tips from dispute resolution experts
How do you negotiate with someone who has all the power?
You may have to negotiate with your boss for example, who has all
the power. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do. We all have
the power to be more effective negotiators and use techniques that will
persuade others to do things that we want them to do. For example,
when you’re negotiating with your boss, you can refer to objective
criteria or standards of fairness as a way to persuade. Everyone likes
to think that they’re being fair and if your boss sees that he or she is
not being fair, they may change their approach.
What is the most important question in a negotiation?
The answer is “Why”. Asking “Why” gets us information about
other peoples’ interests, wants and needs. The more information
we have, the more likely we’ll be able to find a solution that works
for us and for the other side. It is rate to ask too many questions;
we often ask too few. We are sometimes so focused on getting our
point across that we don’t take the time to learn the information that
we need to know in order to reach an agreement. We make wrong
assumptions and get bogged down in time-wasting and unnecessary
debates. Remember that we have two ears and one mouth and should
use them in proportion!
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Workshop dates:
Toronto: January 20-23, February 24-27, April 14-17
Ottawa: March 3-6, October 27-30
“The ADR Workshop was by far
the best course I have attended in
my 30+ year career in HR. A must
attend for HR Professionals. I have
used the tools on a regular basis.”
- Dan Heard, HR
Ministry of Community & Social
Services, Bleinheim
“Each day was packed with
information. The role playing
method of instruction was much
more effective than the normal
lecture format of other seminars.”
- Gerry Walsh, HR
AOC Resins and Coatings
Company, Guelph
Contact us to speak to an instructor
1.800.318.9741 | adr.ca | contact@adr.ca
GROUP
Secondly, with the passage of the
Registered Human Resources Professionals
Act, 2013, the HR profession was
effectively promoted to the top tier of professions.
Now, the profession is expected
to live up to a higher standard in everything
it does, including its designations
and certification processes.
There is a correlation between the
“seriousness” of a profession and the “rigorousness”
of its certification processes – as
HR becomes more “serious” as a profession,
its certification processes must also
become more rigorous. The more complex
the work of a profession, the higher
the level of competence required and the
greater the consequences of incompetence,
the more thorough the certification process
must be.
To bring HR up to the same professional
standards as other regulated professions,
like accounting or engineering, HRPA
needed to focus its certification process
on competence and not only knowledge.
Some of the ways that this focus on competence
has been incorporated in the
certification processes is through the inclusion
of programs that focus on enabling
competencies and performance-based
exams. The purpose of professional programs
at the CHRP and CHRL levels is
to manage the transition from academic
knowledge to professional competencies
by focusing on enabling competencies
– things like critical thinking, business
acumen, project management and negotiation.
Finally, all candidates for the CHRL
must write a case-based performance
exam, where everything learned in school,
in the professional program and in supervised
experience comes together.
Ultimately, this framework lays the
foundation for an HR profession that incorporates
what’s now expected of modern
HR practice.
Someday, other HR regulators may
adopt this framework – and with mutual
recognition means even greater acceptance
of HR as a profession, in Ontario, across
Canada and around the world. ■
Phil Wilson, CHRE, is chair of the
Human Resources Professionals Association
(HRPA).
10 ❚ JANUARY 2015 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL