News and Views

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) asked CBI and the Massachusetts Office Of Dispute Resolution (MODR) to explore the possibility of a new, innovative model for a National Forest unit in the Northern Berkshire region.

To explore this concept, a joint idea from the state and the U.S. Forest Service, CBI and MODR conducted 12 focus groups with over 80 individuals. The team met with landowners, regional economic development agencies, land trusts, foresters, and others. The assessment team sought to gain insight into stakeholders’ views and concerns about the idea as well as how the state should engage them in further deliberation on the concept.

In general, most, but not all interviewees across various interest groups expressed concern and uncertainty about the ideal of a National Forest service unit within Massachusetts

Almost all recognized the unique challenges in this region today, including increased development pressure, a forestry industry in recession if not decline, struggling municipalities, and chronic state underinvestment. Furthermore, many noted the importance of preserving the current way of life, the rural character, small town life, and working, beautiful forest and open landscapes. Thus, they did see benefit in the additional assistance that state and federal dollars and technical resources could provide. But most interviewees expressed strong concern about the mechanism for state-federal support (a new, innovative Forest Service unit), although they agreed that partnerships were essential across sectors and governments to ensure the vitality and future of the region.

The focus groups were led by Patrick Field and Ona Ferguson, CBI, and Loraine Della Porta and Kurt Dettman , MODR. Read the Focus Group and Interview Summary Report.

In summer 2009, CBI completed an assessment for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to help them prepare to model the flows of the Connecticut River.  In comi

The Air Force cleanup of Massachusetts Military Reservation completed its final Record of Decision this fall, finalizing the cleanup of overall fifteen groundwater plumes and some seventy source areas. CBI has been facilitating various technical, managerial, and public engagement efforts since 1996. With strong collaboration among regulators, the military, and community leaders and advocates, the cleanup now successfully moves into operations and maintenance of the many groundwater treatment systems.

CBI's Hal Movius recently partnered with Cambridge International Consulting to teach negotiation best practices in a series of workshops in the Dominican Republic. In addition to teaching workshops, Dr. Movius also participated in several television interviews and was featured in Listin Diario, a major newspaper. See the article here.

CBI's Hal Movius led a half-day workshop at the 4th Annual CFO Rising West Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas. The workshop was attended by 35 CFOs and other financial executives from a range of industries.

Based on the new book Built to Win: Creating A World Class Negotiating Organization, the interactive workshop highlighted ways that senior executives can support effective preparation and value creation in key negotiations. Feedback from participants was very positive.

Presentations of this nature stem from CBI's ongoing efforts to promote effective negotiation in organizations of every kind—public or private. If an organization does not have in place a clear and credible process model, as well as the tools, measures, coaching, and mechanisms for continuous learning, individual negotiators are unlikely to succeed. See examples of how CBI helps build "world-class negotiating organizations" >>

PJM Interconnection is a regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in 13 states and the District of Columbia—the largest RTO in the United States. In June of 2009, PJM asked CBI and Raab Associates, a long-time CBI partner, to conduct an assessment of its members process and overall governance structure.

In order to provide advice and reach decisions on matters related to reliability and electricity market rules, PJM Interconnection's members process includes some 500 members and undertakes about 300 meetings per year. CBI and Raab Associates worked closely with the PJM's Governance Assessment Team (GAST) to develop a detailed interview protocol with which to evaluate this members process. We conduced interviews with over 75 individuals ranging from PJM Board members to representatives of the five industry sectors. Following this extensive data collection, CBI and Raab Associates developed a 55-question assessment survey which was responded to by over 100 members.

After a presentation of the assessment's findings and recommendations to the full Members Committee, PJM decided to move forward with a facilitated process to improve and optimize their stakeholder process.

• Learn more about CBI's Stakeholder Assessment services
• Read more about CBI's work: Case Studies

 

How should federal, state and municipal agencies and departments plan ahead for the risks associated with climate change and sea level rise?  What should they be doing to minimize impacts to citizens, habitats and infrastructure?

Climate change will cause and is likely already causing impacts on a range of key areas.  Sea level rise increases risk decision-makers must manage in many areas, including: increased flooding and inundation, increased risks of water-born diseases, storm intensification, displacement, shoreline erosion, and loss of critical habitat.  By understanding for these increased risks and the process options available to them, managers will be able to make informed, politically feasible decisions that will reduce climate change risks and be good to address other concerns as well.

This two-day symposium is designed to provide decision-makers with an overview of risk management associated with climate change, the opportunity to discuss the political and process challenges associated with adaptation, and strategies for managing the right planning process to get to agreement.

Thursday October 29 and Friday October 30, 2009
Lincoln House, Cambridge, MA
Staff: Larry Susskind, Patrick Field, Ona Ferguson, Melissa Stults, Marina Alberti, and Paul Kirshen

Registration required. Please email lincolninstitute@resource-plus.com or call (888) 845-8759 for more information.

In August 2009, CBI’s Hal Movius will be producing two new professional quality High-Def negotiation training DVDs for a Fortune 100 Company. The first portrays Hard, Soft and Mutual Gains negotiating behaviors in a series of eight vignettes.  One set of (four) vignettes focuses on up front contract negotiations for a service contract. The second set looks at a dispute that arises toward the end of the agreement. For each set of vignettes, viewers see different combinations of Hard/Soft/Mutual Gains interactions and techniques, with the goal of identifying the key behaviors that Mutual Gains negotiators need to learn and deploy to manage Hard and Soft negotiators.

The second video is a 20-minute “feature” that follows the story of a negotiation between a large manufacturer and one of its distribution partners. The film follows a protagonist from preparation (inside her company) to a series of meetings with her counterpart. Between these meetings are more internal meetings at which she gets coaching and advice from her boss and a colleague.

Both films use professional actors, and a full film crew. “We’re very excited by the opportunity to create realistic, fast-moving, high quality video materials,” says Movius. “In keeping with our training philosophy, the materials are tailored to meet specific pedagogical needs and to provide real-world examples of negotiation in a specific context.”  

The two films expand CBI’s library of video materials, including two High-Def videos (one on coaching negotiators) produced by Movius in 2007.

In May and June 2009, CBI Washington Office Director Merrick Hoben spoke at regional events regarding the nexus between consensus building and leadership skills.

For Leadership Arlington, an organization committed to building community leadership in Northern VA,  Merrick provided insights on how apply consensus building skills at the level of resolving neighborhood conflict.

For the National Charette Institute, Merrick was asked to speak on how the consensus building framework can be effectively applied to the practice of charettes and building collaborative community plans.

Finally, for the Natural Resources Leadership Institute, he spoke about the role of government leadership in managing and transforming controversial natural resource and environmental issues.

For more information about these talks, Merrick can be reached at mhoben@cbuilding.org. If you are looking for a talk, presentation, or keynote address, please meet our staff or contact us.