Founder
Current
Bob Stains And Associates, Conflict Transformation
Boston, Ma Area
I help groups and organizations to heal wounds related to identity differences by facilitating dialogues, consulting to leaders, training and coaching in-house facilitators. I also work with conflict engagement professionals in small groups to mentor, train and coach them to advance their practice of designing and facilitating dialogues to repair identity-based divisions. I have trained over 30,000 professionals in communication and dialogue facilitation skills in the US and abroad, drawing on my long experience of facilitating dialogues across divides of identity, religion, and values. Over the space of 22 years, I helped build the Public Conversations Project (now known as Essential Partners) –a pioneer of the modern dialogue movement- from a small local group to an internationally-renowned team of practitioners, trainers and consultants. I advise leaders on preventing and engaging conflict and was one of the original mediator trainers of the US Postal Service’s innovative REDRESS mediation program. For 15 years I also consulted to the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School and I've taught in the dispute resolution programs of the law schools of Mitchell-Hamline and Pepperdine universities. I co-founded The Family Dinner Project which now resides at Massachusetts General Hospital and I sit on the Executive Board of The Democracy Imperative. As part of the PCP/EP team, I have been honored by the American Family Therapy Academy, the Society for Professionals in Dispute Resolution, and the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Graduate Program in Dispute Resolution. My web site is www.bobstains.com