Past Roundtable Events
Brain Fishing: How to Ask Questions
Guest Speaker: Roy Baroff
Date: May 29, 2025
Description: In this roundtable, Roy will be sharing a thought-provoking approach to enhancing our questioning techniques and deepening our mediation practice. Come ready to explore how the right questions can shape conversations, uncover hidden perspectives, and lead to more effective outcomes. Whether you’re a seasoned mediator or just starting out, this session will provide valuable tools to refine your skills.
Emotional Intelligence and Mediation
Guest Speaker: Dr. Bianca Briciu
Date: April 22, 2025
Description: In the complex world of conflict resolution, emotional intelligence (EI) plays a crucial role in fostering understanding, building trust, and guiding parties toward meaningful agreements. This roundtable will explore how mediators can leverage EI to navigate high-tension situations, manage their own emotions, and respond effectively to the emotions of others. Participants will discuss key EI competencies—such as self-awareness, empathy, and emotional regulation—and their practical applications in mediation. Through shared experiences and interactive dialogue, this session will provide valuable insights into enhancing mediation effectiveness through emotional intelligence.
When Attorneys Serve as Mediators: Observing Two Sets of Ethics Standards
Guest Speakers: Mac Reed & Ken Rosenbaum
Date: March 12, 2025
Description: Explore the ethical challenges faced by attorney–mediators in this engaging presentation. Attorney and ethics counsel Mac Reed, along with attorney–mediator Ken Rosenbaum, will discuss tricky situations like handling potential conflicts of interest, dealing with threats from parties, and navigating confidentiality when ethical standards are violated. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights into the conundrums that attorney mediators encounter.
Practice Alone Does Not Make Perfect: the Benefits of Reflective Practice
Guest Speakers: Ellen Waldorf & Michael Lang
Date: February 27, 2025
Description: Join us for an insightful presentation on Reflective Practice, a method that helps conflict resolution practitioners enhance their skills by learning from their real-world experiences. Discover how the Reflective Debrief® model fosters personal, relevant, and lasting growth by encouraging mediators to examine their thinking and evaluate their approaches. The session will include a brief introduction to these principles, along with a live demonstration of the model in action.
Do We Walk It Like We Talk It?
Guest Speaker: Gloria Rhodes
Date: January 28, 2025
Description: Our professional work is judged by how well we model and live out our values, such as equity, healthy relationships, and dignity, both at work and in our personal lives. Join us for a candid discussion on the challenges and strategies for sustaining ourselves. We’ll explore a framework for self-reflection and action, emphasizing self-awareness, self-care, and accountability to our values.
Summary Process Agreement Writing Workshop
Guest Speaker: Diana Chiang
Date: November 5, 2024
Description: Please join MWI’s Diana Chiang for an interactive workshop designed to discuss tools needed to draft a strong eviction mediation agreement, review Court agreement forms, and examine past sample agreements. This workshop will focus exclusively on Summary Process/ Eviction matters.
Support Self-Determination in Difficult Situations
Guest Speakers: Tara West and Dan Simon
Date: October 22, 2024
Description: Join Tara West and Dan Simon, co-authors of Self-Determination in Mediation: The Art and Science of Mirrors and Lights, as they delve into how mediators can uphold party self-determination even when external constraints limit choices. Learn strategies for handling situations where parties ask mediators to make decisions, disagree on participation, or face imposed time limits and documentation requirements. Discover how to navigate these challenges and maximize party choice, even in difficult circumstances.
Confidentiality in Mediation: What Does Massachusetts Law Protect, and Not Protect?
Guest Speakers: David Hoffman and Robin DiGiammarino
Date: September 11, 2024
Description: Please join special guests David Hoffman and Robin DiGiammarino as they discuss their recent collaboration in defending mediators’ confidentiality after Robin was served with a subpoena for her work in connection with an MWI mediation, and David represented her in getting the subpoena quashed. They will discuss the process from receiving the subpoena to their appearance in Court. This discussion will also explore more generally the confidentiality protections provided in Mass. General Laws Chapter 233 Section 23C and the parties’ agreement to participate in mediation.
The Role of an Organizational Ombuds
Guest Speakers: Dana Hinojosa & Elise Ramos
Date: August 28, 2024
Description: This presentation explores the role of organizational ombuds and the various benefits they can bring to the organizations they partner with. Our guest speakers will also compare and contrast an ombuds meeting and facilitative mediation.
