Maria Simpson, Ph.D, executive coach, consultant, trainer and mediator
Website: http://www.mariasimpson.com/index.html
Biography:
Maria Simpson, Ph.D. is an executive coach, consultant, trainer and mediator who has worked extensively with the corporate, non-profit and conflict resolution communities to promote incorporating conflict resolution into organizational systems and training people in the skills and approaches of mediation.
As an executive coach, Dr. Simpson works one-on-one with managers at senior levels to improve their conflict resolution and management communications skills. She also works with teams and departments to improve their decision-making and group process skills, which often focus on improving their ability to manage disagreement and reach resolution.
As a consultant to management, Dr. Simpson has conducted large-scale organization development programs that both integrated conflict management systems and approaches into new training and development programs, and worked with departments on a national level to identify the source of conflict and make recommendations for addressing it.
Dr. Simpson is active in the conflict resolution community. She:
serves as a volunteer mediator for the LA County Superior Court.
has taught conflict management and communications at UCSB and UCLA Extension programs, Antioch University/Santa Barbara, and CSU Dominguez Hills.
speaks on the topic at conferences such as the Association for Conflict Resolution and the Southern California Mediation Association.
Segment 1 Maria Simpson - Author of "Leading Unstoppable Teams"
On this edition of The Doug Noll Show, we have with us Maria Simpson. Maria's journey began when she obtained her in PHd in communications but communications never once mentioned mediation, conflict resolution or peace building (which is her calling now). While Maria was obtaining her PhD in communications she took a program called media ecology. The program set up to have an understanding of the complex communications environment like in mediation conflict resolution. This grabbed her attention.
Her change came when she move to California 20 years ago. One day she suddenly saw an ad "training for mediation" and even though she barely knew what that word meant, there was just something about it that clicked. She knew she must jump on this opportunity. Within three weeks she was in training with the Bar Association and Bill Haas was the trainer. This changed my life forever.
Doug and Maria touch on the subject that but the skills that we learn as beginning mediators are life skills that every human being should be exposed to because they teach us how to really listen to each other effectively and solve problems and it's been learned that these skill are not taught. It is something that does not enter into the public consciousness.
Also discussed in this segment is workplace issues and solving with mediation verses the attorney route. Mediation is still getting to be known in our culture but there are community mediation centers everywhere. It's a more affordable and often more effective result.
Segment 2 Leadership and Organizational Conflict Resolution
In this segment, Doug and Maria discuss that leadership failure is the number one cause of organizational conflict. This is often caused by the different styles of leadership and the fact that managers have never really learned the skills to be a leader. People are looking for leaders and when a leader is weak or do the work of the employees, there is no respect and it causes many internal issues.
Segment 3 Workplace Behavior Maria shares with us a story about a unit of city government that she was called in to find out whether or not the leader was a terrible bully or just very unprofessional. The city government and Maria set up a organizational study beginning with designing an interview protocol. Maria interviewed 35 out of the 125 of the staff which almost a third of the people in the department. She submitted a questionnaire and the staff was so eager to tell their stories that some of the wrote 5 page letters. Right away, she knew there was an issue with this government leader and how he treated staff. Shortly after her report was a presented to the officials, the leader was let go.
Very fascinating segment
Segment 4 Public Knowledge
Maria and Doug discuss the importance of teaching the public about mediation and her role with SCMA (Southern California Mediation Association).
Click here to listen to this fascinating interview: http://wsradio.com/040215-maria-simpson-author-of-leading-unstoppable-teams-the-best-of-2-minute-training/