff Members. To its Regional Office of Human
Resources Staff and to All ADR Panel Members in Each Region. The
National Parks Service Provided 40 Hours of Classroom Training in
Mediation to More than 80 Employees. The Bureau of Land Management in
Conjunction With the Bureau ‑‑ the Bowie State University\'s Center For
Alternative Dispute Resolution Has Provided Mediation Training to EEO
Program Managers, Personnelists And a Variety of Other Management
Officials. The Application of ADR Techniques to Disputes in The EEO
Arena Was the Overwhelming Choice of Most Bureaus for an ADR Pilot
Program. The Bureau of Reclamation Went One Step Further. As a Pilot
Project it Established the Department Of the Interior Dispute Resolution
Service in May of \'95, Which Later Became a Part of the Bureau of
Reclamation Service Center. Initially, ADR Was Applied To Disputes
Within the Work Force. During Phase Two of its Programs, Reclamation
Will Extend the Use of ADR to Conflict Between the Bureau And with
External Organizations and Parties. Other Innovative Programs Have Been
Developed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In Developing Partnerships
Between Unions and Management, and Supporting Crisis Prevention
Programs. In Addition to the Successful Pilot Programs, Managers in Each
of the Interior\'s Bureaus Are Being Encouraged to Use Those Strategies
in Their Management Practice, Which Will Result in Reduced Alienation,
Reduced Stress And Increased Productivity On a Part of Their Employees.
This Requires That We as Managers Become More Involved in Dispute
Management Techniques. The Office of Hearings and Appeals Promotes Four
Principles for Managers to Observe in Striving to Maximize the Potential
and Effectiveness of ADR. The First Principle Is That We Keep the
Dispute Resolution Process as Close To the Hands of the Decision Maker
as Possible. ADR Techniques Are Management Tools. The More Our Managers
Can Control the Process of Resolving the Dispute and Its Solution, the
Higher the Like Live Lee Who Had the Letter and the ‑‑ Likelihood And
Spirit of the Agreement Will Be Honored. Indeed it Is Usually Possible
to Obtain More Satisfactory and Timely Decisions When Those Closest To
the Problem or Who Have Had a Clear Understanding of The Situation Are
Involved In its Resolution. The Second Principle Is to Avoid Extreme
Positions. Extreme Positions Are Destructive. They Create Barriers and
They Are Counterproductive To Resolving Difficult Personnel or
Management Issues in a Mutually Acceptable Manner. An Effective Dispute
Resolution Process Should Provide a Forum to Develop Rational Settlement
Options Which Can Then Be Compared And Contrasted with More Extreme
Positions. By Isolating Extreme Views, We Can Build Incentives to Find
and Share the Middle Ground and Create More Broadly Acceptable
Settlement Options. The Third Principle That We Build Good Working
Relationships During Dispute Resolution. Parties to a Dispute Have a
Relationship If Only for the Purposes of Pursuing or Resolving That
Dispute. And Whatever That Relationship May Be, it Could Probably Be
Made Better. A Real Effort by Every Manager Creating a Good Working
Relationship During Dispute Resolution Should Enable Each Side to Deal
Effectively and Efficiently with Disagreements, Both Large And Small,
That Operate the Parties. The Fourth and Final Principle Is That We
Negotiate and Resolve Problems by Satisfying the Interests of the
Parties in Conflict Rather than Capitulating to Their Positions on the
Issues. The Key to the Successful Resolution of a Dispute Is To
Understand the Underlying Interest at Stake. Alternate Dispute
Resolution Is an Educational Process. That Is, it Seeks to Provide A
Forum Where Disputing Parties Can Educate Each Other about Their
Respective Concerns. Through this Education Process, the Parties Are in
A Position to Design a Settlement That Will Be Acceptable on Behalf of
the Office of Hearings and Appeals, I\'d like to Thank The BLM for the
Opportunity To Participate in this Seminar Today. I Can Assure You That
the Department\'s ADR Program Is Active and Growing and That The
Commitment of Each of The Bureaus Is with the Understand That Their
Self‑interest Is Served by An Effective Program. The Strong Leadership
of the Department of the Interior Dispute Resolution Council Will Ensure
That the ADR Program Continues. Thank You Very Much Again.

Stoebe: Thanks, Norman. We Would like to You Stay With Us as We Enter
the First Question and Answer Segment. If You Have a Comment or Question
This, Would Be a Good Time to Start Dialing. Remember When You Call to
Stand Away from the Tv or Turn down the Volume to Avoid an Echo Effect.
And Please Don\'t Get Frustrated If You End up on Hold for a Few
Minutes. We Will Get to Your Call as Fast as We Can. With That Said,
Let\'s Take Our First Fax. This Is from John. Didn\'t Say Where He Is
from. Are There Any Proposals to Streamline Existing Procedures
Associated with Grievances, EEO and Whistle‑blowing Actions. I Have a
Panel Member Willing To Jump on the First One Here? Gloria?

Inniss: Regarding Equal Opportunity Employment Opportunity, We Are Doing
Two Things. We Are Trying to Streamline The Process. At the Same Time We
Are Trying to Expedite the Process. I Think with the Application Of
Alternative Dispute Resolution, Eventually We May Be Able to Use
Fact‑finding Conferences That at the Same Time Could Be Used as a
Mediation Tool, And If the Case Is Not Resolved, the Facts Collected
Could Be Used as Part of the Process. We Are Using Other Techniques,
like Conducting Investigations by Telephone, And in Order to Save Money
To the Bureau and to Expedite Processing. Regarding Grievances, it Is My
Understanding That at the Department Level Mediation Is Being Used in
Many Federal Agencies, They Are Using Mediation to Substitute What Used
to Be Call the Administrative Grievance Procedure. Maybe Carolyn Could
Expand On This, but it Is My Believe That the Bureau Is Also Working in
That Direction. Now, Regarding Whistle‑blowing, Those Whistle‑blowing
Cases, That Is Handled by the Department, Really, and I Don\'t See Much
Relationship Between Whistle‑blowing and the Kind Of Tools That We Use
in Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Burrell: I Would like to Add One Thing, and That Has To Do with the
Process That We Hope Will ‑‑ We Expect Will Be in Place at Some Point in
Time with Respect To the Grievance Process. As Gloria Mentioned, the
Mediation Process Is Being Used in Many Other Departments as an
Alternative to the Use of The Actual Administrative Grievance Process,
or as a Means of Resolving Grievances That Are Filed Through
Administrative Process. It Is My Understanding That This Is Being Looked
at by The Department of Interior. However, at this Point We Have Not
Received the Final Guidance on That Here, You Know, Within the Bureau
from The Department. We Do Intend, Though, to Extend or Expand the ADR
Process to Include Administrative Grievances Within the Bureau of Land
Management Hopefully Within The next Year and We Have Already Begun a
Dialogue With Gloria and the EEO Group in Order to Begin to Do That.

Stoebe: Marvin?

Johnson: I Would Just Say For Overview That We, the Inner for Dispute
Resolution At Bowie State University, Was Part of a Study Where 31
Federal Agencies Came Together. The Purpose of Which Was to Try to
Streamline All the Grievance Systems, EEO, the Labor Grievance Systems,
Whistle‑blowing and the Whole Nine Yards. What Has S‑happening, They\'re
Working on the Report Right Now. That Report Should Be Out, I Would
Imagine, If It\'s Not Out Now, it Should Be out in The next Two, Three
Months, And That Was with the National Academy of Public Administration.
Basically It\'s to Give Recommendations to Congress On How to Streamline
Even The Actual Statutes and the Regulations.

Stoebe: Thanks, Marvin. Did You Have Anything Else To Add from
Washington?

Yes, as Far as Grievance Procedures Go, There Has Been a Panel Study and
Development Revising the Grievance Procedures, and Those Are in The
Final Stages, and Hopefully These Will Be Done So That it Will Shorten
the Grievance Process and Get Response to the Grievance Within a
Six‑month Period as Far as the Appeals Are Going To Be Decided.

Stoebe: Thanks, Norman. Thanks for the Fax. We Have a Call from Gary in
Denver. I\'m Put Him On. Okay, Gary, You Have a Question for the Panel?

Caller: Yeah, Robin. Good Day. How You Doing?

Stoebe: Good.

Caller: I Listened to Marvin\'s Discussion about Fact Finders. I Also
Wanted to Propose a Question Of, it Seems to Me That the Fact Finding
Should Also Be Bracketed Around Negotiation Somewhere Where The Fact
Finder Is Not Giving Recommendations but In Fact Giving Impartial
Information on the Table. My Experience Has Been That Misinformation
Tends to Be One of the Biggest Issues on Resolving ADR.

Stoebe: ‑‑.

Johnson: Yes, I Agree With You. Where Fact Finding Would Come In, I
Guess You Want to Speed up the Process. The Process Works Where the
Parties Get Together and Attempt to Resolve it and Then the Fact Finder
Comes In Where the Parties Can\'t Resolve It. So What You\'re Saying Is
to Shorten the Negotiation Process, or at Least Before The Process Gets
Too Far Along, to Bring in a Fact Finder to Really Get the Facts on the
Table, and That Can Happen. You Can Develop ‑‑ the Beauty of ADR Is You
Can Use These Processes and Develop New Processes. So You Could Develop
a Negotiation Process by Which The Parties Present Their Positions and
Then a Fact Finder Comes in and Gathers The Facts and Then Puts the Real
Facts on the Table ‑‑ Well, the Facts as the Fact Finder Sees Them on
the Table. So That Would Come under the Umbrella of ADR as Well. The
Beauty Is to Develop Different Processes So That You Can Resolve
Disputes Quicker and with less Time And with less Money.

Caller: Yes.

Stoebe: Okay.

Caller: That Has Been My Experience. If the Fact Finder Can Get An
Impartial Person to Present the Issues Around That So Both Sides Are
Looking at Them from an Outside Viewpoint and Not So Internalized, it
Seems to Help the Process.

Johnson: I Agree with You. That\'s a Possibility That Could Work.

Caller: All Right. Thanks a Lot.

Stoebe: Thank You for the Question, Gary. Okay. We Have Another Fax.
This Is from Eastern States. As One of Two Parties Move Toward Middle
Ground Avoiding Extreme Positions, Aren\'t We Potentially Moving Toward
Mediocrity, First Maintaining Program ‑‑ Versus Maintaining Program
Excellence? Who Would ‑‑ I Will Repeat It. As the Two Parties Move
Toward Middle Ground Avoiding Extreme Positions, Aren\'t We Potential
Moving Toward Mediocrity Versus Maintaining Program Excellence? I Think
He Is Talking about Compromise.

Johnson: You Don\'t Necessarily Have to Give up Quality in Order to Meet
the Individual\'s Needs. There\'s a Difference in Compromise and
Collaborative Win‑win Solution. What You Have to Do Is Look At What ‑‑
What People Look At Is the End Result, and They Negotiate off the End
Result What Their Position Is. Without Asking the Question, \"Why Do You
Want this? \"When You Go Beneath the Actual Positions and Find Out Why
They Want It, Often, Not All the Time, Often You Can Find a Result That
Will Meet Both Parties Needs in Terms of What Do They Need To Move
Forward Without Decreasing the Quality That\'s Needed. So I\'m Not
Saying Can You Do This in All Instances, but You Can Do it in Enough
Instances Where You Don\'t Reduce the Quality. Then the Fallback
Position Would Be Your Compromise Position. But it Doesn\'t Happen All
The Time.

Stoebe: Okay. Thank You. Any Other Comments? Norman? We Have Another Fax
Here From Rose. What\'s the Difference Between a Mediator and a
Counselor? Is this Calling the Same Thing by a Different Name? Gloria?

Inniss: the Counselors Will Use Some Mediation Techniques. The
Difference Is That the Counseling Is Not Confidential. I Think That Is
One Very Important Difference. There Is No Confidentiality In the
Counseling. The Counseling May Involve More than One Person than The
Mediation. Sometimes We Could Start With an Immediate Supervisor
Involving the Person or Action That\'s Being Challenged And Then Other
People May Be Coming to the Counseling. Also There Is an Inquiry That Is
Conducted as Part of The Counseling Which Is an Open Inquiry Where We Go
and Gather Information and So On. And Another Important Aspect Of the
Counseling Is That ‑‑ Well, Basically That ‑‑ the Fact That It\'s Not
Confidential and the Fact That it Involves More than One Person in the
Contract. The Our Counselors Have Been Trained to Propose Solutions To
the Parties. So There Might Be Instances Where in Mediation this Could
Happen, but Most of The Time the Parties to the Mediation Come up with
the Solution, While Our Counselors Initially Tend to Propose Solutions
to the Case. Another Difference Is That In Some Extreme Cases and This
Does Not Always Happen, In the Bureau the Party Involving the
Complaining Manager May Have to End up Resolving the Complaint Against
His or Her Will Because Maybe Somebody above That Manager or Supervisor
May Decide That\'s in the Best Interest of the Bureau Of Land
Management. While in Mediation It\'s More A Consensus Between the Two
Parties That Are Doing the Mediation. I Think Those Are Some of The Most
Important Differences That I See Between Those Two Systems. I Don\'t
Know If Dr. Johnson Can Think of Other Differences.

Johnson: I Think You Covered it Very Well. I Would Point to Two Areas
And One Which You Covered Both of Them, Really. One Is the Counselor
Goes Outside the Process. When I Say the Process, the Mediating Process.
A Mediator Is Only Available In That Mediation Process, Not Outside,
Can\'t Go Meet With Someone in Their Office And Go Around and Gather
Information. All the Information Comes in Through the Mediation Process,
and That\'s the Only Place Where the Mediator Gets Involved. So That\'s
One. The Other One Is Because of That, the Perception. Perception of
Impartiality. When You Have a Person Sees An Individual Going Outside
The Process, They May Think The Person Is Not Impartial, And the
Mediator Has to Be Impartial. Of Course, You Mentioned Confidentiality.

Stoebe: Okay. Good. Norman, We Know You\'re Still There. If You Have
Something to Jump in and Say, Feel Free To Give Me a Signal.

Schwab: Okay.

Stoebe: I Have Another Fax Here. This Is from Ray in New Mexico. To
Effectively Implement ADR Must You Have Two Parties Who Are Willing to
Use Alternative Dispute Resolution?

Burrell: Yes. Ray Is Sort of Getting Ahead Of Our Broadcast Here Today.
We Were Going to Talk about That a Little Later. However, I Will Answer
it at This Point. But There Will Be More Discussed about this Later. The
Program in Alternative Dispute Resolution That the Bureau Is Involved in
Is a Voluntary Program, Which Means That Both Parties to The Dispute
Have to Be Willing to Participate in The Mediation Program in Order for
it to Go Forward. So If the Person Who Has the Allegation of
Discrimination Or Who Is the ‑‑ Who Is Raising the Concern Is Unwilling
to Participate in Mediation, However, the Management or Supervisor Wants
To, Then it Will Not Occur. By the Same Token, If the Manager or
Supervisor Who Was Involved Does Not Want To Participate in Mediation,
However, the Employee Who Is Bringing the Complaint Does, Then Mediation
Will Not Occur.

Stoebe: Okay.

Johnson: There Has Been Some History, Particularly In the Court Systems,
Where The Courts Are Requiring Parties to Go to Mediation, Particularly
in the Divorce Area, Family Area, and Statistics Have Shown That Even
Though the Parties Are Mandated to Go Where One Party Doesn\'t Want to
Go, There\'s over a 50% Settlement Rate, Successful Settlement Rate. So
It\'s Best When Both Parties Want to Go, but You Can Get Success When
One or The Other Party Doesn\'t Want To Go. Apparently When They Get in
The Mediation They Find It\'s Not as Bad as They Thought It Was and You
Can Get Some Results.

Stoebe: Very Good. Thank You. Your Call as Fast Norman, Duffer Any Other
Comments to Add?

Schwab: That\'s Fine.

Stoebe: We Appreciate You Being with Us and at this Point We\'re Going
to Take a 10‑minute Break. If You Didn\'t Get a Call or Fax in During
this Segment, You Will Have Another Opportunity in the Second Half of
Our Program. When We Come Back We\'ll Take A Look at the Operational
Aspects of ADR and in Particular the Process of Mediation. We\'ll See
You in a Few Minutes!

Stoebe: Welcome Back to Our Seminar on Alternative Dispute Resolution
for Managers. I Would like to Catch a Fax That Came in Just over the
Break. Actually There Is Three of Them All Relating to the Same Subject.
We Will Try to Tackle Them All at Once Here. The One I\'m Reading from
Is From Shane in Klamath Falls Resource Area. It\'s Directed to Gloria.
You Say Counseling Is Not Confidential. It Goes on to Say Maybe We Have
Been Doing it Incorrectly, but We Have Always Done Our Best to Keep
Counseling Confidential. Can You Please Explain How Counseling Is Not
Confidential?

Inniss: I See. Okay. I Was Using the Concept in Terms of in Mediation
the Whole Process of Mediation Is Confidential. All the Exchange That
Occurs During the Mediation. The Only Thing That the Agency Will See
Afterwards Is the Agreement. While in Counseling, There Is a Report of
the Counseling, and That Report Includes the Inquiry That Is Conducted
During the Counseling. Now, an Employee Could Request That the
Counseling Be Confidential, but this Is Almost Impossible Because,
Really, Counseling, What You Have in Counseling Is Negotiation, and You
Cannot Have Negotiation If the Two Parties to the Negotiations Are Not
Involved. So When an Employee Requests To Be ‑‑ to Keep the Process
Confidential, Which Is a Right They Have, We Explain To Them That That
Is as Much As We Will Be Able to Go, to Listen to Them, Because You
Cannot Negotiate or Try to Resolve a Situation If You Don\'t Inform the
Other Party. So in That Context That I Was Using the Terminology of
Confidentiality. I Hope That Answers the Question. If it Doesn\'t, I
Will Be Able to Maybe Later on after The Broadcast, I Will Be Glad to
Expand on this with The Person That Sent the Question.

Stoebe: Thank You, Gloria. Of the In this Segment We Will Take a Closer
Look at the Operational Aspects of ADR and the Mediation Process. Right
Now I Would like to Welcome Live from Washington, D.c. Jackie Jackson,
Staff Attorney with the Office of the Solicitor. Jackie, Welcome.

Jackson: Good Day.

Stoebe: Nice You Could Be With Us.

Jackson: Thank You.

Stoebe: Why Should BLM Managers Be Knowledgeable About Alternative
Dispute Resolution Techniques?

Jackson: Okay. On this Subject I Would like To Speak to You for a Few
Moments on the Subject of Using ADR to Resolve Disputes in the
Workplace. Often I and Other Attorneys In the Solicitor\'s Office at The
Department of the Interior Observe How Managers Handle Workplace
Conflicts and Disputes. We Also Monitor the Trends In How Equal
Employment Opportunity Complaints Are Processed Through Administrative
and Judicial Channel. Today I Hope to Relay to You The Importance and
Usefulness of Using ADR to Resolve Employee Disputes And EEO Complaints.
A Typical Dispute in an Organization May Begin and Develop as Follows:
an Employee Files a Sex Discrimination Complaint Against Her Supervisor
Claiming That She Did Not Get a Promotion She Earned Because of Her Sex.
Anger, Distrust and Frustration Forms and Heightens Between the Employee
and Her Supervisor. The Employee\'s Co‑workers Become Aware of the
Dispute And Gossip about It. Spats Erupt and Workers Begin Choosing
Sides. Time and Energy Are Devoted From Agency Priorities. Employees\'
Productivity Is Negatively Affected. This Problem and Similar Problems
Associated with Employment Discrimination Complaints Are Familiar to
Federal Managers. As Litigation, Administration And/or Judicial the Only
Means to Resolve Employment Discrimination Complaints? The Last Few
Years the Case Load of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the
Federal Agency Charged with Hearing Employment Discrimination Complaints
Filed Against Federal Agencies, Has Exploded. The Number of Employment
Employment Discrimination Cases in the United States Federal Courts Is
an All‑time High. The Litigation Explosion Has Resulted in Unprecedented
Problems for the EEOc, the Courts and Litigants. Traditional Approaches
to Resolving Conflicts Such as Agency Adjudication, Can Be Protracted
and Expensive. Many Complainants in the Washington, D.c. Area Have
Waited as Long as Two Years For an Administrative Hearing with the EEOc.
The EEOc Has Estimated That Federal Agencies Have Incurred Costs in the
Area Of \$60,000 for Processing a Single Complaint from the Initial
Filing to a Hearing To the Issuance of a Final Agency Decision. The
Costs Much Litigation, Including Awards of Compensatory Damages, Can And
Do Run Much Higher. Adjudication and Litigation Often Do Not Succeed in
Settling the Real Disputes Underlying a Dispute. The Win‑lose Nature of
Litigation Means That Most Likely it Will Produce Further Entrenchment
of the Parties and Reduce Productive Communications. Often Litigation
Paralyzes People and Makes Them Enemies. There Are Alternatives to
Workplace Disputes Besides Litigation Before the EEOc And the Courts.
Many Federal Agencies Have Found That Alternative Dispute Resolution Is
an Effective Alternative to Litigation. ADR Is Not Intended to Replace
Litigation but to Remove from Formal Channels Those Cases Which Can Be
Resolved Satisfactorily and In an Informal Setting by Satisfactory
Resolution I Mean Prompt, Fair and Efficient Resolution. Many Attorneys
in the Interior Solicitor\'s Office, Myself Included, Have Participated
in Mediation, One Form of Alternative Dispute Resolution. Mediation Is
the ADR Option That I Will Focus on Today. Attorneys in the Solicitor\'s
Office Have Found Mediation To Be Potentially Useful in Those Situations
Where Multiple Issues Have to Be Resolved. There Is No Single Right
Solution That Is Required. Tensions, Emotions And/or Transaction Costs
Are Running High. The Parties May Be Willing To Settle or Reevaluate
Their Positions. Communication Between the Parties Has Broken down and A
Skill Neutral Would Facilitate Communication. The Presence of a Third
Party Would Change Dynamics. Relationships Are Strained But the Parties
Want or Need To Maintain Some Ongoing Relationships. The Parties Are
Interested In Retaining Control of the Outcome of Their Dispute and Time
Is a Major Factor. As You Will Learn this Morning, Unless Mandated by A
Court, Mediation Is a Voluntary, Informal Process. Rules of Evidence Do
Not Apply. Testimony Is Not Taken. Witnesses Are Neither Sworn Nor Used
to Support or Defend Positions. Interrogatories, Depositions And
Transcripts Are Not Required. A Mediator Can Be Given Broad Discretion
to Work With the Parties, to Explore Underlying Issues, and Can Exchange
an ex Parte Communications. Even in Court‑manned Dated ‑‑ Mandated
Mediation The Parties Cannot Be Force To Do Reach Agreement. The
Mediator Does Not Issue A Decision or Award. The Resolution If Any Is
Reached by a Consensus of The Parties Themselves. It Is Often Completed
Within Hours or Several Days. The Trend Now Is for Judges To Ask the
Parties to Consider Settlement Throughout the Litigation Process, and
EEOc Administrative Judges May Direct the Parties to Engage In
Settlement Discussions Before Holding a Hearing. Judges in Federal
District Court Routinely Direct Dispute Tuents Attempt Resolution Before
a Case Will Be Heard. Developing Trends. EEOc and the Courts Will
Literally Compel You to Become Familiar with Alternative Dispute
Resolution. Managers Can Obtain Maximum Results from Mediation When It
Is Used Early in the Dispute, Before the Positions of the Parties Have
Hardened. Here Are Some Important ADR Principles for Managers: Seek Not
Only a Rational Resolution to a Dispute, but A Reasonable Resolution.
Completely Assess the Alternatives to Using ADR And Negotiation Forms.
Think of Dispute Resolution As a Creative Process. Seek Psychological
and Procedural as Well as Substantive Satisfaction From Solutions.
Design ADR Procedures to Address the Causes of Disputes. Try to Separate
Personal Egos from the Issues in Dispute. Consider Both Short and
Long‑term Goals and Objectives in Deciding a Dispute Resolution.
Procedure and Desired Outcome. You as a Manager Can Benefit From
Mediation. Using Mediation, You May Save Money and Time and Make More
Efficient Use of Your Resources. You Can Preserve the Integrity of
Ongoing Working Relationships. You Can Take Charge of the Process of
Resolving Disputes. You Can Retain Control of The Disputes\' Outcome.
Mediation Gives You the Opportunity to Craft More Creative Solutions
Than Might Be Available from A Judge. Some Managers Are Realizing They
Can Apply Their Own Business Knowledge and Creativity to Developing
Solutions Better Suited to Their Workplace Needs than Courts and Lawyers
Alone Could Devise. In the Face of Overwhelming Demands on American
Administrative and Judicial Systems, ADR Approaches Offer Valuable
Opportunities To Resolve Disputes Quickly And Satisfactorily in an
Informal Arena. Agency Managers and Supervisors Are Encouraged To
Consider and Use ADR in Appropriate Situations. Thank You.

Stoebe: Thanks, Jackie, for Your Thoughts. We\'re Glad You Could Join
Us.

Jackson: Thank You for Asking Me.

So Far We Have Heard about ADR In General Terms. Now Gloria Inniss,
BLM\'s EEO Officer, Will Talk about Applying ADR in Your Day‑to‑day
Program Operations. Gloria?

Inniss: Good Morning. Before I Get into My Remarks, I Want the BLM
Managers and Supervisors to Know That I Wish We Could Have These
Presentations on ADR in Person And in Small Groups. At the Same Time, I
Am Glad That We Could Reach a Good Number of Our Managers and
Supervisors at Once on this Important Subject So That We Could Move
Forward With its Implementation. As I Visit the Different BLM Locations,
I Will Include this Subject in My Presentation and Hope You Will Come
Forward with Your Recommendations for Improving the Way We Are Using
This Tool. Today I Will Focus on the Use of Mediation in Resolving
Allegations of Discrimination. Before I Go to That Topic, I Would like
to Share with You Some Facts about Recent Complaint Activity in the
Bureau of Land Management. The Number of Complaints Filed by Bureau of
Land Management Employees on Applications for Employment Has Decreased
Consistently During the Last Three Fiscal Years. From 110 In 1994, to 87
in 1995, To 46 in 1996. So Far 30 Complaints Have Been Filed in 1997.
That Means We May Have a Slight Increase this Year If You Consider We
Are Right Now in the Middle of the Fiscal Year. This Downward Trend
Suggests Various Possibilities of the First, Management Awareness Has
Increased, and Managers and Supervisors Have Become Increasingly
Effective in Resolving Disputes at the Local Level. A Second Explanation
May Be That Counselors and EEO Managers Are Better Trained, with the
Results Of That Training Carried over Into Increased Rates of Complaint
Resolution During Counseling. But with an Expanding Workload, Static or
Decreasing Staffing And Funding Levels, and the Increasing Demands and
Stresses Of Contemporary Life, BLM Is More Likely to Face Increasing
Interpersonal Conflicts in the Future. I Think this Is Something The
Other Panelists Have Already Talked about. It Seems Clear, Therefore,
That Prudent Managers Will Continue To Want Effective Methods to Resolve
Conflicts. In Short, Managers and Supervisors Still Need Problem‑solving
Processes That Ease Communication and Promote Issue Identification and
Problem Solving. Alternative Dispute Resolution Helps Us Meet These
Continuing And Sometimes Critical Needs. Dr. Johnson Began His Executive
Briefing on ADR by Describing a Continuum of Conflict Resolution
Methodologies. I Think That Was a Very Good Way to Start. Now, this
Continuum Begins With an Informal Discussion And Could Extend to
Litigation. The Continuum Also Shows Increases in Time Requirements and
Costs as The Conflict Resolution Becomes More Formal. The Continuum Also
Shows That the Parties Decrease Their Control as the Dispute Moves on
and There Is less Chance of Resolution. We Believe That Maintaining A
Voice in the Outcome of Workplace Disputes Will Be Important for Most
Managers And Supervisors. As a General Rule, Al Matters Relating to
Employment May Be Mediated, as Indicated by Jackie. However, in the
Bureau of Land Management, We Will Not Be Using Mediation Initially On
Two Types of Cases: First, We Will Not Be Using Mediation on Allegations
of Discrimination Involving Removal from the Federal Service. We Won\'t
Be Using Mediation Also on Allegations of Discrimination Involving a
Class of Employees or Applicants for Employment, What Is Called a Class
Complaint of Discrimination. We\'ll Eliminate These Two. Also We Not Use
Mediation During the Processing of Informal Complaints of Discrimination
When the Aggrieved Employee Exercises The Right to Remain Anonymous and
I Think We Touched on this Earlier, That Employees Do Have the Right to
Remain Anonymous During Counseling. There Is Much Flexibility in When
Mediation May Be Applied. Of Course, Mediation Can Easily Be Adapted to
Other Administrative Processes. Mediation May Be Offered at Several
Steps in the EEO Complaint Process. For Example, it Might Be Offered
Right after the EEO Counseling Is Completed. Or it Could Be Offered
after A Formal Complaint of Discrimination Is Filed but Before the
Fact‑finding or Investigation Takes Place. It Also May Be Used after an
Investigation Is Completed And the Facts of the Case Have Been
Documented. Or it May Be Even Used While The Case Is Pending Hearing At
the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. This Is When the Processing
At Bureau Level Has Been Completed. Of Course, in Those Instances We
Have to Get ‑‑ To Clear it with the Office Of the Solicitor That Has
Control of the Case at That Point. Mediation I Consider to Be Most
Effective as a Preventative Tool Before the Employee Even Contacts a
Counselor. If as a Manager You Anticipate Conflict in York Workplace, I
Would Advise You to Seek Mediation at That Point. Contact Your EEO
Manager and Start the Process. Of Course, We Do Not Encourage the Use of
ADR in Every Case, Only When the Improved Communication and Intervention
by a Neutral Third Party Might Settle a Dispute. We Know, of Course,
There Are Cases in Which this Does Not Apply. Besides Considering
Mediation Only after You, The Equal Opportunity Employment Department
Manager, the EEO Counselor, If During Counseling and Other Persons
Involve Agree That Mediation Is Likely to Succeed If You Decide to
Engage in Mediation. Some Important Principles Need to Be Considered in
Using Mediation. First, Your Representative must Be Empowered to Sign an
Agreement on Your Behalf During The Mediation. This Is in Instance in
Which You Cannot Get Involved in the Mediation. The Person That Is
Designated To Represent You Has to Be Delegated That Authority. What
Will Happen Is That Subject Matter Specialists, Which May Be People from
the Office of Equal Opportunity or from the Office Of the Solicitor May
Quickly Review a Draft Written Agreement To Ensure That the Agreement
Conforms to Law, to Rules and to Bureau Policies. But the Agreement
Should Not Be Subject to Review, Change or Reversal by Higher Management
After Being Signed by the Mediating Parties. To Do So, of Course, Would
Inject Another Party into the Process and it Would Shift the Focus of
the Mediation Away from A Timely and Mutually Acceptable Settlement. A
Second Thing to Consider Is That Mediation Is Based on the Willingness
of Both Parties to Mediate, and I Think this Has Also Been Covered
Before. The Ideal Situation, Therefore, Would Be for the Mediation Not
To Remand Authority for Either Party. However, I Want to Share with You
That Many Federal Agencies Do Have a Policy That Requires That
Management Mediate If the Employee Agrees to Mediate. I Don\'t
Anticipate We Will Need That. Third, Your Equal Opportunity Employment
Manager Who Has Now Been Schooled in Mediation Cannot Be Used to Mediate
Disputes Within Your Own Organization. The Mediators must Maintain the
Strict Appearance of Neutrality. I Mean, They Have to Be Neutral, But
Also to Maintain That Appearance, and They must Come From an Outside
Organization. The Way We Look at This, If All The Employees Who Recently
Completed the Mediation Training Receive Qualifying Mediation Experience
at Their Duty Stations, the BLM Managers Will Have Nearly 50 Mediators
to Call Up on for Help. These Employees Could Get That Mediation
Training in Many Different Ways. They Could Serve as Co‑mediators When
We Contract with an Outside Person to Mediate a Case. They Could Get the
Experience Serving as Co‑mediators in the Communities, Their Churches,
Courts, Other Federal Agencies That Already Have a More Developed
Program. They Could Also Serve as Co‑mediators. So There Are a Number of
Ways They Could Gain That Experience. So There Has Been Some Move to
Have Really Only Contract Mediators in Some Bureaus in the Department.
However, We Believe That the BLM Should Maintain a CADRe of Volunteers
or Collateral Duty Mediators. Such a Group Would Provide a Readily
Accessible and Inexpensive Source of Mediators Bureauwide. Second, the
Existence of Mediators Throughout the Work Force Would Promote Open
Communication and a Systemic Approach to Problem Solving. This Program
Is a Step in That Direction. It\'s Intend to Do Foster Collaboration,
Professional Development and Mutual Help. As Carolyn Noted, this
Broadcast Is Spotlighting ADR and it Is Spotlighting a Boost to Your
Service in Equal Opportunity Employment Manager Who Is Your Action
Official for ADR Program Development and Management in The ADR Human
Resources. The Department to Your Pilot ‑‑ The Our ADR Policy and the
BLM, EEO, ADR Pilot Program Were Intended to Be Applied as Flexibly as
Possible. Managers Were Given the Leeway To Implement ADR According to
The Needs of Their Own Organizations. This Policy Will Remain in Effect
as a Framework for the Mediation Program. At the End of Fiscal Jeer 1997
We\'ll Valuate the Use of ADR. Hopefully the BLM Will Have More
Experience in Applying ADR. That Experience Will Make Our Program Even
More Useful. I Want to Assure You That as the Washington Office Program
Lead For this Initiative, I Am Always Open to Your Questions, Your
Comments and Your Recommendations. Thank You.

Stoebe: Thank You, Gloria. At this Point We Would like to Turn Our
Attention to the Mediation Process. Now Dr. Marvin Johnson Will Describe
the Methodology of Mediation. Marvin, Just How Does this Work?

Johnson: Okay, Robin. The Mediation Process Works like This: it Has
Several Phases in It. Its Extremely Flexible. The Framework of the
Process Aids the Mediator in Facilitating the Parties Toward Dispute
Resolution, Toward the Resolution of Their Dispute. Each Stage Will Be
Used by the Mediator at Some Point, and He May Shift from Stage to Stage
Back and Forth as He or She Tries to Resolve ‑‑ Help the Parties Resolve
the Dispute. What I Would like You to Think About Is Think about it as
Parties Being in a State of Conflict and Trying ‑‑ Needing To Get Across
to the State of Resolution. That\'s Where They Are in Terms Of Dispute.
They Want to Get Across the Water to the State of Resolution. The
Mediator Is a Boatsman, a Sailsman, and Has a Boat and Wants to Get the
Parties to That Point. So the Mediation, If You Would Think of it as a
Point of Communication, It\'s Going to Be A Communication Process by
Which They\'re Going to Take the Parties from the State of Conflict to
the State of Resolution. So Let\'s Go Through Those Steps. Step 1 Is
Preliminary Session Arrangements. Now, That May Not Involve You, The
Manager, or Disputant Initially. In Terms of My Analogy, the Mediators
Being a Sails Boat Person Is Going to Try to Get The Boat Together,
Seeing What Supplies Are Needed and Things Of That Nature. In Mediation
Terms, What That Means Is That He Is Going to Find out Who the Parties
Are to The Dispute, Who Is Coming to The Mediation Session, What the
Dispute Is Generally Speaking, How Many Chairs Are Needed, Where Is the
Meeting Going to Be Held. That\'s the Preliminary Part. Second Stage Is
after ‑‑ as Soon As the Mediation Starts. That\'s the Introductory
Remarks. In the Analogy, Think of it as The Salesperson, Sales Boat
Person Giving the Rules, Guidance in Terms of How to Sail On a Boat,
What Is Need to Do Ride on this Boat. What Are the Rules of the Game. In
Mediation What this Means Is The Mediator Is Going to Explain The
Process. The Mediator Is Going to Explain His or Her Role, Telling You
They Are Impartial, They\'re Not Going to Make a Decision. They Will
Tell You That the Mediation Is Confidential, That Everything That\'s
Said in the Room Stays in the Room. They\'ll Tell You That You May Take
Notes. They\'ll Tell You in Addition to Taking Notes, They\'ll Tell You
That Courtesy Is Going to Be Used, Because You Can\'t Move Forward If
Everyone Is Talking At the Same Time. They Will Tell You That There May
Come a Time Where There Will Be a Joint or Separate Session Where the
Mediator May Ask to Meet with One Party Separately And Then Meet with
the Other Party Separately. That\'s Called a Caucus, by the Way. So
Those Are Some of the Things That Go On, Some of the Things The Mediator
Will Tell You, in The Introductory Remarks and Will Ask If You Have Any
Questions. The Mediator Will Explain Anything That You Need to Know At
That Particular Time. Now, the next Stage Is the Parties Initial
Statements and In the Analogy, You Would Think About That as the
Individuals\' Telling the Mediator What Happened and Where They Want to
Go. So in the Analogy, He Is Going To Tell a Sailboat Person, I Would
like to Go to Point A, Usually, and One Party Is Going To Say, I Would
like to Go to Point B and Then the Mediation Process, What Really
Happens Is The Parties Are Going to Tell The Mediator What Happened.
They\'re Going to Tell Their Stories And, Again, in Mediation Terms,
Each Party Normally Is Going to Have a Different Story In Terms of What
Happened. They Know the Event Occurred, or Something Has Happened, but
They Have Different Versions of What Happened. Stage 4 Is Information
Gathering And with Information Gathering, The Mediator Is Going to Ask
Questions to Clarify What\'s Been Said and to Get a Better Understanding
for Him or Herself But Also for the Parties. Oftentimes You Find That
During The Mediation Session It\'s the First Time That One Party Has
Heard Something from the Other Party, and They\'ll Say, \"Well, I
Didn\'t Know That.\" So While the Mediator Is Getting Clarification for
Him or Herself It Also Is Clarification for the Other Parties. The next
Stage Is Problem Identification/issue Clarification. This Occurs When
the Parties Look at What\'s Been Said. They Look at the Discussion
That\'s Going On, the Questions That Have Been Asked, and They Decide or
They Identify What Their Real Concerns Are. Oftentimes, as Was Mentioned
Earlier in this Broadcast, People Come to the Dispute with The Issue
Stated but What\'s Really Going on Is Something That\'s Unstated, Those
Interests Those Concerns, and Through the Discussion That the Parties
Have With the Assistance of the Mediator, Those Concerns Raise To the
Surface, Come to the Surface, and If the Parties Can Recognize Them or
Identify Them, That\'s Where a Resolution Can Begin to Happen, at That
Particular Point. Once That Happens, Then You Get Negotiations,
Bargaining and Negotiations. Then the Parties Come Together And Try to
Think of Resolutions, Possible Resolutions, or Ways They Could Meet the
Needs and The Concerns That the Parties Have but at the Same Time
Resolve the Dispute, and That\'s What I Was Talking about Earlier Where
the Person Says \"Well It\'s Going to Be less Quality.\" It Does Not
Necessarily Have to Be less Quality If the Parties Can Work Through it
and Try to Identify Exactly What it Is They Need and Satisfy That Need,
and You\'ll Get the Quality as Well As Satisfy the Need. Then after
That, If It\'s Done Successfully, You\'re Going to Get an Agreement. In
the Agreement Stage, What Was Agreed to Orally Is Reduced to Writing. If
It\'s Done Properly, You Have An Actual Agreement, a Contract, A
Legally‑binding Contract That Can Be Enforced Against the Agency or
Against the Complainant or the Grieveant as The Case May Be. The Last
Stage You Have Is Closure, and That\'s Where at the End of the Session
If It\'s Successful, and Even If It\'s Not Successful, If It\'s
Successful, Copies of the Agreement Are Given to the Parties and
Questions Are Asked. If Not, Then Any Questions Can Be Asked of the
Mediator in Terms of Where to Go from Here And What\'s Going On. So
Those Are the Basic Stages of The Mediation Process. What People Tend to
Think Is That in Mediation You Just Walk In the Door and You Have a
Discussion and You\'re Going to Get a Resolution Relatively Quickly. In
this next Overhead I Have for You See Going from the State Of Conflict
Directly to the State of Resolution, and When You Do This, You Don\'t
Get a Satisfactory Resolution of the Dispute Because as I Said Earlier
in That Issue Identification and Problem Clarification, Often You
Haven\'t Clarified the Underlying or Raised the Underlying Issues of The
Dispute. If You Don\'t Do That the Dispute Is Going to Happen Again and
Again and Again. So What You Have to Do Is You Have to Go Beneath the
Surface To Deal with Those Concerns, Why Did They Bring the Dispute,
What Is it That You Need. When You Ask Those Kind of Questions, Then
Those Issues Come about. So What You Normally Get Is More Of a Zigzag
Effect in Terms of Trying to Get from the State of Conflict to the State
of Resolution Because Parties ‑‑ First of All, One Party Is Going To
Give Their Version. Till Take You over Here. Then When the Other Party
Speaks It\'s Going to Take You over There. They Are Going to Be
Emotional. So You Will Get a Zigzag Effect. Over Time as You Uncover
What The Real Issues and Concerns Are Oftentimes You\'re Going to Get To
the Place Where You Need to Be in the State of Resolution. Now, One
Party May Say That They Would like to Go to a Particular City X and City
Y Because They Believe City X, an Analogy, Is Where They Can Best Get
Their Needs Met, and You Ask Them Why, And They Might like the Country
And That Kind of Thing. And the Other Person Can Get Their Needs Met in
the City Because They like the Arts and The Museums and the Plays and
Things of That Nature. Well, There May Be a Place in Which It\'s Close
by the City and Close Where You Can Get the Country as Well, and That\'s
Just An Analogy I\'m Using, but by Going with the Extreme Positions
Trying to Cut it in Half, You May Not Be Able to Get There All Along
Because You Don\'t Know What it Is. But by Going Beneath the Surface You
Can Better Address Their Needs as Well as Resolve the Dispute. Now, What
We Just Covered Here I\'m Going to Give You a Quick Summary with an
Overhead on this The Four Rs of Mediation, Summarize What We Just Went
Through. What Happens When They Come In, Parties Restate What Happened,
In Terms of How They Got There. Then They Reexamine It. That\'s Talking
about Those Issues and the Concerns Beneath The Surface, and If They Do
That Oftentimes They Look at it Differently. So They Reframe the Way
They Look at the Dispute. After They Do That, Then They Reassemble All
the Parts and Come up with an Agreement That Will Satisfy Both Parties
Needs. Often We Get into Disputes Because Parties Look at Things
Somewhat Differently. I\'d like to Give You an Example Of How this
Happens. Look at this next Overhead We Have Here. You Can Have Two
People Look at This and One Party May Say ‑‑ or Three or Four People
Look Ate. One Party May Say That ‑‑ Ask Them What They See and They Say
They See an X. Another Party May Say They See Four Triangles. Another
Party May Say They See a Number of Dots. Another Party May Say They See
One Square. Another Party May Say They See a Pyramid. My Answer to You
Is That They\'re All Correct in Terms of What They See, and That\'s the
Basis Behind Some of the Conflict That We Have, That People Are Going To
See the Same Thing Differently. Because We See the Same Things
Differently We Believe That Everyone Sees it the Way That We See it and
That\'s Not Necessarily the Truth. All it Takes Is a Little More
Communication for Someone to Show You, \"Well, the Reason I See the X Is
Because I See These Blocks Right Here and That\'s an X on the
Overhead,\" or \"I See a Triangle Because\... \\M You May Not
Necessarily Agree With That but If You Have an Understanding of Why They
See What They See, Then You Will Be In a Better Position to Try to Move
to the next Stage, Which Is To Try to Get a Resolution. So, Summarizing
this Is That in Terms of this next Overhead, We Don\'t See Things as
They Are, We See Them as We Are. That\'s a Whole Experience That We
Bring to the Table, and Because We Have Such a Diverse Work Environment
and It\'s Going To Get Even More So as We Move Ahead Toward the Year
2000, Everyone Is Going to See Things Differently and We Tend to Think
That Everybody Looks at it the Way That We Do. This next Overhead: Every
Man Takes the Limit of His or Her Own Field of Vision for the Limits of
the World. What Happens I Said. We Tend to Think That Everyone Thinks
the Way We Do and If They Don\'t Think the Way We Do, They\'re Wrong.
Well, Because of That \"The World Is Divided into People Who Think They
Are Right.\" That\'s the Basis of a Lot of the Conflict, Not
Understanding, Not Recognizing That a Person Can Look at the Same Thing
and See It a Little Bit Differently, and That\'s Something That We Need
to Work On. To Wrap this up and Give You a Little Idea of What Managers
Can Do, I\'m Going to Talk a Bit About the Program That I Mentioned
Earlier in the Broadcast. The Question Had to Do with Collapsing the
Dispute Resolution Processes, Using ADR And Various Processes, and the
Program That I Was Involved in Was by the National Academy of Public
Administration, and That Program Was Called ‑‑ It\'s on The Overhead for
You. Implementing Real Change in Human Resource Management. There Were
31 Participating Agencies, and You Can See Them Here. Department of
Interior Was Involved in this Program. At Least Some Representatives
Were There. The Additional Agencies Involved You Can See on this next
Overhead Here. The Focus of the Program Was to Assist the Sponsoring
Agencies In Dealing with Reinvention in Human Resource Management, and
The Focus on Implementing and Facilitating Change and to Provide Models
to These Representatives. Project Components Was Broad‑banding,
Redefining Human Resource Management and Alternative Dispute Resolution,
Which Was a Part of Some Other Programs. What Did We Find out When We
Had These Representatives? Some Agencies Sent One Representative. Some
Agencies Sent Two, Three And Four Representatives. What Did We Find out
When We Did These Focus Groups and We Did Facilitations with Them? One
Thing I Want to Share with You out of it Is What Are the Barriers? What
Are the Barriers to Dispute Resolution, Implementing it in a Federal
Agency? The First One Is Very, Very Important, Competing Definitions Of
ADR Terms. That\'s Why We Started out with The Continuum, So That You
Can Get an Idea What the Definitions Are. Cost of Training. It\'s
Inevitable That You Have to Understand What ADR Is and How To Utilize
It, and That\'s What This Broadcast Is for and I Guess the Better Way to
Train Is To Use a Broadcast like this to Reach More People Rather than
Sending Everyone to a Particular Site. The next One, Lack of Hard Data.
It\'s Hard to Keep Data on ADR in That the Savings That Is Used to
Resolve Disputes, It\'s Hard to Capture Those, Because If You Go Through
a Grievance System, You Have the Time of the Grieveant Or Complainant
When Going to the Meetings, They Have the Time They Prepare, the Same
for the Manager. How Do You Calculate That.

It\'s Easy to Cal Late in the Overheads I Showed You Earlier The
Litigation Costs Saved, but It\'s Harder to Calculate the Costs
Preparing for Hearings, How Many People in the Hearing, What\'s Their
Salary and Things Of That Nature. Also It\'s Hard to Calculate the Lost
Production Time of an Unhappy Employee or Employees. The next One We
Have Is Denial Of Conflict by the Agency, the Parties, the
Representatives Indicated There\'s a Lot of People in Several Agencies
That Deny That They Have Conflict. Another Big One Was Agency Culture.
The Culture Is Such it Doesn\'t Lend Itself to Using ADR. That\'s Very
Serious. It\'s Very Difficult, Because it Takes Three to Five Years to
Crack an Agency Culture, and So You Can\'t Let it Die as a Fad. You Have
to Keep Pushing and Pushing So That it Infiltrates Itself Throughout the
Organization. And in Order to Do That, You Need a Long‑term Commitment,
Not Only from the EEO Staff and Human Resource Staff, it Has to Be All
the Way up and down the Organizational Chain. What Keeps it from
Happening Somewhat Is a Lack of Continuity With the Change in Personnel,
Top Personnel, and in Some You Can\'t Help That Because It\'s a
Political Organization and You Have Elections Every Four Years. Next to
Last You Have Management Buy‑in, and That\'s You. You Need to Buy into
this Process. It\'s an Important Process and I Think If You Get to
Understand It and Learn about It, You\'ll See How You Can Utilize it to
Help You Rather than Hinder You In Terms of Getting Success in The
Workplace. And Then Finally Where You Have Unions Involved, You Need to
Have Buy‑in by the Unions. The Unions Need to Be Involved In the Whole
Process So That They Can Have a Part in It. Because as You Probably
Know, They Can Sabotage it If It\'s Not Done Correctly According to the
Labor Relations Rules and Organizations. I\'d like to End by Addressing
Some Things That You Can Do to Be Prepared for a Mediation Session. One
Is That You Need to Be Knowledgeable about the Facts of The Particular
Case That You\'re Taking. If You Are Representing Someone Else and
You\'re the Representative in the Mediation, You Definitely Have to Be
Knowledgeable about the Facts Because You Can Believe That the
Complainant Is Going to Be Knowledgeable about the Facts, Or the
Grieveant. Then You Need to Be Open as to The Outcome. If You Come in
with a Preconceived Idea about the Outcome, You\'re Fought Going to Be
Successful. You Need to Be Flexible. You Can Have a Range, but Please
Don\'t Come in with Just One to Resolve the Dispute Because That Usually
Doesn\'t Happen. And You\'ve Got to Be Ready to Listen, and Listen
Actively. If a Person Sits There Telling Their Story, You Need to Be
Actively Listening to Them and Make Sure You\'re Trying to Understand
What They Say. It Really Does Help. And Also You Need to Have the
Authority. Gloria Mentioned, You Need to Have the Authority to Resolve
The Dispute. If You Go Through a Mediation Process and Come to the End
and Say \"Well, I\'m Sorry, I Can\'t Do Anything about It,\" Then That
Just Jeopardizes the Whole Process Totally. So That\'s What I\'ll Leave
with You in Terms of the Mediation Process and How it Works and How You
Should Be Involved, and I Encourage You to Get Educated in ADR in
General as Well as in the Specific Process in Your Agency. Robin?

Stoebe: Thanks, Marvin. I Think We Have a Better Understanding How the
Mediation Process Actually Works. Now I Would like to Address a Couple
More Fax Questions That Have Just Come In. This Is from Donna in
Farmington And It\'s Directed to Carolyn. Who Will Mediate Disputes?
Will EEO Counselors Be Used to Mediation Situations First or Will
Outside Professional Mediators Be Called In?

Burrell: as You\'ve Heard ‑‑ Thank You, First of All ‑‑ Thank You Very
Much for the Question, Donna. As You\'ve Heard Us Discuss Today We Do
Have a Number of EEO Counselors Already in the Bureau Who Have Begun
Their Training as Mediators. They May Not as of Yet Be Certified as
Mediators, However, They Have Begun Their Training. Also Gloria Did
Mention That as We Do Certified Mediators Here Within the Bureau, We
Will Not Be Using Any Counselors to Mediate Cases in Their Immediate
Areas in Which They Work. So, for Example, If There Is a Complaint in
Wyoming That Needs To Be Mediated, There Will Not Be a Counselor in
Wyoming That Will Mediate That Case. It Will Be a Counselor That Will Be
Brought in from Another Part Of the Country to Do That. I\'m Going to
Ask Gloria for Some Assistance in This, in Answering This Question, but
I Would Think That If We Really Have a Need to Use a Mediator from
Outside of The Bureau, Meaning Someone Who Works for Another Bureau,
Another Department, or Works as A Contract Mediator for Private
Companies That We Will Have the Flexibility to Do That. But, Again, I
Would like to Assure You That If a Dispute Needs to Be Mediated in Your
Particular Area, it Will Not Be Mediated by an Employee in That Area.
Gloria, Is There Anything Else Would You like to Add to That?

Inniss: Yes. Initially We Are Going to Use Outside Contractors, or We
Are Going to Use Other Bureau Mediators until Our Employees Gain the
Necessary Experience to Be Certified as Mediators. Once They Have
Obtained That Necessary Experience and They Are Certified, Then Our Own
Employees Will Do the Mediation As Carolyn Indicated.

Stoebe: Thank You. Thanks for the Fax. Up until this Point We\'ve Dealt
With ADR and its Application to Equal Employment Opportunity and Human
Resource Management Programs. Clearly ADR Methodology Can Be
Productively Employed in Other Program Areas. Bill Calkins, BLM New
Mexico State Director Serves as Executive Leadership Team Sponsor of a
Study Requested by The Deputy Director on ADR Programs. Bill Is Also a
Distinguished Graduate Of Marvin John\'s Course in Mediation this. Make
Him\'s the Buer\'s Highest Ranking Mediator. Thanks for Being with Us
Today, Bill.

Caller: Thanks. It\'s Great to Be Here in Phoenix On this First Day of
Spring. It\'s Supposed to Be Breaking Records. Maybe over 94 Degrees.
Those of You Still Experiencing Winter, Come Join Us. You Know, Robin, I
Am a Proponent of Anything That\'s Going to Make Us More Effective
Communicators and That\'s Going To Reduce Conflict in Our Lives. I Think
ADR Can Do That, and That\'s One Reason I Support It.

Stoebe: Good. Thanks. What Are Your Thoughts on the Bureau\'s Use of ADR
Today, Bill?

Calkins: Before I Get into That I Just Want to Say to My New Mexico
Friends, Buenos, Dias In Nuevo Mexico. Several Months Ago, I Was Asked
If I Would Be the Executive Leadership Team Sponsor for ADR And the
Initiative That the Deputy Director Spoke of this Morning and Requested
That We Look Specifically at the Natural Resource Conflicts. ADR
Initiative Team Was Formed To Focus on the Use of ADR Techniques for
Resolving These Natural Resource Conflicts. When I Hooked up with Them,
the Team Was in the Final Stages of Preparing an ADR Strategy Plan And a
Tool Kit. Frankly, I Didn\'t Know Anything About ADR. I Didn\'t Know
What I Had Signed Up For, but I Took it upon Myself to Learn More about
It. My First Real Opportunity to Learn More Came When Together With 25
Other BLMers I Hosted And Attended a Week‑long Training Session on
Mediation in Albuquerque. The Training Was Presented by Dr. Marvin
Johnson, Whom You Met Today from the Center for Alternative Dispute
Resolution At Bowie State. The Students in this Training Consisted
Mostly of EEO and Hrm Employees but We Also Had Support Program People
and a Variety of Other Managers and Supervisors. They Had One Thing in
Common and That Was Their Praise for the Training. The Value of
Mediation as an ADR Technique Is That it Recognizes The Growing
Complexity of the Workplace and the Many Situations We Find Ourselves in
That If Left Unresolved Can Grow Into Major Disputes. As You Know, These
Kind of Disputes Are Costly to the Agency in Time, Money and Their
Effect on Employees. Mediation Offers an Alternative Way to Deal with
Conflict by Using a Process to Make Decisions That Are Supported by Our
Employees and Customers. In Playing Different Roles in The Mediation
Training Exercises I Better Understood the Disparate Sides of a Conflict
as Well as One\'s Frustration When You Lack a Forum to Communicate Your
Concerns. Today More than Ever Managers And Supervisors must Look upon
Effective Communication as a Two‑way Street Where There Is as Great a
Benefit for Management As Employees. ADR Provides Employees with
Structured and Nonthreatening Process to Raise Sensitive and Often
Emotional Issues to Fellow Employees And/or to Management. The Payoff
for Management Is the Reduction of EEO and Personnel Workload and a More
Satisfied And Productive Work Force. As I Mentioned Earlier, the Team
Looked into the Application of ADR to the BLM\'s Natural Resources
Programs. On February 21st of this Year, The Deputy Director on Behalf
of That Team Issued an ADR Strategic Plan and a Tool Kit to Developing,
Managing and Evaluating ADR Programs. The Human Resource Management
Approach to ADR Differs Somewhat From the Natural Resources Approach,
and I Want to Speak to That Right Now. The Hrm/ADR Is Grounded in
Developing an In‑house ADR Capability Primarily. Such an Approach Would
Involve Training the Bureau\'s Hrm and EEO People Which We Have Heard
About Today, but These People Are Already Experienced in Dealing with
Interpersonal Conflict in the Workplace. The Natural Resource Team, on
The Other Hand, Recommends Using Mediator Services from Outside The
Bureau. This Makes a Lot of Sense to Me. Outside User Groups, for
Example Are Not Likely to Voluntarily Submit to Mediation If the
Mediator Comes from the BLM Ranks. Such Groups Might Feel the Decks Were
Stacked Against Them and Not Want to Participate under Those
Circumstances. An Effective Full‑service Program Could, of Course, Use
Bureau and Outside Services and Clearly Such a Program Would Serve
Different People and Deals With Different Issues. It\'s Totally
Circumstantial to What Problem Is at Hand. I Am Sure That as the BLM
Gains More Experience in Using ADR, a Universal Approach Will Evolve.
That Approach Will Serve the Interests of Both Management, The Work
Force, and Our Customers. I Know We in New Mexico at the State Office
Have Been Interested in the Benefits of ADR for Some Time. For Us the
Training Was Both Timely and Welcome. We Are Now Seeking Ways for Our
Attendees to Get the Mediation Experience to Make Them Proficient, and I
Invite Any of You to Call on Us. Finally, I Applaud the Washington
Office for Providing The Opportunity to Acquire Mediation Skills and ADR
Program Development among the Field Offices. If You Want to Save Money,
Resolve Conflicts and Have a More Productive Work Force, I Recommend
That You Use Mediation Services, Too. Thanks, Robin.

Stoebe: Thank You, Bill. I Would like to Mention to Our Viewers in That
a Minute We Will Be Starting Our Final Question And Answer Period. If
You Have a Question or Comment for Our Panel, Now Would Be a Good Time
to Start Calling In. Bill, Do You Have Any Additional Comments You Would
like to Make?

Calkins: Yeah, I Wanted to Show this Notebook the Team Prepared. I Will
Put on it Overhead, If We Can See That. It\'s Really an Excellent Piece
Of Work. It Was Done by Members from Every State in Most of the
Washington Offices Were Represented as Well. It\'s a Good Reference
Document. It Includes an ADR Strategic Plan as Well, and I Need to Also
Mention That Each State Was Asked by the Deputy Director to Identify a
Representative or an ADR Coordinator That Can Be a Central Contact Point
for You And Also Network Bureauwide. So If You Don\'t Know Who That Is
Ask Your State Director or Your Office Head Who That Coordinator May Be.
Thanks, Robin.

Stoebe: Thank You, Bill. Thanks for Providing with Us a Bureauwide
Perspective How the Versatility of ADR Works. Gloria, Carolyn, Do You
Have Any Thoughts about the Comparison Between the Resources ADR
Program, the EEO Program? Are These Really Two Distinct Approaches to
Implementing ADR Within the Bureau?

Burrell: Well, First of All, I Would Just like to Say That We Only Have
One Program, One ADR Program Within the Bureau, and Because of
Differences in the Approaches and the Needs of the Hrm Community Versus
the Resources Community, We Will Have Made ‑‑ Excuse Me ‑‑ We Have Made
a Decision to Keep Mediation as Often as Possible Within the Bureau for
the Resolution of Cases as They Pertain to EEO and the Human Resources
Community. However, for Reasons Which Bill Has Already Talked about
During His Presentation, We Do Feel That it Would Be More Effective In
Terms of Resolve ‑‑ Resolving Disputes If We Utilize Mediators From
Outside the Bureau If There Are Disputes That We Need to Mediate on the
Resources Side. Gloria, Do You Have Anything to Add to That?

Inniss: I Think You Have Pretty Much Summarized It. That\'s the Way I
Have Seen it All along. I See the Groups Working Together. One Thing
That Is Important to Keep in Mind Is That a Mediator Can Mediate Any
Type of Conflict Resources Conflict, Hrm Conflict And like Indicated, in
this Situation We Are Addressing it Different Because of the Parties
Involved.

Stoebe: Okay. Thank You. At this Point We Would like to Welcome Back
Marvin Johnson to Our Panel.

Johnson: Thank You.

Stoebe: We\'ve Set Aside the Remainder of Our Program to Answer Any
Questions or Comments From the Field. Again, If You Haven\'t Already
Faxed Your Questions, Please Do So Now. So with That, Let\'s Go Back to
Our Faxes. This One Is from Delcia from Reno, Directed to You, Gloria.
Can Mediation Be Used at the Informal Counseling Level? And If So, Will
Mediation Be Substituting for EEO Counseling And Will Therefore Not
Afford Adequate Opportunity to the Counseling Process to Resolve The
Conflict?

Inniss: Gracias. That\'s a Good Question. The Way this Is Going to Work
in Reality Is Let\'s Say That We Are In the Process of Counseling,
Right, and after the Counselor Talks to the Complainant or After the
Counselor Talks to the Manager, at Any Time in the Process One of the
Parties Tells The Counselor, You Know What, I Have Learned about
Mediation and I Would Feel More Comfortable If We Used a Mediator and We
Used a Mediation Process. If That Situation Comes Up, at That Time,
Then, the Option Will Be Presented to the Other Party, And If Both
Parties Agree, Then We Will Switch to Mediation. We Will Bring in a
Mediator. Okay? Now, If the Case Is Not Resolved Through Mediation and
Hopefully When That Happens and the Parties Ask for Mediation the Case
Is Going to Be Resolved, But Let\'s Say it Is Not Resolved Then What
Will Happen Is Once We Realize it Is Not Going to Be Resolved During
Mediation, the Case Goes Back to the Counselor. The Counselor Goes
Through the Routine Counseling That We Normally Do, Prepare the
Counselor\'s Report and Give the Complainant His or Her Rights to Go
Further with the Formal Complaints. So That\'s the Way That I See These
Happening in Real Life. I Also See it Happening That a Complainant Comes
Directly to an EEO Manager and Tells the EEO Manager, You Know, What, I
Want A Complaint, but I Want to Try Mediation First. Some People Might
Consider it More Effective. Let\'s Go Through Counseling First.
Especially If We\'re Going to Contract an Outside Mediator That Will
Cost Us Money. In My Case, I Would Prefer That If a Person Comes in and
Asks For Mediation That We Tell That Person, Okay, We\'re Going to Get
You a Mediator and the Complainant Still Reserves the Right If it
Doesn\'t Work Through Mediation Then to Go Through Counseling. As You
must Realize, in Order For a Person to File a Formal Complaint, Counsel
Something Mandatory. Actually, That Is One of the Differences Between
Counseling And Mediation, That Mediation Is Voluntary, and Counsel
Something Mandatory in Order for a Person To File a Formal Complaint. So
Let\'s Say an Employee Comes And Asks for Mediation Even Before Seeing a
Counselor, I Will Go Ahead and Try to Mediate The Case and If it
Doesn\'t Work Out, Then Again Go and Have the Counseling. I Hope That
Answers the ‑‑ Your Question, Delcia. She Is Our Equal Opportunity
Manage Inner Reno.

Stoebe: Thank You. I Have Another Fax Here from Pat In Eugene. Directed
to You, Marvin. It Was Suggested to Separate Egos from the Issue. It
Seems That Oftentimes Egos Are the Issue. Any Help or Guidance If this
Appears to Be the Case?

Johnson: Yes, What You Have To Do Is Through Mediation Process, and it
Might Take More Than Just Mediation, You May Have to ‑‑ You Have to Get
the Parties to Recognize That That Is the Problem, and Once They
Recognize the Problem, Then the Question Is What it Is They Can Do about
It. See, Because Mediation ‑‑ It\'s The Parties That Have the Part ‑‑
Power to Resolve the Dispute Whereas the Mediator Can\'t Tell Them and
Make Them Do Something. Now, There Might Be Another Process If the
Parties Recognize That That\'s the Issue, You Might Want to Go to a
Different Process of an Actual Facilitation or Another Process Whereby
You Can Deal with the Ego Problem If That\'s What it Is And If it Can\'t
Be Done in Mediation, It\'s a Continuum, There Are Some Other Processes
That Can Be Used That Could Probably Get to That Very Issue.

Stoebe: Thanks, Marvin. We\'ve Got Quite a Few Faxes, So I\'ll Ask the
Panel Members to Be Brief and Succinct on Your Answers. Here Is Another
Fax That Just Came In. This Is for Gloria. It\'s from California, Looks
Like. Reduction of Formal Complaints Can Also Be Attributed to the
Delegation of Both Informal and Formal Complaints to the Individual
States. Each State Has Ownership in the Process from Beginning to End. I
Think That\'s a Comment.

Inniss: Yes, That Is a Comment. Thank You. That Is a Very Good Comment
and It\'s a Real True Comment Also. In 1995, Late \'94, the Bureau
Delegated the Processing of Complaints to the Centers and States, and
Definitely I Think There Is More Ownership There And More Involvement at
the State Level and That That Has Been a Contributing Factor to The
Decrease in the Number of Complaint. Thank You for That Comment, Guys.
That\'s Good.

Stoebe: One More Fax Here From Andy in Santa Fe. Directed to You,
Carolyn. If the Focus of ADR Is on Individuals or Case‑specific Issues,
How Will More Broad‑scale Problems Be Resolved? For Example, the
Individual Case May Be Symptomatic of a Statewide or Agencywide Problem.

Burrell: Andy, Thank You Very Much for Your Question. When Gloria Was
Talking Earlier In the Broadcast about the Areas Of Disputes That Would
Not Be Processed Through Mediation, One Area That She Mentioned Was
Class Complaints. Class Complaints Are Usually Followed by Individuals
That Belong to One Particular Cover Group or Protected Group under The
Law. For Example, African‑americans, Females, Hispanics, and Normally
The Allegations That Are Raised In Class Complaints Have to Do With a
Systemic Problem That May Exist Within an Agency or Within Our Bureau,
Let\'s Say, If There Was a Complaint, a Class Complaint That Was Filed
Against The Bureau of Land Management. Normally What Happens When a
Class Complaint Is Processed Is That There Is Some Actions ‑‑ Some
Action That\'s Taken or There Is Some Policy That\'s in Effect That
Appears or Seems to Have an Adverse Impact on a Particular Group of
Employees Based on What Their Protected Class Status Is or What Their
Protected Group Status Is. And Normally Issues of That Kind Of Nature
Are Explored Very Thoroughly During the Conduct of The Inquiries and the
Investigations Having to Do with The Class Complaint. So Normally the
Issues That You Are Talking about and the Question That You Raise Would
Be Addressed on a Forum Such as That.

Stoebe: Thank You. We\'ve Got a Call. This Is Diane from Santa Fe.
Diane, Have You Got a Question For Our Panel? Diane? Whoops, I Missed
Her Here. There She Is. Diane, Do You Have a Question For the Panel?

Caller: Yes, I Would like to Know What Would Happen If You Do Not Keep
Mediation Confidential?

Stoebe: Okay. One of the Panelists like to Take That?

Inniss: Well, Normally the Parties Entering into an Agreement, Which
Could Be Written or it Could Be Oral, That There Will Be Confidentiality
of What ‑‑ There Is Some Premediation ‑‑ or I Guess Part of the
Mediation Process, and the Parties Agree To That Confidentiality. So
We\'re Talking about a Matter Of Ethics. Now, Speaking Legally, Really
If A Person Leaves the Room and Shares the Information, I Honestly
Can\'t Think of Anything That We Could Legally Do to That Employee. I
Think If it Is Done by One of Our Managers, Definitely There Might Be
More Consequences. But I Think If One of Our Employees Does That, I
Don\'t Think There Is Anything We Could Really Do and I Don\'t Think it
Happens Often. Usually the Mediator Trains or Educates So Much the
Parties About the Need for Confidentiality That That Normally Doesn\'t
Happen. And I Don\'t Know If Dr. Johnson Agrees with My Perception.

Johnson: Yes, I Think You\'re Right. What Happens Is You Usually Have A
Grievant, a Complainant and Then a Respondent or a Manager. The Mediator
Is Not Going to Share the Information. It\'s Either Going to Be the
Employee or the Manager. Gloria Just Explained They Can Have
Repercussions for the Manager. So It\'s Going to Be the Employee Him or
Herself That Would Be the Person That Would Expose this Information. So
I Think That That\'s Why It\'s Unlikely Because If it Happens It\'s
Going to Be the Employee Him or Herself, and If the Manager Does It, I
Think the Organization Should Have Some Repercussions in Line in Terms
Of Dealing with That Issue.

Stoebe: Does That Answer Your Question, Diane?

Caller: Yes, it Does. Thank You.

Stoebe: Thank You for Calling In. Our next Fax. This Is from Joel in
Farmington. Directed Towards Gloria. Is There Flexibility to Use a
Private‑sector Mediator for Issue Resolution?

Inniss: Well, Right Now If Anybody Asks for a Mediator, It\'s Going to
Be an Outside Mediator Because like I Said Our Managers and Counselors
and the People That Received the Mediation Training from Dr. Johnson
Have Not Had the Necessary Practice to Take Cases At this Point. Once
All Our Mediators Are Certified, I Do Not Anticipate Many Situations in
Which Somebody Will Not Want Anybody From Within the Bureau Because We
Will Use People from Other Geographic Locations. But I Would Dare Say If
There Is A Case We Feel Very Seriously We Want to Resolve and the
Employee Feels Very Strongly That They Do Not Want to Use Any of Our
Mediators, the Bureau Will Make Every Effort to Get Somebody From
Outside of the Organization To Come and Conduct the Mediation. I Hope
That Answers the Question. It\'s a Good Question.

Stoebe: Okay. Thank You. The next One Is from Roger in Boise, and It\'s
Directed Towards You, Bill. Can You Cite Examples of Successful ADR in
Natural Resource Disputes?

Johnson: the Short Answer Is No. I Think this Is an Evolutionary
Process. It\'s in its Infancy and I Don\'t Think It\'s Too Clear Yet to
BLM Exactly What ‑‑ You How Some of These Techniques May Apply and
Certainly We\'re Not Trained in Many of Them Yet. However, I Want to
Say, Roger, And Thanks for the Question, That as You Know, Anything That
Can Keep Natural Resource Decisions out of the Courts, I Think, Is of
Benefit to Us, and I Think the ADR Techniques That We\'re ‑‑ That Were
Discussed Here Today, If We Could Get More Familiar with the Application
of Those and Specific Circumstances Of Natural Resource Issues and
Conflicts, it Would Be Extremely Beneficial to the Agency. It Leaves Us
More Autonomy in Making the Right Decisions That Are Based on Science
and Fact. Rather than an Independent Judge Through a Litigation Process
Coming to a Conclusion That May Not Make Sense to Us in the Field. So I
Can\'t Give Examples. I\'m Sure There Are Some. I\'m Just Not Aware of
Them. But I Think in the near Future We\'ll Have a Lot of Them. Thanks,
Roger.

Stoebe: Okay. Thanks, Bill. Here Is Another Fax. This Is from Mikey.
Two‑part. First One Is Directed to You, Marvin. What Happens If One
Party or the Other, Quote, Takes it Outside The Room and Talks about
What Happened During Mediation?

Johnson: We Just Addressed That Earlier in Terms of Putting It in the
Employment Context What Would Happen. 54 Yeah Was Ride. There Is a ‑‑
Gloria Was Right. There Is a Premediation Agreement Indicating They Will
Be Bound by Confidentiality. In the Employment Context, We Talked about
the Repercussions That Could Happen, And, Understand, the Parties Who
Are Normally in the Room Are the Parties to the Dispute, and in An
Employment Situation There Is Control over Managers, and the Employee
Him or Herself, If They Do It, Then That\'s on Them and They Can\'t
Complain about Something That They\'ve Already Done. So That\'s the Way
I Would Respond to That Question.

Stoebe: the Second Half of This Builds upon That First Question: Can
Someone File a Complaint about Something That Is Said or Done During
Mediation?

Johnson: Because It\'s Confidential, the Answer to That Would Be No.
It\'s Confidential, and Everything Is Supposed to Be Confidential
That\'s Said in That Particular Room. There Is Some Exceptions. If
Someone Is Going to Say They\'re Going to Kill Somebody ‑‑ That Kind of
Extreme Situation. But Other than That, the Whole Process Is
Confidential and It\'s Not to Be Used ‑‑ the Purpose of The
Confidentiality Is to Get The Individuals to Talk Freely To Resolve the
Dispute. If Someone Talks Freely and Find Out Information and You Turned
Around and Use it Against Them, They Won\'t Come to Mediation. So it
Defeats the Purpose of Mediation. So That\'s Why the Process Is Cloaked
In Confidentiality.

Stoebe: Phoenix Fax Here Is From Tim in New Mexico. ‑‑ next Fax Here Is
from Tim in New Mexico. What Is the Difference Between An Informal
Settlement Agreement And a Mediation Agreement?

Inniss: the Agreement Itself? I Don\'t Think There Is Any Difference.
The Agreement Will Include the Terms of the Agreement in Terms Of the
Remedy. Of Course, in this Agreements, When They Involve Complaints of
Discrimination, Consistently the Complainant Will Withdraw the
Complaint. That\'s the End Result for the Agency, Really, of Going into
a Negotiation or Counseling or Any Type of Resolution Attempt. So the
Agreement Itself, the Document, Really I Can\'t Think Of Any Difference
Except Maybe, I Don\'t Know, the Agreements They Are Agreements. I Sign
Them. That\'s a Way of Certifying. If It\'s in the Field, Then Your
Manager Signs It. So That\'s a Way of Certifying That It\'s Correct and
So On. I Don\'t Know If in Mediation We Could Include That Provision.
Maybe Dr. Johnson Could Tell Us About It. Or If in Mediation it Should
Be Signed Only by the Two Parties. But Other than That, Really, I Do Not
See ‑‑ I Don\'t See That The Document Itself Will Be Any Different,
Really.

Stoebe: Very Good. Thanks. The next Fax Is from Judy in Roswell and
Directed Towards You Carolyn. Will EEO Counselors Be the Only Mediators
or Can Other Interested Employees Also Become Mediators? If So, How?

Burrell: Okay. Thank You, Judy, for Your Question. Yes, There Are
Employees Outside Of the Arena of EEO Who Can Become Mediators. As I
Mentioned During My Remarks Earlier in the Program, When We Had Our
Initial Orientation Course on Mediation, We Had a Number of Employees.
We Had, of Course, Most of Our EEO Official Involved in the Training,
but We Also Had a Number of Employees Who Are Outside of Human Resources
Management Who Did Participate In That Program and Who Will Be Qualified
Once They Have Received Some Additional On‑the‑job Training and Some
Experience with Co‑mediating Cases with Persons Who Are Already
Qualified to Do Mediation. If You Are Interested in Becoming a Mediator,
and I Assume That You\'re Not Involved In the Human Resources Field Now
You Are Certainly Welcome to Try And to Become Involved in the Training.
You Can Contact Gloria Inniss to Find out When There Will Be Another
Orientation or Training Session in this Area. One Other Thing That You
Could Do Is Check Around in Your Area To See Who Is Conducting Training
of Mediators. Quite Often There Is Training That\'s Associated with the
Court System Because, as You Heard Dr. Johnson Say Earlier in the
Broadcast, in Many Disputes That End up in Court, the Judges Are
Requiring That the Disputants Go to Mediation in Order to Resolve the
Issues Because It\'s Less Costly That Way. Normally When You Don\'t Have
Lawyers Involved, it Is Much Easier ‑‑ Much less Costlier I Should Say
to Resolve a Dispute If You Are at the Court Level. Therefore Many of
the Courts Have Begun to Train People in Mediation. So You Can Contact,
You Know, Your Court System to See If They Will Be Conducting Any
Training In the near Future. Also the Federal Mediation and Conciliation
Service, I Believe, Conducts Training in Mediation As Well. The Other
Thing That You Can Do Is Contact Your EEO Manager and Get Some
Information from Her in Roswell, from Angie Lara, with Respect to
Training in Your Ear Yeah for Mediation. Thank You Very Much, Judy. I
Hope That Answers Your Question.

Stoebe: Okay, Good. Our next Fax Here Is from Montana. I Think It\'s
Directed Towards Marvin. If We must Empower Mediators and Cannot Review
or Change Their Recommendation or Agreement, How Is this Materially
Different From Arbitration? And Would an Individual Complainant Also Be
Expected to Empower a Mediator?

Johnson: Well, Let Me Correct The Premise. The Premise Is Wrong. A
Mediator Cannot Direct the Parties to Do Anything. That\'s What You Have
to Understand. All the Mediator Does Is Help The Parties Facilitate a
Discussion to Come up with a Resolution. So the Difference Is That an
Arbitrator Will Tell You What to Do. You Present the Problem to the
Arbitrator, He\'ll Tell You, You Win, You Lose and Why and It\'s Over. A
Mediator Doesn\'t Do That. The Mediator Sits with the Parties and Helps
Them Come up With the Solution. So the Empowerment Is of the Parties,
Not of the Mediator. The Empowerment Comes Where the Mediator Is Helping
the Parties Resolve Their Dispute. So the Mediator Is Really Not
Empowered. You May Want to Gain Trust in The Mediator So He or She Can
Help You, But, No, the Empowerment Is of the Parties Themselves to
Resolve Their Own Dispute in Their Own Way.

Stoebe: Good. Thank You. Next Fax Is from Arizona. What Impact Does the
Use of ADR Have on the Time Frames for Resolving an EEO Complaint? Who
Would like to Field That One? Gloria?

Inniss: Okay. Thank You. It Depends on How We Look at It. If We Look at
the Overall Average Time That it Takes to Process Complaints, I Think it
Will Be Reduced Because a Higher Percentage of Complaints Will Be
Resolved Early in the Process. Now, If You Look at One Particular Case,
There Might Be Situations in Which We Engage in Mediation and Then it
Doesn\'t Work Out, So We May Have to Go To Back to Regular Processes. So
in That Particular Case it Might Be Extended. Every Effort Will Be Made,
Though, When a Request Is Made For Mediation, to Have a Mediator Ready
to Hit the Floor Running and to Go on with the Process So That We Could
Expedite the Process and That in No Way the Mediation Impacts. So I
Would Say Overall Really it Will Decrease the Number of Things That it
Will Take Us ‑‑ Days it Will Take Us to Process Our Complaints. Another
Factor Is That by Using Mediation During Counseling We Will Reduce the
Number of Formal Complaints. And by Using Mediation Immediately after
Counseling but Before the Formal Complaint Is Filed, We Will Reduce the
Number Of Formal Complaints So That We Also Help Reduce the Overall Time
in Processing Because We Could Apply Our Resources to the Other Cases
That We Have in the Agency. I Hope That Answers the Question.

Stoebe: Thank You. We\'ve Gotten So Many Faxes We\'re Going to Be
Running over a Little Bit, over Our Regular Scheduled Time. We Are Going
to Try to Get All The Faxes Taken Care of Today. If We Don\'t, We Will
‑‑ the Washington Office Is Going to Follow up with Answers. So Having
Said That, Our next Fax Is from Safford, Arizona, And Directed to You,
Bill. Mr. Schwab Stated That ADR Seeks Rational Solutions. Will There Be
a Use for ADR When Dealing with Extreme Environmental Groups Who Use the
Courts to Achieve Their Goals And Seem to Seek A, Quote, All Or Nothing
Instead of Compromise?

Calkins: I Guess in Terms of Dr. Johnson\'s Continuum That He Shared
with You Today, That\'s Also Part of the ADR Process. If it Goes to
Litigation and That\'s the Only Answer. However, I Don\'t Think That
We\'ve Been Very Diligent in Our Efforts in Some Cases. To Meet with
These People and Explain Some of the Options That Are Available to
Resolve Complaints or Conflicts They\'re Concerned about. I Think in the
past We Have Tried to Do Some Things, Mostly Just Talking in
Generalities About Issues and Defining the Extent of the Conflict in
Some Cases, but I Don\'t Think That We\'ve Done Enough Effort to
Actually Talk about Specific ADR Methods, That If They Would Agree We
Could Go Into, Including Mediation, Which We\'ve Discussed a Lot Today.
Thanks.

Stoebe: Okay. Thank You, Bill. Our next Fax Is from the Utah State
Office. Bertha. Who Introduces ADR to a Complainant If a Complainant
Doesn\'t Request it or it Happens Right after Initial Contact with The
EEO Counselor? Go Ahead, Gloria.

Inniss: It\'s like I\'m Taking Over All the Questions. It Happens We\'re
Covering Complaints in this Panel. The Way this Will Work Out, First of
All, All of Our Employees Are Going to Receive ADR Training. We Are
Going to Have a Session Similar to this One That Will Be Broadcast to
All the Bureau Employees. All the Bureau Employees Also Will Receive a
Pamphlet on ADR That Is Being Put Together by The Office for Equal
Opportunity. So Our Employees Will Know from The Beginning to Request
Mediation If That Is What They Want, Because They Would Have Been
Educated on How the System Works. Also, All of Our Counselors Have Been
Trained on the Concept of Mediation. They May Not Be Mediators as Such,
but They Are Familiar with The Concept. So If it Is Brought up to Them,
They Will Be Able to Help the Complainant. I Think That the Way this Is
Going to Work out Eventually Is That in the Same Manner That All Of Our
Employees Now That They Could File Grievances and File EEO Complaints,
They Will Eventually Know They Could Also Use Mediation to Deal with Any
Grievance or Complaint That They May Have. Thank You, Bertha.

Stoebe: the next Fax Is from Eastern States. Two Questions: First One I
Will Give to You Gloria. If Fact Find Something So Important, Why Is it
So Late in The Process?

Inniss: I Assume You Are Referring to the Way We Are Conducting
Investigations Now, Why It\'s So Far in the Process. So Late in the
Process. The Process Is Mandated by the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission. We Do Have an Inquiry During Counseling That Is Very, Very
Early in the Process. It\'s Not a Formal Investigation, But Enough
Inquiry to Be Able to Identify the Issues and the Remedy That Is Being
Sought by The Complainant. Immediately after Formal Complaint Is
Investigated, Is Accepted, Filed and Accepted, The Complaint Is Supposed
to Be Investigated. So If You Are Referring to the Fact That We Are
Being Late in The Bureau, I Would like to Share with You That We Are
Making Every Effort Possible Now To Complete the Whole Process in A
Bureau Level of All Complaints Within 90 Days from the Date That
Complaint Is Filed. If You Are Referring at When in The Process the
Investigation Takes Place, We Do Not Have Any Control over That Because
the Procedures for Processing Complaints of Discrimination Are Mandated
by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Stoebe: Thank You.

Inniss: I Hope That Answers The Question.

Stoebe: Second Half of this Fax and I\'ll Direct this One to You,
Carolyn: When Will ADR Begin in the State Offices?

Burrell: Thank You for the Question. One of the Reasons That We\'re
Having the Broadcast Today Is as A Way of Introducing the ADR Process to
More Managers and Supervisors Within the Bureau Actually Eastern States
Can Begin to Use ADR Immediately. If You Are Interested in Finding Out
More about the Training, Then Again I Would Encourage to You Talk with
Gloria Inniss or Jeff Walker, Who Are Both in the Washington Office EEO
Group. And of Course, Gloria Has Been On the Panel with Us All Day
Today. Or You Can Contact Linda Nix, Your EEO Manager to Get More
Information on ADR from Her. But, Again, Let Me Just Emphasize That ADR,
We Are Encouraging All of the State Offices and the Centers to Begin To
Use ADR in Order to Resolve Hrm Disputes. So, Please, If You\'re
Interested In Beginning to Use this Process Then You Can Begin Right
Away. I Hope That That Answers Your Question.

Stoebe: Good. Thank You. I Think That Does it for the Faxes That We Have
on Hand Right Now. I Would like to Thank Everyone Who Faxed or Called
In. Your Questions Are Really Important. They Really Made this Program.
If We Didn\'t Get to Your Fax, If Somehow it Slipped Through or It\'s
Coming in Now, the EEO Program Will Get Back to You After the Program.
Any Closing Comments from Our Panel? Carolyn?

Burrell: Thank You, Robin. As All of You Realize, You Have Received
Quite a Bit of Information on the ADR Program In General as Well as on
BLM\'s Program as it Exists with Respect to the Human Resources
Management Program as Well as The Resources Program Here Within the
Bureau. I Would like to Encourage Managers and Supervisors to Begin
Using Mediation to Resolve Disputes in the Workplace. As You Have
Learned in Today\'s Broadcast, We Are Training Employees to Become
Certified as Mediators and I Think You Can See from Much of the Response
That We Got Today ‑‑ as a Result Of this Broadcast, Everyone Is Really
Interested in the Process And If You Haven\'t Got Involved As of Yet,
the Interest Is Definitely Here. I Think Within the Bureau. This Program
Will Offer Us Another Way to Resolve Conflicts Hopefully to the
Satisfaction of Both Parties and at Reduced Costs to the Bureau. You\'ve
Heard a Lot of Statistics Today with Respect to How Much It Costs to
Actually Process Complaints of Discrimination, And You\'ve Heard
Information as Well Today on the Reductions of Costs Associated Not Only
Moneywise but with Respect to Staff Time That Other Agencies And
Departments Within the Federal Government Have Experienced as a Result
of the Implementation of ADR. I Would Also Ask Any of You Who Have
Questions about Alternative Dispute Resolution to Call Gloria Inniss or
Jeff Walker in Washington. Both of Them Are More than Capable of Giving
You Any Information You Might Need on The Subject. Thank You Very Much.
I Enjoyed Participating in the Forum Today.

Stoebe: Thank You. Bill, Have You Got Any Comments From a Line
Manager\'s Perspective?

Calkins: Yeah, Thanks, Robin. I Think I Would like to Say, You Know, We
Hear the Terms Work Smarter, Not Harder, and We Don\'t Often Know What
That Really Means. I Think ADR Provides Us Some Techniques If We Became
Familiar With Them and Their Application Would That Indeed Make That
Statement Come True, That We Can Work Smarter and Not Harder. That
Doesn\'t Mean It\'s Going to Resolve Every Natural Resource Conflict
That We Have. Some of Them Are Going To, as a Previous Caller Asked,
They\'re Litigatory, Embroiled in Conflict for Many Years. However, in
Other Cases I Think ADR Is the Answer. We Need to Be Familiar with and
It Use It.

Stoebe: Marvin, Any Final Words of Wisdom?

Johnson: Sure, Thanks, Robin. First Thing I Would Say Is Become
Knowledgeable about ADR. Get Some Training. Second Thing Is I Would Say
Understand the Difference Between the Various ADR Processes, like on the
Continuum. The Third Thing I Would Say Is Become Knowledgeable about
Your Particular ADR Program in Your Agency. The Fourth Thing I Will Say
Is Look for Ways to Utilize Their Program in Conjunction with Your Daily
Activities in the Workplace. Thank You, Robin.

Stoebe: Thank You, Marvin. Gloria, Any Last Thoughts from The National
Program Perspective?

Inniss: Well, I Would like to Echo the Few ‑‑ the First Words We Heard
Today When We Opened. I Would like to Echo Mat\'s Words. He Said That We
Can Hardly Afford to Spend More Bureau Limited Resources in Costly Case
Processing and Litigation. I Also, of Course, Echo All the Good Advice
That We Have Received from the Other Panelists on All the Advantages
That There Are in Alternative ‑‑ In the Use of Alternative Dispute
Resolution. I Invite Our Managers and Supervisors to Reflect on What
They Have Heard Today Because, Really, What You Have Heard Is The Gain
That There Could Be for You as a Manager and for the Bureau of Land
Management as an Organization in the Use of Alternative Dispute
Resolution. I Also Would like To, If We Have The Time, in Closing I
Would Like to Thank the National Training Center for the Outstanding
Service That They Have Provided to the Washington Office in the
Coordination and All the Planning of this Broadcast Presentation I Would
Also like to Thank Angie Lara Who Assisted Us, the People That Assisted
Us from Washington, That Includes Jesse Hicks from My Staff, and I Want
to Give a Very Special Thanks to Jeff Walker, Who Has Been Really
Instrumental in the Implementation of Alternative Dispute Resolution
Program in The Bureau of Land Manager and Has Been the Force Behind
These Broadcasts. Thank You.

Stoebe: Thank You, Gloria. That about Wraps it up for Our Seminar on
Alternative Dispute Resolution. I Would like to Remind Our Downlink
Sites to Have All Viewers Sign the Attendance Roster and Fax it to the
National Training Center Immediately after Today\'s Show. Also, Please
Complete the Program Evaluation as Soon as Possible Following the
Instructions Provided. Fax it to the Ntc Using the Fax Numbers for this
Broadcast. Both Roster and Evaluation Forms Were in the Package Sent to
Your Office Before this Program. I Would Also like to Mention Some
Upcoming Ntc Distance Learning Events. A Telecast on April 9th Will
Discuss Cost Reimbursement Systems. On May 1st Ntc Will Transmit a
National Interagency Workshop on Implementing Western Riparian
Implementation on May 7 and 8th An Overview of Workers\' Compensation
Program for Managers, Supervisors and All Employees, and a Three‑day
Course, Which Will Provide an Introduction to Interpretation, Will Be
Broadcast on May 21st Through the 23rd. For Information on These
Telecasts as Well as Other Satellite Courses, Call the Training Center
at 602‑906‑5500 Or Visit the Ntc Home Page. To Help Your Office
Participate In Future Ntc Broadcasts See the BLM Satellite Downlink
Guide or Visit the Home Page on the World Wide Web. Ntc\'s Internet
Address Is Www.ntc.BLM.gov. Transcripts of this Telecast And Other Ntc
Broadcasts Are Available on this Home Page. I Would like to Thank
Everyone Who Participated in Today\'s Show. It\'s Only Through Programs
like This We\'re Able to Interact with You and Share Information on
Initiatives for More Effectively Managing BLM\'s Work Forces as Move
into the Future.→