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In Practice: Ombuds Dilemmas: Do Ombuds Provide “Emergency” Services?

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

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The Structured Reflective Instrument

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.

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Breaking the Cycle: A Meaning-Centered Approach to Workplace Conflict Resolution for Ombuds Practitioners

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.

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In Practice: Ombuds Dilemmas - The Use of Postnominals

Ombuds Dilemma: Should I list my degree? 

I am an attorney who has been working in the ADR field for more than a decade - and as an organizational ombuds for the last several years. In my email signature and on my business cards I use the postnominal, “J.D.” I work in academia where terminal degrees are the “coin of the realm,” however at times my J.D. seems to have created specific expectations on the part of visitors or leaders within my organization. As an ombuds, would it be better to not include this mention of my law degree? I have the same question about other credentials - such as LCSW and coaching certificationsAre those best left off signatures and business cards as well?


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Prioritizing Well-being and Engaging with #WellnessWednesdays

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.

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IOA and Higher Ed Ombuds Featured

IOA and Higher Ed Ombuds Featured  
 
IOA was contacted by US News and World Report in August to help shape their story: What Students Should Know About College Ombuds.  We hope this resource will be useful to our Higher Ed Colleagues who serve students.   
ICYMI, Forbes has also published several articles on Ombuds that may be of interest (see E.Miller).  All these resources are posted on our website's resource section for those interested in setting up a program.  

In Practice: Ombuds Dilemma - Should I stay or should I go?

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

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An Option for OOs in Troubled times: Helping their Conflict Management System (CMS) People to Collaborate

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. 

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50 Possible Questions to Open Israeli-Palestinian Dialogues

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

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Trauma-informed Ombudsry During Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation

By Nadia Ferrara, PhD, Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging Committee
 
Loneliness, feelings of isolation, anxiety, and depression are on the rise in our communities (OSG 2023). Globally, we are faced with many challenges due to post-pandemic adaptation and recovery, inflation and the rising costs of living, environmental disasters, trauma related to racial violence, and ongoing wars. Many are referring to these experiences as an epidemic. How can we as ombuds help to address this current reality even as we’re navigating this reality personally? How does this affect our work? How do we support more trauma-informed workplaces?
 
As ombuds, we are not therapists or counselors, but we are holders of space where individuals come to share their lived realities. If we are applying a human-centric approach, we are acknowledging the visitor, we provide support, and we empower them to develop options that are meaningful to them. We as ombuds are committed to creating authentic, empathetic, compassionate, and psychologically safe spaces. Such spaces are all the more critical during a heightened period of loneliness and isolation. Everyone can benefit from a space to connect with our shared humanity. As ombuds, we offer the gift of listening, which is priceless. We cannot underestimate the power of listening.
 
We need to learn how best to be trauma-informed and trauma-responsive; how to identify trauma responses and know when to refer our visitors to clinical helping professionals, if warranted. We need to engage in our own self-reflection and self-evaluation, as well as hold space for each other to listen and learn from one another. Being trauma-informed and trauma-responsive benefits our visitors as well as ourselves as ombuds. As an Indigenous traditional knowledge keeper once told me: “Remember that as an ombuds, you are really a helper, one who listens and guides others.” Let’s continue to help others and ourselves by giving hope, as that is the best gift to give during such challenging times.
 
References:

Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community. Office of the Surgeon General (OSG). Washington (DC): US Department of Health and Human Services, 2023.

Recommended Podcast:

Celebrating Juneteenth

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:

Driving Speak-up Culture

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.

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What makes an Ombuds function different?

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.

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A Note About Mistreatment and Organizational Protective Factors

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. 

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OmbudsLinked - An Independent Channel for Ombuds Engagement

By Elizabeth Hill, J.D., CO-OP®
Associate Director, Ombuds Office at the University of Colorado Boulder

Greetings! In October 2021, Caroline Adams, Jenn Mahony, and I established a LinkedIn Discussion Group called OmbudsLinked. It is an independent forum, not affiliated with any of the ombuds associations. The purpose is to create space for all types of practicing ombuds regardless of model, sector, standards of practice, etc. to congregate, network, share information and ideas, build camaraderie, and unite the profession. It is also a closed group, which will hopefully allow members to speak freely without judgment or scrutiny of individuals outside the ombuds profession. Accordingly, members must be invited by a member or request to join. The group administrators monitor the requests to join.


What does the engagement look like?

Each week the administrators, Caroline Adams, Rob Behrens, Elizabeth Hill, and Jennifer Mahony, offer the following:

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Deliberating Dilemmas: Coverage of Services in the Face of a Conflict of Interest

By Bryan Hanson, EdD

Ombudsperson, Graduate School at Virginia Tech
Independent Voice Blog Editor

What should a single-person ombuds office do when a member of their community contacts the ombuds office about a matter, but the ombuds determines that they have a conflict of interest in working with that individual? 

An inquiry of just this type was recently raised with the IOA by an individual that encountered that situation with their ombuds. In this case, the ombuds told the individual that they could not provide assistance to them. The Ombuds apparently did not explain the basis for the conflict of interest nor suggested any other means to provide assistance to the individual who considered themselves one of the constituents served by the ombuds office. The individual contacted IOA because they thought that the ombuds may have acted improperly and wanted to raise the issue with the IOA. Since the ombuds involved in this situation is not COOP certified and there is no relevant procedure for investigating the conduct of non-certified IOA members, it was established there is no basis for the IOA to become involved. 

The dilemma presented in this case surely is not unique. While it is likely not appropriate in most situations to disclose to an individual the basis for the conflict of interest, is there nothing that the ombuds can do to help an individual receive assistance? Because this may be a recurring problem for single-person ombuds offices, we thought we would offer a suggestion here that an ombuds may want to consider and invite IOA members to suggest other possible options. 

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