Mediation

Mediation is an opportunity for people in disputes and conflict to create resolution.

As your mediator I meet separately with each party and then usually bring you together for a ‘mediation meeting’.

I have worked with business leaders, with teams of surgeons, with prison inmates, with family members and many more. Although I mainly work with two people at a time I have also worked with groups of various sizes.

For me, mediation means working to equally support everyone involved in the dispute to try and find a way forwards.  Some people are very able to express themselves verbally others not so. Some people are senior to others (in both hierarchy, status, age etc.), some are more forceful and some are very stuck with a single perspective. Mediation doesn’t take away these imbalances; it helps everyone to pay attention to them and gives a voice or a means of expression to those who need it.

People in conflict often feel very stuck and don’t understand each other. One of the ways that you can think about my role is that I act as a translator, helping to create and build mutual understanding.

Mediation can be used in very challenging situations where lots of accusations are flying around.  In organisations I have used mediation as an alternative to formal processes and I have also used it after formal processes have been exhausted.

Mediation is confidential, quick and cost effective. The process will always generate new information for the parties to use, sometimes this enables them to move forward harmoniously, build relationships and find ways to move on. Or if not, mediation will help people to think clearly about what they should do next.

Over 25 years I have mediated hundreds of disputes and also trained over 1000 mediators; I have also helped to set up internal mediation services.

At its simplest a two party dispute would mean meeting each party privately for 90 minutes. This time is to hear about each person’s view of the situation and to help them clearly understand how they can make good use of the mediation meeting.

This is followed by a joint mediation meeting with all three of us that would last a minimum of 3 hours. This offers plenty of time to explore what has happened, what is going on now and how to move forward.

Each mediation is different and so for more information and for an opportunity to think about how mediation may be of value to you, please contact me.