In 2011, I met a fellow at a gathering who worked in mediation at the Abbotsford Correctional Institute. I was intrigued by what he did, so we met for coffee. During that conversation, he told me about the Justice Institute of British Columbia and its conflict resolution training.

I had no idea such training existed.

At the time, I had been working with a nonprofit in northern Brazil for about eighteen years. I was the founder and leader of an international team that included about six expatriate families. We were all trying hard to work well together, but I had reached a ceiling. We were encountering relational impasses, and I had run out of language, experience, and ideas for how to move forward.

A Canadian businessman offered to pay for my studies, and since I had six months in Canada, I enrolled at JIBC in mediation and negotiation training.

I loved it.

What especially worked for me was the rhythm of theory, practice in small groups, reflection on what had happened, and then more practice. The situations we worked through felt remarkably close to the world in which I was already living and leading.

One of my biggest surprises was discovering how bad I was at some of it.

I thought I understood negotiation. But underneath that confidence was an assumption I had barely noticed: a successful negotiation meant that, somehow, I got my way in the end. In class we were learning something quite different—that a strong outcome allows both sides to walk away genuinely satisfied.

Then came the role-plays, the cameras, the feedback, and the uncomfortable experience of watching myself.

Again and again, I could see tendencies toward “power over”—trying to control the outcome, persuade too strongly, or subtly get my way. That was not easy to see. I had been leading people for years. I thought I was farther down the road than I was.

That realization became one of the most valuable parts of my education.

I completed the remaining requirements and final evaluations online and finally received my certificates in 2021. Once again, the evaluation process surprised me. I discovered that I still needed to move farther toward calm patience, genuine curiosity, and the ability to see the larger picture rather than pushing too quickly toward resolution.

Since then, I have completed a PhD in Organizational Leadership and have continued working in Brazil and internationally with teams and leaders, sometimes in high-stress and cross-cultural situations.

Through all of that, the foundations I received during those intensive months at JIBC have stayed with me.

The courses gave me more than techniques for negotiating or mediating. They helped change the way I understand conflict—and the way I understand myself when I am in the middle of it.

More than fifteen years later, I am still learning those lessons.

I am deeply grateful to the Justice Institute of British Columbia for that investment in my life, and for helping me learn how to work more thoughtfully, patiently, and constructively with people when things become difficult.

~ Ritchard