At work, we are operating in three areas at the same time: interpersonal, business and legal. We must operate within the law while fulfilling mission objectives and cultivating professional and effective workplace relationships with others.

We also try to bring our best selves to the workplace while seeking meaning in what takes up such a huge part of our lives. We get passionate about things and people and we have misunderstandings — every day. Conflict is inevitable; the only question is how we handle it.

How conflict shouldn’t be handled is by acting as if it were an all or nothing proposition. This choice results in reactions of fight or flight, anger and vengefulness, intimidation or complete avoidance. We entertain untrue assumptions while ignoring facts, we don’t clarify misunderstandings and our subconscious biases go unquestioned.

Is it any wonder there is so much conflict leading to polarization and sometimes litigation? Litigation and organizational conflict cost much more than just money – they sap time and energy while disrupting an organization, detracting from the organizational mission and causing needless interpersonal conflict.

There is another way.

At Workplace Solutions NW, Jill has the experience and skill to work effectively with each of these elements, even when parties are in serious conflict. Jill helps people separate their emotions and thoughts from the substantive issues involved in the conflict and begin to trust the conflict resolution or investigation process. That trust can help to significantly de-escalate conflict, often leading to early and positive resolution of workplace conflict. Jill helps parties fully and completely resolve conflict with dignity and respect for each other by focusing on the genesis, not the symptoms, of conflict.

Jill Goldsmith, J.D., M.Div.

Jill’s background is in civil rights in employment legal experience and mediation, investigation/fact-finding, training, coaching and consulting with businesses and attorneys to develop strategies for resolving difficult situations. She has worked with large and small companies in the private and public sectors, higher education and in a wide variety of industries.

After graduating from UC Hastings College of the Law in 1991, Jill practiced labor and employment law in Oregon with Lane Powell Spears Lubersky, and later became in-house counsel with Tri-Met. Jill became a mediator in 1998, and in 2002, Jill started her business to provide neutral investigation/fact-finding, mediation and training services.

Over the last twenty years, Jill has worked as a consultant and an expert witness to parties involved in workplace conflict, as well as training programs for employees and managers in employment-related issues such as equal employment opportunity, harassment and discrimination.  Jill works one on one with individuals and with groups as a coach/facilitator.

Jill attended Water the Bamboo’s Executive Coaching program in 2009 and received a Graduate Certificate as a Trained Teacher in Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) from UC San Diego in 2014 and is also a trained teacher of Stanford’s Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) program.  Jill graduated from UC Santa Cruz (go Banana Slugs!) in 1986 with College Honors and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Jill serves on the Board of Mindful Medicine, a non-profit whose mission is to enhance coping skills, resiliency, empathy and compassion while reducing and preventing burnout in health care professionals.  Jill is a past Board Member of NWEEO, a non-profit whose mission is to provide education and resources in the area of equal employment opportunity, diversity and affirmative action.

Jill is currently enrolled in a Master of Divinity program (expected graduation in 2022) and is process of certification to become a trainer in “Right Use of Power,” a training program centered in ethics, self-awareness and compassion for leaders.