The Insight Approach to Communication and Conflict – Workshop

A Practical Workshop for Students in the ACLC Program at UPEI

January 24-25, 2020

Led by Dr. Cheryl Picard

ACLC students are invited to a workshop on practical approaches to conflict with one of our faculty, Dr. Cheryl Picard. She is a leading scholar and practitioner in the skills of mediation and conflict resolution. She is the founder of the insight approach, a learning-centered method of mediation which will be the subject of the workshop. This is a great opportunity for our students to learn from someone with training in criminology and social work, and to get better connected to some of the people in these fields.

Space is limited and priority will be given to ACLC students, but after the RSVP deadline, additional seats will be opened to other members of the UPEI community. Please contact student representative Katie Clark (keclark2@upei.ca) for more information. RSVP by 10 January 2020.

Description:

This workshop will introduce ACLC students to some of the communication, conflict and leadership skills being advanced through the “Insight approach to conflict”. This approach was founded by Dr. Picard to help conflict professionals engage conflicting parties in an interactive learning process as a way to change dysfunctional patterns of interaction and resolve disputes.  This relational approach to communication and leadership responds to how individuals interpret everyday interactions; interpretations that are embedded in dynamic and emergent social relations from which individuals make meaning and then act. In the Insight approach conflict is viewed as an interpretation of threat to deep level values that lead people to respond with “defend” patterns of interaction that only serve to generate, escalate or sustain conflict.  Helping individuals and groups to understand more about their values and how they contribute to their actions assists them to seek new ways of interacting that are less threatening and more productive. In this workshop, ACLC students will learn: 1) new ways of thinking about difficult and conflictual interpersonal and group relations 2) how to deepen the learning conversation by listening to understand and asking about interpretation, meaning-making, feelings and values, 3) how to link, delink and verify insights, and 4) to advance their existing communication and leadership skills and develop new ones.

Required Readings:

  1. Chapters 3 and 6 in Practicing Insight Mediation (2016) by Cheryl Picard.
  2. “Insight, Communication and Leadership” by Cheryl Picard (2018) unpublished essay.

Workshop Dates and Times:

Friday,  January 24, 2020, 6:00 to 9:00

  • Refreshments will be provided

Saturday, January 25, 2020, 9:00 to 5:00

  • Lunch and refreshments will be provided

Room: Andrew Hall 142

Instructor:

Dr. Cheryl Picard is emeritus professor Carleton University; adjunct professor, Department of Applied Communication, Leadership and Culture at the University of Prince Edward Island; adjunct professor and Co-Chair Advisory Council, School of Humanitarian Studies, Royal Roads University, Victoria BC. While at Carleton, Dr. Picard founded the Graduate Diploma in Conflict Resolution, the Centre for Conflict Education and Research, and the Mediation Centre. She has taught conflict courses at Teachers College Columbia University; the School for Conflict Analysis and Research at George Mason University; the Law University of Lithuania; Royal Roads University, and the University of Winnipeg.

Dr. Picard has authored four books, the most recent, Practicing Insight Mediation (2016) focuses on the skills of mediation and conflict resolution using the insight approach, and numerous refereed journal articles. Her work over the years has helped to establish conflict resolution and mediation programs in Cuba, Bermuda, Trinidad, and Tobago. Cheryl received the FAMMA award for exceptional contributions to the field of mediation in 2008; that same year she was one of 50 women from across Canada recognized for long-standing peace work by the Department of Peace Initiative in cooperation with the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and the Civilian Peace Service Canada. Cheryl was nominated for the Ottawa YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction award in the category of Education and Training in 2009, after which she served as an Ambassador for the Y Women of Distinction Award Committee. In 2016, she became the First Honorary Accredited Family Mediator by the Ontario Association for Family Mediation (OAFM) for valuable and distinguished services to the family mediation profession.