By Prof. Mary Rowe, MIT

Covid-19, Black Lives Matter and #MeToo are illuminating our world like a lightning storm. These recent events inspire renewed commitment to understanding how organizational ombuds (OOs) can survive and thrive - for our organizations, for all our constituents and for ourselves. The humble questions below evolved to contribute to a recent sector meeting. Subsequent conversations highlighted the importance of these questions for all ombuds, and also the importance of our sharing the wisdom of each of us. If any of this is useful would you consider contributing ideas? (See the last paragraph.)  

Surviving: What IS surviving? 

By Bruce MacAllister 
IOA Board of Directors

In these strange and challenging times, many mediation and ombudsman programs are having to make the switch to working virtually with visitors using a variety of web-based and telephone-based meeting approaches.  While much of my mediation and ombuds work has been based out of “brick and mortar” programs, since 2011, much of my work has also been global and virtual. 

Making the switch from face-to-face, in-person meetings to more distant substitutes poses some challenges, but over time I have discovered some tips that seem to help close the gap between the comfort and ease of sitting down together in an informal setting to building connections with visitors and others via phone or via conferencing software.  The goal of this posting is to offer a few tips to successfully bridging the gap between the comparative ease and comfort of in-person meetings to holding those meetings from a distance.

Tips:

Tip 1: Observe ceremony.  When a visitor comes to me for an in-person meeting there are several things that are important:

by International Ombudsman Association

Kennesaw State will host a two-day ombuds workshop in Savannah on June 4th & 5th.

Based on feedback from last year's participants, we've developed an agenda with experienced ombuds professionals delivering each session:

by Roy Baroff, COOP®, Faculty and Staff Ombuds, NC State University

This is part of an ongoing series of conversations between an IOA Board Director and an IOA member.  In mid-August I, Roy Baroff (RB), spoke with Amanda Dean (AD), asking about her journey into ombuds practice, how IOA helped along the way, and what else IOA could or should be doing. We had a pretty far-ranging conversation; here’s a summary, and I hope you enjoy it! I really appreciate Amanda for sharing her time and her journey with us!

 RB: Could you start by sharing how you got into ombuds work?

There is still time to register for an exciting course taking place in Cartagena de Indias this October!  

The International Ombudsman Association (IOA) and the University of Los Andes are sponsoring an International Course on Labor Dispute Resolution based on IOA’s Foundations of Organizational Ombudsman Practice course. The course will take place in Cartagena de Indias on October 21-23, 2019. This is the first-ever IOA course offered in Colombia. The course will be conducted in Spanish. 

Course Description: Workplace conflict frequently emerges, whether it be in the classroom, public entities, or private companies. When conflicts are poorly managed, they cause declines in productivity and morale, consume time and resources, and trigger stress that can manifest physiologically. Such conflicts can cause long-lasting negative effects and costly legal/administrative fees that commonly result in unsatisfactory outcomes for the parties involved.

By Tim Hedeen, Professor of Conflict Management and University Ombuds, Kennesaw State University
and Jennifer Schneider, Student Ombuds, University of South Florida

✔ Do you like sunshine, history, and architecture?
✔ Do you enjoy meeting with other bright, like-minded people?
✔ Are you an ombuds in the southeastern region of the US?

If you answered affirmatively to any of the above statements, then join us in Savannah, GA this summer!

Coordinated by Lisa Neale and Hector Escalante, in conjunction with Cal Caucus, this book club exists to connect the ombuds community to talk about privilege, inclusion, and justice. All are welcome to participate.

The group’s first meeting will be held via Zoom for one hour on Friday, 08 March at 2PM Eastern. The book to be discussed is White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Dr. Robin DiAngelo, a New York Times Bestseller. (Dr. DiAngelo is scheduled to be a keynote speaker at #IOA2019 in New Orleans in April.)

IOA2019 Conference Registration Open!

Were you able to attend Popcorn Share: Discover New Resources to Enhance Your Ombuds Practice in Richmond? It was a highly-interactive session that resulted in the “crowdsharing” of this 9-page Popcorn Share Resource Guide. Within the guide you’ll find a variety of nuggets on coaching, training, navigating sticky situations, addressing systemic issues, and all kinds of professional development tips and tools.

We challenge all ombuds to review the list, discover something new, and comment below with something missed! Resources can be books, movies, assessments, tools, videos. TED talks, articles, ancient wisdom, psychology, brain science, metaphors, images, mantras….

Have some fun with it!