The CSE Group is dedicated to the establishment, improvement and maintenance of key relationships between, among and within organizations in the public and private sector.
Profound forces are reshaping how decisions are now being made in society, with important implications for its organizations, groups and individuals. Attitudes towards the role of government, the courts and private institutions are shifting. First Nations are asserting and establishing distinct jurisdictions. Organizational structures are flattening. Within organization's, employees and managers expect a greater degree of involvement and influence in decision making. New pressures have been created for decision makers by rapid technological change, restructuring, deregulation, globalization and privatization.
The call for “sustainability” in decision-making requires that decisions taken reflect an integration of economic, social and environmental considerations. The daunting array of factors must be taken into account by today's decision-maker. In today's environment, overlooking a key constituency, or failing to understand a key issue can make the difference between success and failure, action and delay, a good decision and a bad one. New policies, innovative structures, better tools and different skills are now required.
The key to successful decision making as we push into a new century, is crafting innovative and effective relationships and structures for maintaining and enhancing those relationships. This is the CSE Group's focus and expertise. The CSE is a prototype of the “virtual organization” of the future. It is a collection of eminently qualified and respected professionals operating out of independent practices in varied locales who integrate their expertise and experience on specific assignments, to provide a broadest of services to assist clients and customers in the challenges of improved decision making.
Currently the CSE Group is comprised of Jerry Cormick, Glenn Sigurdson, Felicity Edwards and Barry Stuart. In addition the CSE group from time to time creates relationships with associates to draw on their particular experiences and expertise.
erald (Jerry) Cormick has more than 35 years of internationally recognized experience as a mediator and facilitator in scores of complex disputes in the U.S., Canada and abroad, ranging from timber harvest plans to airport noise, transportation policy to water rights determinations and healthcare delivery policy to the development of health and safety regulations. Beginning in 1968, he pioneered the application of negotiation and mediation processes to racial and community-based disputes. Subsequently, he was the first to apply mediation and negotiation approaches to environmental/economic disputes and other public policy issues (1973). He has since successfully mediated scores of complex multi-party issues involving a wide-array of participants and substantive areas. He has also worked within organizations to develop policies and procedures and resolve outstanding issues and between organizations to develop procedures for the ongoing management of issues and disputes.
He advises and "coaches" elected bodies, agencies, corporations and NGOs in the application of dispute resolution and consensus building techniques within and between organizations. He is an award-winning lecturer and speaker and has developed widely used materials for negotiation and dispute-resolution training.
Jerry was the principal architect in the application of negotiations and mediation to natural resource disputes in the United States. A Canadian by birth, he also played a key role in introducing these techniques to Canada and adapting them for and applying them to Canadian circumstances. He has Ph.D. in Business Administration and has served as a professor at universities in the U.S., Canada and Europe specializing in the concepts and skills of negotiation and dispute management. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington.
lenn Sigurdson
A mediator, arbitrator, trainer and counsel, Glenn is involved in dealing with complex disputes and building structures to assist organizations and groups to build consensus and manage proactively.
A significant professional emphasis has been resource, land-use and environmental disputes, often involving Canada’s First Nations. He has been involved in settlements involving mercury pollution and its impact on indigenous peoples, fisheries management, oil and gas exploration and development, and resource harvest issues. He has also worked with groups in the education and arts communities to resolve issues and build new working relationships.
elicity Edwards
has been involved in community based decision-making for more than 20 years, working in both the public and private sectors. She developed and promoted training programs in dispute resolution for 10 years at the Banff Centre for Management. Her mediation and facilitation efforts have spanned an array of issues in natural resources and the environment and in community growth management.
Specific work includes the development of scenarios for World Business Council on Sustainable Development, the development of a large scale Dialogue process for the management of fish stocks on the west coast with First Nations and five Federal government agencies, and the development of an Affordable Housing Strategy in the Town of Canmore. Most recently she has been working with Canada's largest heli-skiing company to deal with the changes in management of that company.
As an Associate faculty member of the Peace and Conflict Studies program at Royal Roads University, Felicity teaches theory and practice to the second year Masters degree student.
Felicity has an M.Sc. in Ecology and an MA in Management. She is past President of the National board of the Canadian Parks Partnership, working developing innovative partnerships in Canada’s National Parks, and member of the Board of the Chinook Institute, the Canadian arm of the Sonoran Institute.
arry Stuart has served as a lawyer, law professor, mediator, judge and government advisor. Throughout his career his practice, research and writing has always focussed on how decisions are made and how conflicts are resolved.
This focus has permeated his involvement in environmental and criminal law and in dealing with institutional, private and public conflicts.
He has used and taught mediation and consensus processes since the mid 1970s and in recent years has applied various versions of peacemaking circles in a wide range of private and public disputes. He has worked internationally on constitutional, environmental, justice and organizational issues. Barry Stuart joined The CSE Group in 2003 upon his retirement from the Bench.