Goals

• To provide strategic assistance to help parties find new and constructive options to resolve or manage their conflicts.
• To provide skills training to organizations and communities to strengthen their dispute resolution and problem-solving capacity.
• To develop and disseminate cutting edge ideas in conflict management through an ongoing interchange with theorists and practitioners.

Programmatic Offerings

STRATEGIC ASSISTANCE
Through various forms of Strategic Assistance, CMG works with the parties, on an unofficial and informal basis, to find new options for dealing with a protracted problem or conflict, building or rebuilding key working relationships, or improving channels of communication. CMG Strategic Assistance draws on the following tools:

• Facilitated Joint Brainstorming. Working with the parties together to improve the relationship, develop a better understanding of the situation and of each other, and develop creative yet realistic options for moving forward on issues of substance and process. Examples: Ecuador-Peru (border dispute), Georgia-South Ossetia (refugees, political status, other issues), Canadian negotiations with First Nations (Northwest Territories), Springfield, Massachusetts (dealing with racial tensions).

• Facilitated Dialogue. Working with the parties together to improve communication on difficult and emotional issues. Examples: The Hague Initiative (ethnic leaders and Russian Government), Cyprus (policy and political leaders).

• Parallel Training and Advising. Separate but parallel training sessions in negotiation, communication, and joint problem solving with each party to a conflict. Advising sessions help parties prepare for and conduct negotiations, design processes for joint problem solving, and identify sources of substantive expertise. Examples: South Africa (political leaders and negotiation teams from the ANC and National Party Government), El Salvador (FMLN and Government negotiators).

• Joint Training. Training the parties together in negotiation and joint problem solving. Examples: Sudan (negotiation teams), NATO-Warsaw Pact (diplomats), South Africa (labor-management).

• Conflict Analysis. Fact-finding initiatives designed to understand causes of the impasse and to explore options for improving the situation. Examples: Sri Lanka, Colombia.

• Mediation. Providing advice and support for mediatory efforts and, in select circumstances, serving as an intermediary between the parties. Examples: numerous U.S. and Canadian cases.

CAPACITY BUILDING
CMG works to improve the ability of communities and organizations to negotiate productively and manage conflict effectively. CMG has helped to build capacity within governments, intergovernmental organizations, and with grassroots or community-based organizations. Capacity building projects typically involve one or more of the following activities:

• Training of trainers, facilitators and mediators.  Helping organizations and community leaders develop skills to do skills training or provide facilitation or mediation services to help manage conflicts in their community or organization. Examples: CMG has trained trainers and facilitators in communities in the U.S., Cyprus, South Africa, former Soviet Union, Guatemala, and for international organizations like the WHO, and OAU.

• Diagnostic study.  Interviews and analysis aimed at understanding how an organization or community currently deals with conflict and negotiation, identification of areas for improvement, and developing possible options and requirements for a capacity building program.
• Development of customized curricula and trainers' manuals.  Working with an organization or community leaders to develop training materials suited to the culture and audience.  Examples: developing a non-text based curriculum incorporating the use of fables and stories for a group of grassroots organizations in Burundi and locally produced curricula in Burkina Faso and South Africa.
• Capacity building design.  As a standard part of most capacity building efforts, we work with organizations and clients to develop a system to make effective use of any new conflict management, facilitation or training capacity.  Examples: OSCE, OAU, WHO, and numerous communities.

These capacity-building services can be used toward several different ends, including:

• Development of a conflict resolution training capacity within an organization
• Training of trainers and negotiation curriculum development for grassroots organizations
• Development of a conflict management team within an organization
• Training of mediators or facilitators to deal with community problems and disputes

THEORY-PRACTICE INTERCHANGE
Despite the growth in the field of conflict resolution and its growing acceptance by official actors, there is still a substantial gap between the worlds of theory and practice in this field.  Often, potentially useful concepts are articulated in a form sufficient to withstand academic critique, but are not accessible to practitioners. Conversely, some practitioners have developed innovative and useful techniques that go beyond what is currently contemplated in the academic literature.  Given the right conditions, theory and practice can inform and strengthen each other, but currently such conditions rarely exist.

CMG is uniquely positioned to provide a link between the worlds of theory and practice as it relates to conflict management. CMG has honed its ability to make theory relevant to practitioners through its work in a variety of cultures on six continents and with diverse audiences such as teen gang members in Boston, senior diplomats and government officials, indigenous people in northern Canada, and CEOs and executives from major businesses.  CMG also has the ability to harvest sound theoretical concepts based on its work in the field and with academic institutions.

Board of Directors

Ambassador Ivonne A-Baki
Ecuadorian Ambassador to U.S.

Joseph E. Anton
President, Joseph E. Anton, Inc.

Landrum Bolling (Emeritus)
Director at Large, Mercy Corps

Scott Brown
Former Dean, William Jewett Tucker Foundation,
Dartmouth College

Antonia Handler Chayes -Vice Chair
Senior Advisor, CMG
Lecturer, JFK School of Government

Roger Fisher
Co-Founder, CMG
Professor Emeritus, Harvard Law School

Mark Fuller
President, Monitor Company

Mark Gordon - Chair
President, CMI Vantage Partners
Co-Founder, CMG

Luisa Mendoza di Pulido
Director, Eugenio Mendoza Fundacion

Jim Sebenius
Professor, Harvard Business School

Philippe Villers
Founder, Families USA Foundation