Workshop: Evaluators as mediators, negotiators, and facilitators

Date and time: Wednesday 22 October and Wednesday 29 October 2025, 10.00am to 1.00pm AEDT (registration from 9.45am) Registrants are to attend both sessions. (full day workshop - 2 sessions)

Venue: Via Zoom. Details will be emailed to registrants just prior to the workshop start time

Facilitator: Ruth Pitt

Register online by: Tuesday, 21 October 2025. Spaces limited to 25 participants

Fees (GST inclusive): Members $375.00, AES Organisational member staff $505.00, Non-members $589.00, Student member $179.00, Student non-member $275.00* *Students must send proof of their full-time student status to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Purpose of Workshop

Have you ever been involved in an evaluation project where people disagreed? Where there were differing views about how collect or interpret data? Where there were misunderstandings about the purpose of the evaluation? Or where you felt like someone had an ulterior motive?
Have you ever run a workshop that got a bit…heated? Or perhaps one that felt oddly quiet and tense?
Have you ever found yourself struggling to even ask for a revised deadline? Or found it difficult to get a final report accepted?
Evaluator competency frameworks, in Australia and internationally, acknowledge the importance of conflict resolution skills, such as mediation, facilitation and negotiation. Yet conflict is often a taboo topic, which can prevent evaluators from recognising conflict situations, developing the skills to deal with them, and learning from peers. The purpose of this workshop is to help evaluators recognise, understand and work constructively with conflict as an integral part of their role.

Workshop Content

The workshop will introduce participants to core concepts from the field of conflict resolution that underpin successful mediation, facilitation and negotiation. The workshop will focus on practical, evaluation-specific applications and will provide attendees with a toolbox of skills, useful resources, and directions for future competency development.

Workshop Outcomes

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• describe the relevance of negotiation, mediation and facilitation skills for evaluators

• identify different conflict resolution styles, assess the appropriate style for a given situation, and reflect on their own stronger and weaker styles

• distinguish between positions and interests, and construct collaborative problem statements based on interests

• apply interactive evaluation practice principles as a planning and reflection tool.

PL competencies

This workshop aligns with competencies in the AES Evaluator’s Professional Learning Competency Framework. The identified domains are:

• Domain 5 – Project management

• Domain 6 – Interpersonal skills

Evaluators' Professional Learning Competency Framework  

Who should attend?

Foundational – Foundational sessions assume no previous knowledge from the audience – they are beginner-friendly. The topic is presented at an introductory level using accessible language that can be understood by non-expert audiences.

Additional information:
The workshop is suitable for participants who have little or no previous training in conflict resolution skills (facilitation, mediation and negotiation) and those who have any level of evaluation experience. Participants will be asked to reflect on evaluation projects, but those new to evaluation will be able to draw on experience in other personal and workplace contexts.

Please note this workshop is based on the workshop ‘Conflict resolution: a toolbox for evaluators’ that was delivered at AES18 (Launceston) and AES22 (Adelaide). It has been significantly updated, in addition to being redesigned for online delivery, so previous participants may find it a useful refresher, but it has the same core content.

Workshop start times

• VIC, NSW, ACT, TAS: 10.00am

• QLD: 9.00am 

• SA: 9.30am

• NT: 8.30am

• WA: 7.00am

• New Zealand: 12.00pm

For other time zones please go to https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

About the facilitator

Ruth Pitt has diverse experience in evaluation, in consulting, government and not-for-profit organisations, in Australia and internationally. She believes evaluation should be practical, useful and interesting, and that it should support organisations to better serve their clients. She completed a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution as part of a graduate program at the East-West Center, which led to an ongoing interest in bringing together conflict resolution and evaluation practice.