Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth McClintock and Olga Shvayetskaya.
Liz McClintock is one of four founding partners of CMPartners, a boutique negotiation and leadership training and consulting firm, based in Cambridge MA. The firm has its roots in the interest-based negotiation theory developed by the late Professor Roger Fisher at Harvard and Liz and two other of CMP’s partners worked closely with Fisher for over 20 years. Liz came to this field after having served 4 years in the Peace Corps in Morocco and subsequently getting her Master’s Degree at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Liz recently returned to Tufts for her Ph.D.
Olga Shvayetskaya took a more circuitous route to the firm, beginning as an artist and designer in New York City before joining the Peace Corps and ultimately deciding that she wanted to bring conflict management and negotiation skills to communities around the world.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
For both Olga and Liz, their respective experiences in Peace Corps offered an amazing opportunity to live with and learn about an entirely different culture. While not always easy, the lessons they learned from being single women living and working in an Arab Muslim country have served them well in their current jobs.
The vast majority of CMPartner’s clients are governments, community organizations or businesses located outside of the United States. In addition to a rather brutal travel schedule, one challenge that Liz, Olga and their colleagues constantly confront is adapting to different cultures around the world. This includes the sometimes dangerous work that they do in countries in conflict (or emerging from conflict), where the realities of war and poverty coexist with incredible natural beauty and resilient peoples, most of whom are trying to make the world a better place for their families and loved ones.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the CMPartners story. Tell us more about the business.
CMPartners is a boutique firm specializing in negotiation, leadership, communications and conflict management skills training and consulting. Our clients are businesses, governments, and community organizations that are located around the world. We have helped formerly warring parties to implement peace accords, integrate their armies, and to establish more democratic governance systems. We have consulted to Fortune 100 companies, preparing them for success in contentious labor-management negotiations, as well as to negotiate deals with upstream and downstream suppliers across national borders.
CMPartners is relentlessly focused on helping clients achieve their goals while preserving critical relationships and planning for a sustainable future. CMP’s professionals are practitioners first and foremost – meaning we practice what we teach.
Each client or community with whom we work is chosen because of the difference we think they make in the world and the difference that we can make in partnership with them: learning from them as we offer the skills, tools, and ideas that can make them more effective and efficient leaders.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Rather than thinking of it as “luck”, we like to say that it is the attitude you take towards the challenges that you encounter in life and the decisions that you make which determine your success.
Contact Info:
- Address: The Roger Fisher House
9 Waterhouse Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138 - Website: www.cmpartners.com
Image Credit:
CMPartners
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