Restorative Processes
I provide bespoke restorative processes to Ministries, Iwi, NGO, businesses, individuals, and
families. I have a professional background in Social Work, Restorative Justice and Dispute
Resolution (mediation).
Under stress, the weakest part of any organisation, system, process, or person, is the first to
buckle and break. As a consultant, I can ask questions with immunity, that those inside the
organisation cannot ask, to enhance a deeper level of self-awareness, accountability, and
trust.
What can a restorative process give you or your workplace?
Participating in a restorative process allows dignity to be found, when a dispute or investigation has arisen. This can mean the difference between remaining in the workplace, family and community, or leaving it. Power sharing can be restored, trust can grow, and values recommitted to. There is not always a relational transformational shift after a restorative meeting, however in my experience, there is clarity, understanding and a new way forward that allows people, systems and organisations to grow as a result of the event that caused the need to restore it. It is a mana enhancing process that creates many enduring options for settlement, while minimising shame, cost, time and publicity.
Processes
“Relationships go beyond facts and logic. We have arguments about feelings.”[Kenneth Cloke]
1. A Single Event
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Examples: relationship breakdown, misunderstanding, misconduct, assumptions, disagreements, miscommunications.
I spend approximately 1 hour with each affected party to understand each perspective, to plan the restorative meeting and to prepare each party for their involvement in it. Confidentiality, agreement drafting and reporting (if required), time, venue and dates are agreed to.
The restorative meeting usually takes place over the course of a half day but will be tailored to suit the event. Sometimes shorter multiple meetings replace one longer meeting.
Questions are inherently respectful, rather than judgemental. Apology is often given and received.
Examples: What is at the heart of this issue for you as an individual? What do you want the other person to most understand about this situation? What part of their situation do you think they want you to most understand? What did I contribute by action or inaction to making this conflict happen? With hindsight, how might I have handled it better? How can we create a better relationship or communication going forward? What will that look like? How might we manage a disagreement more constructively next time?
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2. Organisational Meetings
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Examples: building team capacity, leadership training, professional development, reframing conversations.
Face to face or small group zoom meetings on a monthly or bimonthly basis to explore themes or patterns that challenge and inspire the workplace. Focus is on self-awareness, values and accountability.
Questions highlight intention and impact, our core concerns, and how we communicate. They are skills and tools based. They address the absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results.
Examples: What do you value most in your work life? What values do you most respect in others? What are the strengths of your team and of each individual? What challenges do your team face? How are you currently facing them? What do I need to change in order to engage 5% more? How would I like to be acknowledged? How do I acknowledge others?
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3. Leadership Development
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Examples: building systemic capacity, strategic planning, mitigating risk, project management, change management, reviews, building a conflict resolution system design.
Face to face or small group zoom meetings at specific times.
Questions focus on appreciative inquiry, learning from the past to inform the future, conflict stocktake, organisational courage assessment, brainstorming for questions.
Examples: What criteria can we use to decide which ideas or approaches work best? What would it take to create change on this issue? Could any of my ideas be incorporated into your ideas? How? What could we do to improve our process for disagreeing with each other in the future? What is one thing that I can do to make this conversation work better for you? How afraid would people be of not following standard operating procedures in order to do something that benefits the organisation? How afraid would people be of admitting their mistakes to their superiors?
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