About MMI

The next MMI Immersion Course, Perfectly Wired: Integrated Decision Making is presented by The Master Mediator Institute in collaboration with Faculty from UCLA with Lead Faculty Dr. Craig Fox, is scheduled for Thursday, October 29th through Sunday, November 1, 2009.

ABOUT MMI

Mission Statement |  Administration & Operations |  About Our Logo |   The Value of MMI | FAQ

The Master Mediator Institute is a unique community of highly experienced, intellectually inquisitive mediators, decision makers, educators and scientists who are interested in exploring the science involved in negotiation and decision making. MMI Colleagues collaborate to link the experience gained in complex negotiations and facilitated decision making, including mediation with innovative theories and scientific knowledge regarding human behavior.

MMI connects mediators, executive decision makers and academics into a dynamic network consisting of Mediator Colleagues, Executive Colleagues and Educator Colleagues. Mediator Colleagues have diverse backgrounds and have demonstrated a commitment to advance their expertise in mediation and facilitated decision making. Executive Colleagues are individuals who make complex decisions on a daily basis and are involved in areas such as business, human resources, insurance, jury consulting, litigation, risk management and strategic planning. Educator Colleagues are leading academics and scientists who study and conduct research about human behavior in diverse fields such as cognitive behavior, communications, economics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and sociology.

All are successful, experienced professionals who are passionate about growing intellectually and creating new understandings surrounding aspects of human behavior that relate to negotiation and decision making. The relationship among mediators, executives and academics is designed to function in a collegial manner.

Mediator Colleagues and Executive Colleagues gain deep insights involving complex relationship dynamics in business planning, implementing transactions, litigation and difficult choices made under conditions of uncertainty or conflict. Educator Colleagues provide their expertise to the community and collaborate with Mediator and Executive Colleagues on research initiatives while learning how theories apply in difficult cases and circumstances.

All Colleagues collaborate in a milieu designed to capture knowledge of how and why individuals and groups choose specific courses of action in everyday and complex decision making processes. Innovations in theory and best practices emerge from the unique relationships and group dynamics of the creative MMI community.

The Master Mediator Institute was founded as a non-profit research and educational organization in 2008 by Robert A. Creo and Monique McKay.

Mission Statement

The Master Mediator Institute is an intellectually vibrant and diverse community of mediators, executives and educators devoted to enhancing insight, knowledge and innovation about the art and science of mediation,  negotiation and facilitated decision making.

The Value of MMI

At MMI, a collegial atmosphere allows professionals with expertise in  the art of mediation, negotiation and facilitated decision making to share different perspectives and and learn from leading educators and scientists in a diverse range of disciplines. Ongoing cycles of exchanges amongst Colleagues produce creative theories and queries about emerging knowledge. Innovation derived from the creative exchange of ideas and research between Colleagues produces the next generation of exciting discoveries and masterful practices. MMI offers collaborative venues to focus on the intricacies of facilitated decision making and to explore, study and test theories relating to effective decision making as they relate to conflict resolution, complex negotiations and facilitatated decision making.

Administration & Operations

The Master Mediator Institute was incorporated in 2008 as a non-profit organization by Robert A. Creo and Monique McKay.  MMI  has a think tank function coupled with an educational focus to provide educational and research opportunities for its Colleagues.  The co-founders operate MMI with a unity of vision and purpose that allows the mission to be carried out in a focused and effective manner.

The President, Robert A. Creo, does not receive a salary and provides office space and operational funding for the Institute. The Director, Monique McKay, manages operations, organizes the Immersion Courses and forums and provides educational support and resources for the Institute.

Robert A. Creo, President

MMI is supported by dedicated professionals. The President, Robert A. Creo, has an outstanding reputation as a commercial mediator and has mediated or arbitrated over 4,000 days since 1979.  He has extensive experience resolving catastrophic loss cases, complex commercial transactions, business conflicts, and employment and construction disputes.

He has trained and taught internationally and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and has served as an Adjunct Professor at Duquesne University School of Law for over ten years.  He is certified as a Fulbright Specialist by the U. S. State Department.

Robert has published extensively, including a 1,600 page treatise entitled Alternative Dispute Resolution: Law Procedure and Commentary for the Pennsylvania Practitioner (George T. Bisel Company, October 2006), and The Master Mediator column for the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR).

In addition, Robert has a notable professional reputation in his ability to create, organize and lead entities, including bar association ADR committees, the International Academy of Mediators and Mediators Beyond Borders (MBB).

Robert is a member of numerous organizations, including: Academy of Court Appointed Masters (ACAM), Allegheny County Bar Association (ACBA), American Arbitration Association (AAA), Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), Decision Analysis Society and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Science (INFORMS), Family Firm Institute (FFI), Industrial Relations Research Association, Inter-America Bar Association, International Society for Labor and Social Security Law (ISLSSL), Metanexus Institute, National Academy of Arbitrators (NAA), Pennsylvania Council of Mediators (PCM), Pittsburgh Peace Institute, Society of Federal Labor Relations Professionals (SFLRP), Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM), Southern California Mediation Association (SCMA), Western Pennsylvania Council of Mediation, World Mediation Forum and World Federalist Society, Pittsburgh Chapter.

For many years he has been recognized as a prominent ADR practitioner in publications such as Who’s Who, the Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers and Martindale-Hubbell.

Monique McKay, Director

Monique McKay has an LL.M. in Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine University. She has experience in a wide range of mediation cases including complex commercial, catastrophic loss cases as well as community mediation disputes. She has practiced corporate/commercial law in the oil and gas sector and has dealt with employment issues, corporate risk management issues and negotiated complex commercial real estate transactions.

Monique has conducted extensive research in the field of self-government for Aboriginal peoples in Canada and has a wide range of experience in regard to justice initiatives, education issues, self-government models and policy development.

Monique also has expertise in designing conflict resolution systems including conflict assessments, policy review and development and training. She developed a model for community based conflict resolution systems called Indigenous Connections which is designed to teach Indigenous youth skills related to mediation, negotiation, restorative justice, conflict resolution systems design and the importance of  self-determination in Indigenous communities  and in conflict resolution.

Monique is a member of the Decision Analysis Society and the Institute for Operations and the Management Science (INFORMS) and the Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM).

About Our Logo

The Magic of Kaleidoscopes, Taleidoscopes and Mediation

I love the anticipation of looking into a kaleidoscope. I smile as I close one eye and squint, not knowing quite what to expect. A brilliant burst of color appears in a multifaceted arrangement. As I turn the kaleidoscope, an endless series of new arrangements appear. As these transformations appear, it occurs to me that the kaleidoscope is a fitting metaphor for mediation.

Having made this connection, I embarked on a quest to find a new kaleidoscope and discovered a variety called a taleidoscope. Rather than mirrors, a taleidoscope has a lens and is open ended so the images change depending on what you put in front of it. It’s a delightful surprise as I step, turn, and add more light. There are endless possibilities of beautiful new patterns.

Reading the initial briefs or other documents related to the case and listening to the parties’ opening statements in a mediation, it often appears that the facts, positions and interests present an impossible myriad of complex data and that those pieces will never come together into any sort of coherent pattern, let alone result in a beautiful transformation. It is up to us as mediators, to have the optimism, the confidence, the skills, and the tools to take those disparate pieces, each one playing a role in the conflict, and design a process or system, and then work collaboratively with the participants to craft coherent solutions.

Just as both motion and light inevitably change the pattern in a kaleidoscope, mediators know that change is predictable in every conflict. Presentation of new information, risk assessment, and emotional, human behaviors all change the perceptions of the parties. As attitudes change, mediators continually reassess the data and the emotion present in the conflict, and attempt to orchestrate shifts so that positions, perceptions, attitudes and emotions change. Mediators look for recurring patterns, and ask parties to trust them and the process so that they can take what may appear to be chaos to a beautiful picture we call resolution.

Sometimes, a mediation results in more than just a consensus decision or settlement. Those real transformations, when the parties truly see things differently, reveal different attitudes and emotions and change patterns of behavior, can seem like magic. However, just as the appearance of a brilliant new image in a kaleidoscope is not magic, we know that real change requires hard work, empathy and thoughtfulness about how we interact with each other under uncertain conditions and while in conflict. Those shifts of critical importance can be better understood by exploring the science of human behavior and decision making and emerging theories about the workings of the mind and the brain. The combination of the artistry performed in a mediation as shifts create opportunities to move from an existing pattern of conflict towards new patterns of communication, behavior and outcomes combined with the science related to human behavior and decision making creates new ways of thinking about creating those incredible transformations.

In choosing the kaleidoscope for our logo, MMI recognizes the variety of different perspectives contained in a single kaleidoscope and the diversity of viewpoints contained in a single mediation room are both capable of coming together to create exciting new outcomes. We have created a community for the intellectually curious and a place to focus on exciting discoveries for those who have reached the peak of their profession and are looking for the next summit. MMI is a place where the leading mediators, executive decision makers, scientists and human behavior experts can come together, explore dynamics that transform and maybe even create a little magic.

Download the full article here:

PDF Kaleidoscope Piece
ARTICLES

It Turns Out that Humans Make Human Decisions
by Monique McKay, Co-Founder and Director, Master Mediator Institute
I googled the question “What makes a good lawyer?” and found 49,300,000 results.  There are lots of articles about analyzing, taking positions, fighting, winning and being a good adversary. Reading these articles wakes up the competitive side in me.  I love the logic of the law, researching positions, thinking up clever arguments and advocating a cause.  And forget happiness, I love the pursuit of the victory………

You can download the full article here:
PDF humans-make-human-decisions