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.

As we begin 2025, many of our ombuddies are faced with extremes related to weather and other world events.    While much of the US has been impacted by severe cold, snow and ice this week, our colleagues in Los Angeles County are facing tremendous uncertainty related to devastating wildfires.  Their homes and the homes of their friends, family, colleagues and stakeholders have been impacted.  If anyone would like more information on how to support, please reach out to our friends at Cal Caucus and particularly Serena Young at [email protected] for more details.  What makes our community special is our connections and support of each other.  Please keep these ombuddies in your thoughts and prayers. 

Starting February 6, we will hold soace for a quarterly community wellness check-in on the first Thursday of the 2nd month of the quarter at 8 am Pacific:  6 February, 1 May, 7 August, and 6 November.   To join us, please use this link to access the space.   

If there is anything IOA can do to support you, as always - please reach out and let us know. 

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.

We wanted to update the IOA Community regarding the status of Program Accreditation and its impacts on individual certification.  

As we have previously shared, a Joint Task Force was established in 2022 to explore the development of a program accreditation model.  This was the natural next step based both on IOA’s current Strategic Plan and the Board of Certification’s recommendations.  To support the Task Force’s work, IOA hired a subject matter expert to review and benchmark our certification program against others.  The consultant made a series of recommendations that matched the thinking of the Joint Task Force and also confirmed the direction we needed to go.  

One of the recommendations was to stand up a Program Certification model, not a Program Accreditation model, so the Joint Task Force focused on what a properly structured office would need to look like, and how an office can be structured to allow the ombuds to adhere to the Standards of Practice.  Many offices and organizations have expressed an interest in Program Certification to help demonstrate and highlight the importance of both the ombuds function and a properly structured office.  Certain sectors i.e. higher education, government, healthcare, biomed research, also have a culture that values certification and accreditation, so this additional certification will be especially important for those offices.    

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.

IOA's Internationalization Task Force finished its work earlier this year and recommended a series of priorities to guide international activities. This included regional education, greater clarity for the four Regional Advancement Communities (RACs) and exploring how best to advocate and protect the OO model in Europe.

This prioritization identified Canada as the next area of focus internationally. As a result, we have increased our outreach to this important community, developed a Canadian focused Foundations curriculum, and teed up a regional Foundations instructor team going forward. We also participated in a special Ombuds Symposium convened by the University of St. Paul’s Center for Informal Dispute Resolution in May, and held our first Foundations in Ottawa this September.

Did you know that Canada is home to IOA’s second largest group of members? Did you also know that the Canadian Public Sector Ombuds are the largest population of organizational ombuds in Canada with over 120 and counting? There are currently 50 federal government ombuds offices supporting the federal public sector and the community is robust and organized. They have just completed an introductory video building on IOA’s Modern Ombuds video that is available in both English and French for Canadian offices. These videos were shared at the Forum for Canadian Ombudsman (FCO’s) Annual Conference in October:

IOA launched our Organizational Values and Community Norms, and the Concern and Complaint Policy for all IOA participants back in 2023.    

It has been about 18 months since these were approved by the Board of Directors, and we would like to hear your perspectives on their impact via this short survey.   If you prefer, please feel free to reach out to me, or our our Ombuds team. 

Together, we will build and nurture the community we want at IOA.  

By Nick Jacobs, FACHE & Marianne Miele, JD, MBA,

The IOA lists the many benefits of an organizational ombuds. Among them is that an ombuds office is a proven and effective way to build and improve workplace culture, and to uncover and address systemic trends and issues to create healthier organizations. 

Although neither of us are ombuds, our research and experience confirm an ombuds office brings value to strategic planning and culture change efforts. It conveys to employees that their concerns matter. It directly impacts aligning culture with an organization’s mission, values, and corporate social responsibility goals.

Top Ten Findings
2024 IOA Practice Survey

Jennifer Schneider PhD, Timothy Hedeen PhD, Mary Rowe PHD, and Hector Escalante Meza EdD

The International Ombuds Association (IOA) surveyed organizational ombuds around the world regarding various aspects of their practice during the 2023 calendar year. The team responsible for creating the instrument and analyzing results selected a top ten list of interesting findings from survey responses:

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 Fred Wright, Chair of the International Outreach Committee and Co-Chair of the Asia Pacific Regional Advisory Committee of the IOA,

Over three days in September 2024 the Asia Pacific Regional Advancement Community (AP-RAC) held its 6^th in-person conference in Beijing, China. Seventeen members of the RAC attended in person whilst four members were able to attend some sessions virtually. The conference was generously hosted by the Asia Investment Infrastructure Bank (AIIB), and MARS Incorporated whilst Sophia Qiao, Pfizer Ombuds generously supplied wine for some of the social events.

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 Lana Smith-Hale, Assistant Ombuds at UCSB & Anthony Keen-Louie, Associate Ombuds at UCSC,

If you’ve been a part of the IOA community for a while, you probably have a good sense of what Ombuds Day is, and have found creative ways to recognize the day with your colleagues and constituents. But for the newer Ombuds or for the Ombuds who are looking to refresh their Ombuds Day practices, this blog post is for you! 

Ombuds Day grew out of the ABA Dispute Resolution Committee, which realized that the field needed to better understand the role of an Ombudsperson. So now, every second Thursday in October, we celebrate Ombuds by both connecting Ombuds with others in the Community (usually with a free webinar - link to sign up for this year’s event), as well as an opportunity to encourage each Ombuds to engage with their own constituents. IOA highlights this as an opportunity to understand the profession deeper and encourage greater awareness and use of the Ombuds services and programs.         

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.

The DEIAB Committee announces the book for this quarter's Book Club: bell hooks' Feminism is for Everybody. bell hooks is one of America's foremost literary thinkers. She died in 2021, having produced an incredible mass of writings on race, feminism, class, and belonging. 

Feminism is for Everybody makes the case for a gender equality movement that is not about division, but is rooted in the wisdom of experience and common sense. Please join us at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET on Thursday, 5 December, for a discussion of the ideas in the book, feminism, and gender issues more broadly, and how we can promote gender equality as ombuds.

Even if you don't have time to read the book, please join us! Every IOA member and ombuds has ideas about gender and diversity that the rest of us are interested in hearing.

 The European Group of Ombuds and Mediation Representatives, a gathering of professionals from large European and international organizations is meeting at SAPs headquarter in Walldorf for their annual conference. This annual event offers a unique opportunity to come together, share best practices, and collaborate on the evolving role of Ombuds in today’s world. 

 "At SAP, we’re excited to not only share our own 15 years of experience as Ombuds in the IT and High-Tech sector, but also work with this group of professionals on topics like AI and tools and best practices in a series of Breakout Sessions throughout the 3-day event," says Carsten Pöschl, Global Ombudsperson at SAP.  At next week's gathering, attendees will dive into workshops, discussions, and explore how technology and innovation can support the Ombuds community in addressing todays and future challenges. A highlight will be welcoming Sarah Klaper, President of IOA and other Ombuds professionals on stage for panel discussions with the group of 60 experts expected from across Europe. 

IOA would like to extend our thanks to the European Ombuds and Mediator Group co-chairs Jutta Reitmeier at Mars and Diana Vermeul, at HarmoniKon and Carsten Pöschl and SAP for their sponsorship and support of this conference.   

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