Dear In Practice,

I have held a range of roles over the twenty years I’ve worked for my institution. Prior to my appointment as ombuds, I was a center director (supervising a small staff,) a student program liaison (supervising students working on undergraduate research projects,) and a faculty leadership development consultant (helping faculty navigate leadership and career progression concerns.) Since becoming an ombuds, I have been contacted by former students, faculty colleagues, and direct reports, asking me to serve as a reference. I feel awkward about all of the requests, although each has its own unique context: sometimes the requester is still affiliated with my institution, sometimes they are not; sometimes the opportunity being sought is internal and sometimes it’s external; sometimes the person asking is someone I’ve supervised and other times it’s someone I’ve come to know through other means. I’ve even had a request from a fellow ombuds, whom I’ve never worked with, to be a reference for an ombuds role they’ve applied for. While I feel flattered that my opinion of others seems to be valued, I don’t know where to draw the line. As an ombuds, are there circumstances under which me providing a reference is ethical and when do I “just say no?”

Dear In Practice,

As an ombuds, I am committed to being non-judgmental and accessible. I firmly believe these values are essential to my work. Still, there have been times when I’ve been faced with a situation where I felt continued services were no longer appropriate or productive. 

Dear In Practice,

I know that customer surveys are considered a best practice in most service sectors. Almost every interaction I have with a service professional (or even a website chatbot) will be followed by a survey about my satisfaction with the provider or my experience. Personally, I find these surveys annoying and seldom respond.

Ombuds Dilemma: Should I be a Brand Ambassador?

Dear In Practice,

In a recent virtual visitor meeting, I looked at my reflection and realized I was not only wearing a shirt embroidered with my organization’s logo but also drinking from one of our organization’s mugs. Thank goodness I had temporarily deactivated the virtual background that prominently features our organization’s logo and which all employees are now strongly encouraged to use.

We hope you have enjoyed the In Practice columns featured in the Independent Voice. If you have not had a chance to read through them all, we invite you to take the time and review the columns posted below. We also encourage further dialogue around these dilemmas and invite your thoughts and insights within the comment section of each posting.

• Ombuds Dilemma: When the Visitor is the Problem
• Ombuds Dilemma: Do Ombuds Provide “Emergency” Services?
• Ombuds Dilemma: Should I list my degree?
• Ombuds Dilemma: Should I stay or should I go?

What’s Your Dilemma?

We recognize that you may have experienced dilemmas in your practice that would be helpful to discuss with your colleagues. In Practice readers are invited to submit their own practice-related dilemmas for possible future publication. Dilemma narratives of under 200 words can be submitted by email to: [email protected]. Please note that dilemma submissions may be edited for length and clarity and are published without attribution. Editors will select dilemmas for publication based on a variety of factors, including relevance across sectors, focus on practice, and the likelihood that the dilemma will engage readers in novel or nuanced analysis of ombuds practice.

Ombuds Dilemma: When the Visitor is the Problem

Over the past year, several visitors have expressed values or views that are absolutely repugnant to me. These visitors usually come in with a familiar organizational concern and then out comes hateful speech. They have come from across the organizational spectrum and include leaders who have significant power and authority.

Their disrespect towards others is expressed in various ways - crude innuendo about how a female colleague got a promotion; racist nicknames; contempt for the ideas, beliefs, or identities of co-workers; and even cruel remarks about a person’s disability.

Ombuds Dilemma: Do Ombuds Provide “Emergency” Services?

I’m a new ombuds and am surprised by how many visitors call my office in a state of distress, with situations they describe as “an emergency.” I feel an internal pressure in those moments to make space immediately on my calendar – space I really don’t have – and I sometimes find myself working into the evenings and on weekends to accommodate these unexpected demands, in addition to my other responsibilities. I no longer have time for many activities I enjoy and that support my health and well-being (like exercising) and calls outside of business hours are impacting my time with my family. I pursued this role because I find purpose in helping others but I’m starting to wonder where the line is between service and altruistic narcissism – I don’t want to cross it.

Emergency Calls as Opportunities

As an Ombuds, I regularly look for tools to add to my practice that help me engage effectively with those I serve. Recently, I was introduced to behavioral research-based reflective practice tools that I could use in my regular routine of reflection and practice.  The Structured Reflective Instrument (SRI) provided a comprehensive framework for working through those tough cases that linger in my mind as an ombuds. Using this framework and the thoughtful lines of inquiry allows me to constructively work through my individual engagements with visitors in my office. As an ombuds working in an office of one, I believe it is critical to look for various types of frameworks for reflection to help us work through those times when we feel challenged by the cases we are presented with so we can ensure that our approach remains rooted in the proven mental models that we use to engage in our work. Following the training, I reached out to the program facilitators, Michael and Tzofnat, to see if they could share a bit about their reflective work and the SRI with our IOA colleagues. - Bryan Hanson

The Structured Reflective Instrument

By Tzofnat Peleg Baker and Michael Lang,

As third-party interveners, we navigate through complex and strenuous circumstances, where intense tensions and high emotions are the norm. The diverse concerns and goals of the parties and visitors we assist are often implicit, making them challenging to identify and express. To effectively address these invisible undercurrents that drive destructive conflict, we must constantly evolve and learn as professionals.

By Martina Peskoller-Fuchs
Ombudsperson, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), 

As ombuds practitioners, we often encounter workplace conflicts that seem intractable. Today, I'd like to explore a powerful approach to conflict resolution rooted in Viktor Frankl's logotherapy and further developed by Elisabeth Lukas. This meaning-centered approach offers valuable tools for helping our visitors break free from cycles of conflict and find paths to personal growth and improved relationships.^[1]

I believe this approach can be understood and applied effectively regardless of whether one fully subscribes to logotherapy or has an in-depth understanding of Viktor Frankl's teachings. The core principles of personal growth, freedom, values, and meaning that underpin this approach are universal concepts found in many philosophical and psychological traditions. As such, this approach can be valuable for practitioners from diverse backgrounds and theoretical orientations.

By Julie Muroff,
Ombuds Director - Howard Hughes Medical Institute/Janelia Research Campus

Last week, while serving as a guest moderator for the OmbudsLinked discussion forum on LinkedIn, I made a request to our ombuds community: to consider collectively launching #WellnessWednesdays. As ombuds, we may be navigating turmoil in our workplace and trauma in our visitors, on top of other tensions in our lives and in the world. Among other considerations, those circumstances can make us vulnerable to burnout syndrome, a work-related toll on emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing. That vulnerability has been highlighted by the global mental health crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Other fields, including medicine and law, have acknowledged those concerns and are promoting initiatives to address them.

Likewise, I have appreciated the attention to self-care that has been emphasized in our ombuds community, in particular during conference sessions and other gatherings, especially during the pandemic. While it is beyond the scope of ombuds practice to diagnose or treat mental health issues, I also have appreciated the attention to wellbeing by visitors in my casework, consistent with a recent survey of several academic ombuds offices in Texas. Given all above, I went back to school to bolster my toolkit of evidence-based strategies to advance the wellbeing of ombuds and our visitors, organizations, and field with a focus on interventions from positive psychology.

Ombuds Dilemma: Should I stay or should I go?

I’ve been in my ombuds role for a year and would like to remain in this role for the foreseeable future. The president who hired me unexpectedly retired 6 months after I arrived and there have been significant transitions as a result. Just as I was starting to build relationships, leaders started exiting the organization – sometimes I look around the room at meetings and don’t recognize many of the faces. The president’s expanded cabinet (about 40 leaders) has been invited to a two-and-a-half-day retreat at a retreat center in the mountains, about 3 hours from where most of us live. This is the first ever off-site retreat for this group. Many of our activities will focus on planning for the future, and our new president has also been very clear that this retreat is an attempt to help the organization’s leaders get to know one another and build relationships. I’m included in this invitation as a direct report to the president. Should I stay or should I go?

Response 1: Mary Rowe, consulting ombuds

By Mary Rowe, Tim Hedeen, and Ellen Miller,

"The nature of relationships among the adults within a school has a greater influence on the character and quality of that school and on student accomplishments than anything else. ……..Our ability as adults to collaborate in service of the complex needs of the …. youth that we serve requires us to change our individual and collective relationship to conflict and learn to leverage our diversity in service of this work…." Gregory Abell

Many Organizational Ombuds (OOs) are asking how they can help serve their constituents and their organizational mission in times of high conflict. One of the options being pursued by some OOs, this summer of 2024, is to help all the conflict management personnel of their organization to work together in strategic planning—and to share their diverse skills, lived experience, values and wisdom, in service of the organizational mission. 

By Kenneth Cloke,

Many political conflicts are taking place on campuses and in communities today over the war in Gaza between Israeli and Palestinian supporters.  Here are a few possible opening questions mediators and dialogue facilitators can use to encourage colleges and universities, groups, communities, and people on both sides or in-between to engage in facilitated dialogue and mediated problem solving.  They are suggestive, are likely to work best in small groups, and are only the beginning of a longer term process of discovering how to talk and learn from each other.  For additional questions and techniques, see my chapter on “the art of asking questions” in The Magic in Mediation.  There are thousands of potentially useful questions - please add a few of your own. 

Questions about the Process

By the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Committee

Juneteenth (June 19) is approaching soon. It is a United States federal holiday which commemorates the end of slavery, the day when the last enslaved African Americans in Texas were told they were free. It’s a time to reflect on both our history and recent events and how we continue to work to eradicate anti- Black racism in all its forms together. This is an important day of celebration for African Americans and all Americans alike. We recognize that each country - each culture - holds celebrations to commemorate freedom, progress, and inclusion. May we use this space to share important portions of our global histories with one another.

Here are a few resources assembled by the IOA DEIB Committee to help honor and celebrate Juneteenth and increase awareness and understanding of racial equity and inclusion:

• On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
• Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison
• Listen to a rendition of the Negro National Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
• Sign up for the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge, a free online challenge offering daily simple actions to pursue racial justice in your workplace.
• The Washington Race Equity & Justice Initiative (REJI) Organizational Race Equity Toolkit is designed to help organizations, particularly equity and justice-oriented legal organizations, understand and incorporate race equity into their work. Among its tools and resources, the Toolkit provides an assessment tool that organizations, particularly legal organizations, can use to assess and advance their practices, policies, and culture in order to operationalize race equity and support the development of organizational equity plans. Learn more about REJI.
• Check out additional relevant resources the DEIB Committee has shared in the IOA Online CommUnity

By Doriana Vintila, Ombuds - OMV Petrom S.A.

We can all agree that speak up culture is an essential characteristic of a people-oriented inclusive organization. Forbes said it, and I think they said it well in a very insightful article on the benefits of creating a speak-up culture at work [1]. Undoubtedly, most companies have evolved from the initial purpose of speak-up, which was to protect them from wrongdoings, and moved towards making people feel respected, empowered and safe. A work environment where members of the staff, irrelevant of their position, feel safe bringing their ideas to work every day will grow and flourish. Speaking up is very much about learning and improving, becoming a better version of what was yesterday – both individually and collectively.

But having a speak-up culture is more than just having policies and hotlines in place. People often refrain from speaking their minds for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with the availability of tools do so, or where those tools are placed (with HR, Compliance, the Ombuds etc). I’ve more than once heard people say that they won’t criticize a coworker because they don’t want to hurt their feelings or put their friendship at risk. However, isn’t holding back doing exactly that? That is where valuing a true speak-up culture comes into place: the belief that your suggestions, constructive criticism and openness will be perceived as an act of goodwill, both by colleagues and especially by management.

By Doriana Vintila
Ombuds
PetrOmbudsman Department,

Ombuds have been around for quite a while now, in all areas of activity, either private or part of the public health or educational systems. However, from my experience of almost a decade since the opening of the Ombuds office in OMV Petrom, I feel that when people have a complaint, they still have a hard time deciding where to place it in their organization. This is because there are usually many functions in the same organization that deal with complaints, and there is more clarity needed on what each of them can do to help the individual. Most certainly, there are quite a handful of differences in the way Ombuds operate, as compared to formal functions.

This is the reason why our Ombuds team decided this year to film a short video, picturing our Ombuds Director and our company’s Compliance Director, as they answer some of the most frequently asked questions on how we conduct our activities. The result was a mirror interview between the Ombuds and Compliance Departments. Of course, this could be adapted and done as a mirror interview between Ombuds and any other function in an organization, be it HR, Legal, Trade Unions and so on.

By Mary Rowe,

I am writing a note after listening to a number of Organizational Ombuds (OOs) these past few months. Several OOs report cases characterized by verbal attacks that seem unusual: employees who intimidatingly refuse an order, unafraid of being accused of insubordination. Undergraduates who loudly and insultingly reject faculty rights to set the requirements and rules in a college classroom. Students who insult the race or religion or ethnicity of staff and faculty and visitors to their school. Senior managers who loudly express bitter hate for each other. Visitors who insult their ombuds and their organization for having an ombuds. Bullying that is ratcheting up to being totally unacceptable.

Several OOs have noted that the nation is losing many professionals, for example those who no longer wish to serve as teachers, nurses, doctors and other caretakers.