Intro/Advanced Training Module Approach
2 Day Intro/One Day Advanced Negotiation
I’m often asked what makes Collaborative Groups successful. How does an organization create a climate that fosters the growth of Collaborative Law/Collaborative Practice as a process option? I believe that the key ingredients for success are a good initial training, at least a few energetic people willing to spend countless hours encouraging their colleagues to commit to the process, and follow up-trainings that insure that the professionals who commit to the process are both confident and competent in their abilities. Lawyer confidence is especially important. When lawyers don’t feel confident, they do not speak confidently to clients about the ability of the process to make a difference in the nature and outcome of a divorce. When a client asks what makes the risk of “losing his lawyer” worth it, the lawyer has to believe that the benefits of the process are worth the risks.
For groups that have had an initial training and are ready to train additional people to create “critical mass”, there is an alternative new training approach to consider.
The trainings include two concurrent training modules over a Thursday/Friday. The first module is a 2 day (Thursday and Friday) initial workshop for who have not been exposed to Collaborative Practice. The workshop is geared primarily to lawyers, but speaks to the roles of mental health and financial planners and they are welcome to attend. It is not what is often called an “inter-disciplinary training.” The second module is a 1 day (Friday) Workshop that focuses on Negotiating Collaborative Law Cases. This workshop is for those who have already had an initial training and have had collaborative cases and those who have not yet had cases. After the Friday workshop, I recommend a social hour that blends the two groups and begins to establish the collegiality that is critical to making the process viable.
This approach requires two trainers and I have joined with Victoria Smith, a lawyer and mediator from Toronto, Canada to provide this two module approach. Victoria is a co-author of Collaborative Family Law, Another Way to Resolve Family Disputes, (published by Carswell in 2003) and is a well-known trainer in Canada. We have jointly created a Negotiation Training Module and those who have taken the training have been extremely enthusiastic. Victoria and I jointly teach at the first day of the Introductory training and then Victoria teaches the second day of the intro training and I teach the one day Negotiation Workshop.
There are obvious advantages of training both your existing group and new participants at the same time. It creates a financial savings in trainer, transportation, and facility costs. We have tried to make these combined training modules costs effective to insure that even if a large number of people do not attend, you will be able to meet your training costs. If you would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
