We are pleased to bring you another issue of the Collaborative Connection, the electronic newsletter of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals.

Past issues of the Connection are archived on the IACP website at www.collaborativepractice.com [Home > Member Resources > IACP Publications]. If you have comments, questions or any suggestions, please contact info@collaborativepractice.com.

Knitting Together Community 
 
I am a knitter.  Those of you who see me at the Forum may see me with my hands as busy as my mind, tying knots that create structure, stranding together different colors and materials into coherent shapes, or sometimes even taking apart something old that no longer serves and re-knitting it into something new and useful.  Knitting keeps me focused, and it provides some good metaphors for the work of Collaborative professionals. 
 
Last week, I was knitting in Florida at an IACP board meeting and at the annual conference of the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals.  It was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how the local nature of our work intertwines with the global aspect.  In one sense, Collaborative Practice is hyper-local.  The work happens in specific jurisdictions, with individual families, in private office spaces.  For Collaborative to flourish, it needs to grow in local communities of professionals who establish trust by working regularly together.  The word needs to spread locally, too, from satisfied clients to their friends, co-workers, and family members.  The FACP offers a great example of how a local community of professionals can build and expand the visibility and success of CP through hard work, networking, and mutual support of the professional community.  
 
In another sense, though, these local actions add up to global impact.  CP is truly a global movement that is changing the ways families resolve disputes, and the ways professionals practice, in over 25 countries on six continents.  The international panel at FACP really highlighted this, with panelists from Hong Kong, Australia, Italy, Canada, and the U.S. (many of them IACP board members) speaking about their experience with CP in different cultures. Adaptability is built into CP, with its emphasis on individualized solutions that are driven by the values of the parties themselves, and innovative approaches have evolved in different cultures as a result. 
 
One of IACP’s most important roles is in knitting these two aspects – the local and the global – together.  We gather the home-grown Collaborative wisdom that is developing in local communities around the world and help spread these best practices from the Netherlands to Brazil, from Vancouver to Tulsa, from Australia to Japan.  In stringing these communities together, we also create a unified set of standards for CP, establishing a reliable structure that can be recognized from one jurisdiction to another, supporting both quality and innovation. In doing so, we nurture and educate professionals who carry these lessons back home to build their communities and to help families, one family at a time.   
 
Once again, this Collaborative Connection offers you many threads to engage with your global community, and many opportunities to share wisdom with your professional peers.  I hope to be with you virtually at one of our webinars, to hear from your experience at one of our Introductory Trainings, and of course, to see you at the Forum this year in Chicago.  I’ll be the one with the yarn in my bag! 
 
With warm wishes, 
 
Anne Tamar-Mattis 

You can't just hand out your business card to every bickering couple, so how do you advertise your Collaborative services to potential clients? There are obvious difficulties in marketing divorce. While many Collaborative Practitioners don't have marketing experience, several of the skills and tools needed to grow your client base can be learned rather quickly. 

In our next webinar, learn from three talented Collaborative professionals who have each found a way to grow their brands, build followings and ‘market divorce,' in turn building successful practices along the way. Learn more about our upcoming webinar here.

Practice Group Book Club

Our group has been very successful in educating practice group members by holding book club meetups. These gatherings allow us to discuss Collaborative and conflict resolution topics, give us an opportunity to interface with a variety of practice group members and share food together while connecting as a community. Although we don't require everyone to read the book for the meeting, many who participate end up finishing the assigned book. We have done two books with our practice group and the activity has been well received. Here are tips to help you set up your own practice group book club:

1. Two months in advance of the practice group meeting, choose a book that will be read by the members of the practice group.
2. Send the Amazon link for the book, and the date of the meeting to members.
3. A few weeks before the practice group, send a reminder email.  
4. At the practice group meeting, serve lunch. It can be as easy as ordering pizza, salad and cookies.
5. After lunch have everyone divide up into two groups. Each group should be given separate discussion questions from the book, which should be prepared by the organizers of the activity. We recommend four sets of questions.
6. After fifteen minutes, have the groups rotate and talk together about new discussion questions from the book. Allow the practice group members to sit at tables with different people for each question.  

                                             Contributed by Barbara Hummel of Cincinnati, Ohio

 Do you have questions about practice group management, or tips for other practice groups? 
Write to our Practice Group Development Committee at lgephart@nhpa.com.

Back to Content