- Preface
- Mediation and Health
- Introduction
- Day One
- Day Two
- Day Three
- Day Four
- Day Five
- Day Six
- Day Seven
Due to logistic reasons this website is only in English language.
The website is meant to contain Audio-Visual demonstrations and PowerPoint presentations.
The video vignettes are from training videos, which in particular proved useful in my trainings. A few of the copyright holders has been reluctant to allow presentation in small vignettes on this site. It is my hope that they eventually will change their minds.
If you would like me to add more audio, video cuts and PowerPoint Presentations, please let me know. It is the purpose this way to fill out the blanks.
Some of the video cuts are rather old, which can be seen on the dresses and the hair cut. When I still use them, is it because they have proved very helpful in my trainings.
»To the extent that mediation is going to work, the costs of the National Health Service will decrease«
Palle Gad
Since the mid-seventies, the basic understanding I had from my daily experience working with patients in a medical clinic was this: All kinds of physical symptoms depend on any variation in lifestyle - positive and negative.
So-called psychosomatic conditions, which are the negative-loaded variants, are better handled by solving the deeper, underlying problems rather than with chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
In my therapy room, hundreds of patients have provided insight via clarifying dialogue to the connections between conditions and events in work life, family relations, loss, desertion or frustrations on one side, and their somatic and mental conditions on the other side.
In the vast variety of conflicts handled by mediators, I have observed these same mechanisms as in the therapy room.
By resolving a dispute, one’s health conditions actually improve or are prevented altogether. Once the perceived or actual negative influence comes under control, the experience of this transition will itself cause optimal handling of the individual’s possible conflicts in the future. Compare the notion of mediation. (Palle Gad)
As unsolved conflicts are frequently source to poor health, I kindly call for any kind of statistics proving this anecdotal based fact. If you have any statistic information to share, please let me know.
I have put the video cuts referred to throughout the book and at this site where I found that the best illustrated the text. If you think that some of the video vignettes fit better in another places, please let me know.
You are very welcome to share any kind of information. The mission of this website is to make one useful library for audio-visual material that the readers feel useful in a certain connection.
The book Mediation: Six ways in seven days is written along the lines of a seven days training.
This is to serve the readers in order to become skilled practicing mediators.
In some
parts of the world arbitration is the alternative. In most western countries arbitration
is not seen so much of an alternative as is mediation. |
Somemake a distinction between mediation and conciliation, or between mediation
on one side and conference and dialogue on the other side. Those distinctions
have not proved useful to me. What the book and this site deal with, is meant
to have the same importance to mediation, conciliation, conferencing, dialogue,
etc. |
You
will notice that some of the styles presented in the book seems more suitable
to some definitions of conflict than to others. Please share any comment. |
The six modes chosen as mainstreams are selected among a huge variety of mediations. To force all of these into the mould of six, is not completely fair. However, I have found it useful for my students to operate out of well known templates. |
Court-Annexed
mediation is conducted in a variety of ways. Please share any experience you
get yourself or learn from others. It is very useful to improve the quality
of court-annexed mediation and to make those mediators aware of the variety
of options for process. |
Whatever you feel works to achieve settlement/understanding between disputing parties respecting their autonomy. In order to improve communication about mediation, some kind of uniformity is, however, helpful. |
Traditional legal dispute resolution is founded on a individual and linear cause-effect thinking. This basic view is shared by many, but not all, mediators. Mediators generally favour an idea within conflict resolution held by many indigenous populations that anything depends on everything. That is, conflict and resolution are naturally holistic, each idea serving as a result and a catalyst for the other. Linear cause-effect thinking is a useful pedagogical and social construction. However, it is not always practical to reality. |
In the
circular way of thinking, one does not sort out two components on a timeline
and name one of them “cause” and the other “effect.”
Rather, anything depends on everything, and words and actions can only
meaningfully be understood in context, and so a framing context must always
be present. Be sure to ask circular questions in order to encourage the party
to reflect freely on which options are feasible for the mutual inference between
cause and effect. |
In
mediation responsibility is something one undertakes and not something put on
somebody. |
The reader is encouraged to become familiar with concepts as, empathy, assertion,
empowerment, recognition, microdynamics, discourse analysis, position theory,
systems theory, active listening, linear and circular questions. |
Generic mediation is also known under the name of community mediation. You may find
the style in different steps of its evolution. Generic mediation is employed
in community based conflicts. In the Latin countries the style is often named
social mediation. |
Don’t
think that training videos from training pupils in peer mediation is not
useful for the mediator who wants to learn solving problems for adults.
Often
these training videos are so detailed on the basics that you cannot find
anything like t on training videos for adults.
This
video cut from Peer Mediation contains some examples of linear
questions. Be aware that the question: “Tell me more ...” is a
circular question.
Videotraining clips ↓
There
seem no limits as to where the generic style can be adopted. The simplest and
firmest structure you find in peer mediation, and mediators-to-be are
encouraged carefully to study peer mediation before going further to more
complex mediation.
Mediation
is taught in a variety of settings from couple of days training to university
degrees. |
Title:
Peer Mediation
Tape Running
Time: 28 minutes
Order by:
OUR TOWN
Family Center
The School Mediation Project,
P.O. Box 26665,
Tucson, AZ 85726, US (NTSC)
or (PAL)
Wessing Film,
Absalonsgade 13,
DK-5000 Odense C,
Denmark
|
| |
Videotraining clips ↓
|
Please
observe the variety of ways the individual mediators open their mediation.
The
opening tells much about which kind of style the mediator employs.
Videotraining clips ↓
|
Title:
Sorting things out ourselves
Tape Running
Time: 28 minutes
(NTSC
and PAL)
Order by:
Wessing Film,
Absalonsgade 13,
DK-5000 Odense C,
Denmark
|
In the Red Devil Dog Leasing Case, Leonard Riskin mediate between a tenant (Anne) and a landlord (Frank) (The technical quality will be improved).
Videotraining clip ↓
Mediator begin mediation in joint session.
Videotraining clips ↓
|
Title:
The Red Devil Dog Leasing Case
Tape Running Time: 40 minutes
Order by:
Thomson/West 1-888-937-8539
Law students 1-800-850-9378 |
| |
| |
Adoption: The Chaos of Changing Consent
Videotraining clip ↓
If you
press Positive
Conflict Management Videos you will get to http://www.acrnet.org/library/catalogue.htm#pcmvideos
where you find the whole series of systemic mediation training videos with John
Haynes and Larry Fong as the mediators. |
Title:
ADOPTION: THE CHAOS OF CHANGING CONSENT with Larry Fong as mediator
Price: $75.00
Order Code: V-1
Order by ACR’s book store
|
LawGroup UK: Family Mediation
Family mediation will play a major part in the new approach to divorce which is being phased in under the Family Law Act 1996 (UK). Different models of mediation are being developed and tested.
This is the first British video showing a family lawyer working as sole mediator with a recently separated couple. The issues involve arrangements for their children, financial support and property.
The
one-hour video shows extracts from two mediation sessions in which Andrew
mediates with a separated couple called Colin and Elaine James, played by two
solicitors who draw on their experience from advising divorcing clients. The
sessions are interspersed with Andrew’s comments on the challenges of
mediation and the techniques he uses in working with Colin and Elaine.
Videotraining clips ↓
|
Title:
Family Mediation
Tape Running Time:
60 minutes (PAL)
Order by:
Stephen Madge c/o LawGroup UK,
Orbital House, 85 Croydon Road,
Caterham, Surrey CR3 6PD
Tel. 01883 341341
Fax. 01883 340066
E-mail:
101714.234@compuserve.co |
| |
In active
listening we employ techniques as, restating, rephrasing, summarising sequences,
repetition of words followed by a pause and moments of simple silence. Be
careful when asking questions. Some of these skills are demonstrated on the
video cuts to the right.
Videotraining clips ↓
|
The
style is a stage model. It backfires if leaving a stage premature. Among the
six mainstreams also humanistic, narrative and settlement-driven are
conducted in stages, while transformative and cognitive-systemic mediation
more follows the pattern of cycles. |
Sorting
out things ourselves
Videotraining clips ↓
|
Frequently you can surface the unmet needs by being attentive to what the parties would like to happen.
Videotraining clip ↓ |
The
issues may, however be defined otherwise.
Videotraining clips ↓
|
From needs to solutions.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
In the Red Devil Dog Leasing Case where Leonard Riskin mediate between Anne and Frank we have arrived at the stage of generating options.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
In the Red Devil Dog Leasing Case, Anne and Frank are now negotiating, and we see the mediator summarise and ask hypothetical questions.
Videotraining clip ↓ |
In the Red Devil Dog Leasing Case, Anne and Frank had reached an agreement, and we hear the mediator summarise.
Videotraining clip ↓ |
Peer Mediation
See some simple yet very important and useful modes.
Videotraining clips ↓
|
Try to answer the questions below |
|
- What are the main differences between the six main styles of mediation?
- What is empathy?
- What is assertion?
- What is empowerment?
- What is recognition?
- What is context?
- What is the difference between the mediator’s openings on the supplemental website?
- What role does emotional experience play in discovering needs, concerns and interests?
- What is a good way to end a dialogue with a party in Stage One before giving the other party the floor?
- What is a good way to start a dialogue with the other party in Stage One?
- What is meant by a “collective memory”?
- What is a consequence of leaving one stage before you are finished with it?
- How do you get from Stage One to Stage Two?
|
| |
|
|
Guiding principles in any style of mediation. Both concepts are dynamic and about moving from a relative weak position to a relative stronger position. |
The Greeting Card Company
The opening in transformative mediation is an encouragement to discussion between the parties and the mediator(s) about how the parties would like the process to unfold. After the opening the mediators interferes only little.
Videotraining clip ↓
Opening (18 mb) c
Don expresses some serious concerns about the process – the mediators listen active and Chris starts to respond to the concerns.
Videotraining clip ↓ Discussion about the process. (24 mb) (Access to the downloads requires arrangements with hans.boserup@gmail.com) While Don has the floor (showing lack of empowerment) the mediators become aware of Chris’ growing frustration just sitting there listening and they understand it as a sign of disempowerment or recognition, which they try to meet by after active listening to Don giving the floor to Chris.
Videotraining clip ↓ Mediators active listening and response to lack of empowerment or recognition (22 mb). (Access to the downloads requires arrangements with hans.boserup@gmail.com) |
Title:
The Greeting Card Company
(Transformative Mediation Video 6/4/98)
Tape Running Time: 70 minutes
Order by:
Conflict Resolution Center
Center for
Instructional & Learning
Technologies
University of North Dakota (701) 777-2129 The hyperlink to the download is removed on request from the copyright owners who for the time being prefer The Purple House used as show model presenting Transformative mediation. Access to the clip without hyperlink to the download requires arrangements with hans.boserup@gmail.com |
| |
Chris is demonstrating empowerment and request for recognition. By Don’s body language a change in recognition and perhaps empowerment can be seen. The sequence also provides an example of lip-service: Yes, - but normally being a sign of lacking recognition.
Videotraining clip ↓
Empowerment and recognition in interaction (21 mb). (Access to the downloads requires arrangements with hans.boserup@gmail.com) |
|
The mediators interfere to clarify. As the remark: Get over it, is expressed the mediators interfere to emphasize the focus on the empowering and recognizing parts of the exchange. The exchange shows empowerment, request for recognition and recognition.
Videotraining clip ↓
Dynamics in exchanges showing empowerment and recognition (23 mb).(Access to the downloads requires arrangements with hans.boserup@gmail.com) |
|
Don shows signs of being empowered. The mediators summarize in order to maintain the achieved empowerment and recognition and to emphasize opportunities mentioned during the dialogue. The mediators ask questions to clarify potentials for empowerment. The change in empowerment and recognition from the beginning of the mediation can clearly be seen.
Videotraining clip ↓
Empowerment and recognition achieved, clarified and maintained (24 mb). (Access to the downloads requires arrangements with hans.boserup@gmail.com) |
|
In The Purple House Robert A. Baruch Bush mediate in a dispute in a neighbourhood where the parties are a new home owner (Elizabeth with her daughter ) and the chair of local architectural control committee (Julie)
Videotraining clips ↓
The mediator Professor Robert A. Baruch Bush explains the core principles for the transformative mediation, from which the clips below is taken.
As can be seen is the opening of the transformative mediation not a statement but rather a conversation
The chair of the architectural control committee explains in free storytelling how she see the conflicts and its origin. Mediator summarises and tries not to moderate neither to reframe. He simply rephrases what he has heard to make sure that he has understood and to improve empowerment for Julie by accepting the way she tells her story and to promote further free storytelling. Please note that Julie is telling her story in the mode of rights and obligations rather than in a mode of interests, needs or concerns.
Elizabeth asks for the floor and get it. She then in the free storytelling mode tells her perspective. Please note that Elizabeth too is telling her story in the mode of rights and obligations rather than in a mode of interests, needs or concerns.
Also Elizabeth’s story is summarized as Julie’s was.
The mediator is summarising (22 mb) (Access to the downloads requires arrangements with hans.boserup@gmail.com)
Professor Bush is explaining his strategy as mediator on ‘Reflecting guidelines’. That is, 1) ‘Mirror’ completely what was said. 2) Stay close to the speaker’s language. 3) Engage with speaking part only.
As can be seen below the main strategy is observe the parties without interrupting even in sequences where one party is taking most of the floor and even if that party is venting strong emotions for a rather long time leaving the other party frustrated. Only if the mediator finds opportunities to improve lack of or request for empowerment or recognition will the mediator intervene.
The mediator summarises that there apparently are more disagreements between the parties than just the issue of the colour of the house.
The mediator summarises that there apparently are issues about felt discrimination due to different ethnicity. His summarizing is interrupted by Elizabeth in a strong voice and with Julie trying to response without being very successful. Denise (Elizabeth’s daughter also interrupt stating that she feel that Julie’s attitude to the colour issues is felt like a personal thing. The mediator is just observing as he see no opportunities for improving lack of or request for empowerment or recognition so pressing that they can justify breaking the flow of the parties’ dialogue.
In this clips can be seen how little the mediator tries to get the floor by leaving the control of the process with the parties. You may notice too that the parties are in an empowered mode in this sequence by introducing possible next steps. Elizabeth is reacting assertive when Julie indicates that the answer the architectural committee may come up with probably not will satisfy Elizabeth.
Julie is expressing recognition towards Elizabeth’s needs and showing empowerment by openly considering what can be done.
Julie is expressing recognition towards Elizabeth’s needs and showing empowerment by openly considering what can be done.
Improved recognition and empowerment (22 mb). (Access to the downloads requires arrangements with hans.boserup@gmail.com) |
Title:
The Purple House
DVD Running Time:
146 minutes on two DVDs
ISBN 0-9709492-1-9
VHS $325.00
DVD $325.00
Order by
Institute for the Study of Conflict
Transformation
314 Cambridge Street
Stop 8009
Grand Forks, ND 58203
701.777.2022
fax: 701.777.6184
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
The transformative style is mainly a reaction to the settlement-driven style, but is also a reaction to problem solving mediation in general. |
A break down or a crisis in relationship. |
Guiding principles in any style of mediation. Both concepts are dynamic and about moving from a relative weak position to a relative stronger position. |
First, the mediator must identify the current options for improving empowerment or recognition, and then decide whether he will or will not interfere in the communication flow between the parties. Opportunities for improving empowerment or recognition surface all of the time, but the smart mediator knows that the process will lose its momentum if he tries to do something with each and every one of the situations that arise. Knowing which opportunity to take and which to leave alone is an important learned skill that takes time to acquire. In the mediator’s self-concept, any interference is a challenge of empowerment.
Secondly, the mediator must learn how to design his interference in such a way that it is not received like a forced pressure.
Thirdly, the supporting interference to raise the level of empowerment or recognition must come across as something undertaken by the participants and not as instructions or orders from the mediator. |
The mediator must adopt a way of thinking that keeps him focused on opportunities for empowerment or recognition that come up every so often. The mediator has to, in other words, attempt to establish a microfocus in the microdynamics between the participants. Another way of regarding the mediator’s role is that of an assistant, replacing hampering microdynamics with promoting microdynamics. We call this the mediator’s ability to make ground for microdynamics for microskills. The mediator must learn what situations containing opportunities for empowerment or recognition look like. Here it is important that the mediator is far more attentive to how the parties talk about their elephant in the living room rather than the fact that the parties are simply talking about the elephant in the living room. The inexperienced mediator is advised to learn by heart those cues surfacing again and again in exchanges, meaning the cues that call upon the mediator’s ability to support improving the level of empowerment or recognition. |
The next time you are watching a movie or a play or hearing a dialogue between others, try to notice points for improving empowerment or recognition. The mediator deals with emotional statements the same way he deals with other statements. Emotional statements expressed in conflict are often situations containing opportunity for elevation of empowerment or recognition. If the mediator senses that opportunities for empowerment or recognition are uncomfortable or difficult, it frequently helps to realise that, to the same degree, moments containing problems also contain options for solution. |
Occurs rarely in transformative mediation. |
All steering must be changed into encouragement. |
The transformative mediator finds that very difficult. |
Try to answer the questions below |
|
- Please write three examples of statements showing lack of empowerment.
- Please write three examples of statements showing lack of recognition.
- Please write three examples of statements showing request for empowerment.
-
Please write three examples of statements showing request for recognition.
- Please write three examples of statements showing emerging empowerment.
- Please write three examples of statements showing emerging recognition.
- What are grounded feelings?
- Please write down three grounded feelings.
- Think of an emotion and write down which grounded feelings the emotion combines with.
- Why is it important to be able to see what kind of grounded feeling is behind a certain emotion?
- How can feelings become shortcuts to needs or concerns?
- Please write down two examples of a statement that, at first glance, appear to be expressed from a position of strength but, on analysis, are actually made from a lack of empowerment.
- Explain how can it be seen whether empowerment and recognition are static or dynamic?
- Please write down some differences between transformative and generic mediation.
- Much of mediation focuses on problems. What does transformative mediation focus on in particular?
- Please consider what is the mental or emotional difference between giving and receiving recognition.
- How does transformative mediation regard the imbalance of power between parties?
|
| |
|
|
Victim Sensitive Offender Dialogue in Crimes of Severe Violence
The video from where the cuts below are showed contains an overview of Restorative Justice in the mode of Humanistic Mediation.
Videotraining clip ↓
Humanistic Mediation is developed by Mark Umbreit and his team at:
Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking
284 Peters Hall
1404 Gortner Ave
St. Paul, MN 55108
(612) 624-4923
-
Fax: (612) 625-8224
|
Title:
Victim Sensitive Offender Dialogue
in Crimes of Severe Violence
Tape Running Time: 70 minutes
Order the video being no. 6 in a line
of 6 training videos in Restorative Justice at
|
| |
Over
and over Mark Umbreit has emphasized the importance for the humanistic
mediator to become sufficient centred and mentally prepared for the mediation
task at hand. Like many other important learned skills in mediation, words
cannot communicate the message satisfactory, and thus the mediator must personally
go through the processes of centering, achieving awareness and generate genuine
caretaking, so he himself can sense how it feels to get them from the
mediator compare to not getting them. |
First
then he/she can adjust to the required mental state, where the client sense
that you, though relaxed, are genuine emphatic and full attentively present
for him/her, and that you are genuinely taking care, though respecting the
parties’ autonomy and keeping you neutrality, - that is being the
helper of the parties in their strive to reveal sufficient data to the table,
- and only the helper. |
Preparation is about emptying your mind of any straining thought. Being completely empty and relaxed makes it possible to open up for the mediation at hand. It’s not easy just at sudden to think about nothing. It is advisable to make some yoga postures taking your full attention. Combined with awareness on physically and mentally relaxation, you become able to empty your mind of any distraction. Do not distract yourself by thinking about the parties, you will meet shortly. Trusting the process makes it easier not to think of any data, and to trust that the data needed, will be present when needed as long as one of the parties is still there. |
As Carl Rogers developed person-centred therapy (the main inspiration to humanistic mediation), one of his aims was to create more of a personal relationship with clients, helping the them reach a state of realisation so they can help themselves, encouraging them towards growth on the immediate situation rather than the past, making them able to reach a better sense of self, rather than living in an irrational world, helping them achieve personal growth and or come to terms with a specific event or problem they are having. |
The learned skills, mindfulness meditation and mediation, are ways to learn to achieve the special state of mind required, and learning mindfulness mediation is a journey to awareness of 1) yourself, the 2) other and the 3) whole. Like other mindfulness mediators I recommend as means yoga and mediation the Indian way. At Ananda in the Himalayas (just north of the holy city Rishikesh) http://www.anandaspa.com/LocationGuide/index.asp in the foothills of Himalaya in northern part of India, I have found a place for education second to none. By practising, practising and practising you learn to adjust the pace of you mind, and the whole environment is one huge model of genuine caretaking. By the way, the environment, the accommodation, the facilities, the cuisine, the staff and the teachers are unbelievable.The learned skills, mindfulness meditation and mediation, are ways to learn to achieve the special state of mind required, and learning mindfulness mediation is a journey to awareness of 1) yourself, the 2) other and the 3) whole. Like other mindfulness mediators I recommend as means yoga and mediation the Indian way. At Ananda in the Himalayas (just north of the holy city Rishikesh) http://www.anandaspa.com/LocationGuide/index.asp in the foothills of Himalaya in northern part of India, I have found a place for education second to none. By practising, practising and practising you learn to adjust the pace of you mind, and the whole environment is one huge model of genuine caretaking. By the way, the environment, the accommodation, the facilities, the cuisine, the staff and the teachers are unbelievable. |
When preparing yourself for the mediation at hand, and when you have reached complete awareness and relaxation, focus on all the sounds around you. Identify them one by one, and go to the next one. Regard them as concentric circles, and go from the outer to the inner. Finally you focus on your breath as the closest sound. Now check the pace of your breathing. Inhale and sense the air as it passes all the way down. Then exhale by emptying your lunges as much as possible without pushing and sense the used air as it passes all the way up. As a mediator should never push but rather encourage, treat your body the same way during the preparation and your body will respond. Follow this procedure till your body is completely relaxed and you mind completely aware. During the mediation, check the pace of your breathing. If it has become short again, make a break in the mediation and prepare once more. |
The difference between being physically and mentally relaxed can be illustrated by this parable: When physically relaxed, another person can, by touching a body part of yours, sense if that body part is tense or relaxed. When you are mentally relaxed, you can sense the relaxed body part by thinking of it and by that way check if it is really relaxed and letting go. |
Awareness of yourself is the ability to sense any part of your body (relaxed or tense) whenever you want to and likewise to sense body processes as for instance the breath, by which you is able to sense it passing the nostrils, the neck, the collarbone, the rib cage and touching the abdominal muscle. |
Awareness of others is ability to sense and imagine what they are feeling and telling (every single word has a meaning); - literally as images on your mind. You have been empathetic, when the other as feedback confirms your images as describing their feelings or experiences appropriate. |
Awareness of the whole is ability to sense, imagine and put the sensations and images in to a higher context providing clarity as to what the mediation at hand is really about. |
Opening a private session in a co-mediation With Mark and Catherine as co-mediators.
Videotraining clips ↓
|
Allie is telling about the impact on her and her family
Videotraining clips ↓
|
If, during the pre-meetings, the mediator gets the impression
that the offender will not be able to provide empathy or give recognition so
that the other party can be empowered, the mediator will advise against a
joint meeting. If, during the pre-meetings, the mediator gets the impression
that the victim will not be able to separate the wrongdoing from the
wrongdoer enough that the work can concentrate on neutralising the consequences
of the wrongdoing and about empowering the offender as a person so that the
offence will not be repeated, the mediator will carefully prepare the
offender so that the offender can reconsider whether he will participate in
the joint meeting. |
Videotraining clips ↓
Both in the private meetings and in the joint meeting, the mediator must resist the temptation to fill gaps in the dialogue, and consequently there can be pauses in the dialogue of some length (“... ...”). On a sounds recording of such a mediation, you could get the impression that nothing is happening, but if you are present in the room, you would see in the parties’ body language that during these pauses (“... ...”), a heavy activity is going on for the individual parties. The mediator’s activities aim, among other things, to relate to the human in themselves and in the other parties regardless of the nature of the conflict. Sometimes, the joint meeting is followed up by one or more joint meetings. |
The first thing to notice in humanistic mediation is the calmness radiating from the mediator. It is clear that this kind of mediator shares a special relationship with the parties, and he has a special commitment and attitude toward his work. The session first and foremost is a meeting on the humanistic level, and the mediator attempts to make the human element the pivotal point in the parties’ contact and in his contact with the parties. |
The humanistic mediation process is a reaction to the settlement-driven mediation and in many ways shares much in common with the transformative mediation process. |
Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987) has been of huge inspiration to humanistic mediation. According to Rogers, people can be trusted to act helpfully, and assertive individuals will be able to maintain a balance between their needs. Even destructive needs may be balanced by inherent decency. We have a drive to realise our potential and a need for recognition. Realising our potential does not need to be at the expense of experiencing recognition. |
All things are connected and a common humanity exists between everything. |
Humanistic mediation is successful even when agreement is not reached if understanding and empathy have been created. |
The mediator prepares himself for the mediation by blocking out and letting go of everything except that which contributes to opportunities for peace making and wound healing for the process at hand. The mediator’s role is to facilitate and create an environment so that dialogue and mutual assistance are encouraged. |
Never. |
Even the not yet recognisable is part of the reality if it influences the mediation. |
Questions naturally contain an intention by the questioner, which is based upon certain assumptions. Depending on how they are formulated, questions have a predictable effect on he who is being questioned. In the following, this point is demonstrated in Karl Tomm’s analysis of four types of questions, the prevailing intention behind them and the likely outcome. (See the illustration on the next page.) Any question is grounded in assumptions and preconceived opinions concerning the issues in question. Occasionally, the assumptions and opinions are unconscious. |
Linear questions are asked to clarify sequences.
Question: |
“What
are your reasons for being here today?” |
Answer: |
“The
windows that A delivered were not what we agreed upon.” |
Question: |
“What
is the matter with the windows?” |
Answer: |
“They
do not tilt like they are supposed to.” |
Question: |
“What
was it that you had agreed to?” |
Answer: |
“I
ordered the windows from a catalogue.” |
Question: |
“What
was in the catalogue about the windows?” |
|
Circular questions are asked to discover patterns that connect or separate individuals, things, actions, assumptions, ideas, emotions, norms, etc., in a reciprocal or cybernetic cycle.
Question: |
“What
would you like to achieve by being here today?” |
Answer: |
“I
would like to solve some problems which have come up in connection with an
agreement about some windows.” |
Question: |
“How
do you imagine that B understands your agreement?” |
Answer: |
“Actually,
I don’t think he knows very much about windows.” |
Question: |
“What
would it take for you to think he knows enough about windows?” |
|
A question is always open-ended, closed, or something in between. An open-ended question cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no,” thus opening up the possibility for more or fuller answers. That is, the learned skill here is to be as imprecise in your mediation questioning as possible.
“Mrs. Johnson, would you try to tell me something about why we are gathered here today?”
And not:
“Mrs.
Johnson, would you try to tell me something about why we are gathered here
today to discuss the humidity problems in your home?”
“Can
you tell more about the house rental situation?”
And not:
“Can
you tell more about the house rental situation in your block of flats?”
“What
kind of experience has brought you here today?”
And not:
“What
kind of experience with your car has brought you here today?” |
Closed questions can be answered with “yes” or “no” or with simply very little data, and they are linear in nature. |
Reframing is to
place statements in a new (and positive) “frame,” or context.
Moderating is
within the same frame to decrease the sharpness or the power in an utterance. |
It is usually quite difficult to establish common ground between
the parties’ different positions. The mediator’s job, therefore,
is to discover what lies beneath the positions or claims. It is easier to
merge interests, needs and concerns rather than positions. |
Try to answer the questions below |
|
- What is the difference between moderating and reframing?
-
Explain how humanistic mediation differs from generic mediation.
- How does active listening in humanistic mediation differ from active listening in generic mediation?
- What specific components separate humanistic mediation from generic mediation?
- What are the central aims or goals of humanistic mediation?
- What about humanistic mediation can be connected to humanity?
- Which learned skills should be left to the experienced mediator?
- What does the tradition of positive natural science urge people to do?
- Please write three examples of closed questions.
- Please write three examples of open-ended questions.
- Please write three examples of linear questions.
- Please write three examples of circular questions.
- What is the effect or outcome of linear questions compared to circular questions?
- What is the effect or outcome of questions compared to active listening?
|
| |
|
|
(No content yet) |
It is a widespread misunderstanding that you can press somebody to move in a certain direction, and you can do it via commands, criticism or scolding. The few situations when this is possible are about relations between subordinates and superiors, and only a limited part of a party’s life is subject to instructions. The ways of creative thinking cannot be directed by others and brainwashing is a myth. You can interfere, yet that interference will lead to a change. But, this disturbance is only partly master of the exchange. The human being – keeping in mind that the opponent is included in this category – is a self-regulating (autopoietic [1]) mechanism that must be convinced to go the direction that you want. This realisation is an important part of the systemic grounding for cognitive-systemic mediation.
[1] The biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, The Tree of Knowledge, 1992. |
Autopoiesis illustrates why you cannot press somebody’s mind and creativity into to a certain direction.
The idea of
brainwashing emerged during the Korean War. The CIA looking for means to change
an individuals’ mind into a democratic mindset, and they arrived at the
conclusion that brainwashing was not effective. Now you have the explanation. |
The domain theory may be helpful in clarifying whether individuals communicate within the same domain or frame (value comprehension). Is the mediation to be conducted within the frames of production’s or reflection’s domain? If the mediator, using the domain theory, realises that he cannot see the world through the same frame as the parties, he must do something about that. Otherwise, he will create more problems than he will solve. |
Neutral is only what the parties experience as neutral. |
|
If you want the videos with Norwegian subtitles, you order by Kirkens Familierådgivning, Otta, Norway (PAL)
http://www.kfotta.no/videoer.htm |
Adoption: The Chaos of Changing Consent.
An unwed mother has put her son up for adoption through a private agency. Just as she is about to sign the papers she has second thoughts and wants to negotiate some way of being involved in her son’s future. The adoptive parents are afraid of what such a future would be like for all involved. The mediator helps them examine these issues in the light of what is best for the child.
Videotraining clips ↓
|
Some of the following video cuts are from
ADOPTION:
THE CHAOS OF CHANGING CONSENT
with Larry Fong as mediator
Price: $75.00
Order Code: V-1
Tape Running Time: 45 minutes |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
Business of Bagels: A Partnership Business Dispute John Haynes is mediating between Dan and Ross owning a bakery business producing bagels. Dan runs the production end of the business while Ross handles the sales. A variety of partnership issues come into play with differing opinions on how to manage the business, including finances, labour, and capital expenditures. The mediator helps the partners find a mutual definition of the problems and assists them in examining alternative solutions to their problems.
The technical quality will be improved so the surface noise disappears.
Videotraining clips ↓
|
BUSINESS OF BAGELS:
A PARTNERSHIP BUSINESS DISPUTE
Featuring: Dr. John Haynes
Price: $75.00
Order Code: HV-1010
Tape Running Time: 41 minutes
The full dialogues of Chaos of Changing Consent and
Business of Bagels:
A Partnership Business Dispute you will
find
in the book, Mediation:
Positive Conflict Management,
State University of New York Press, 2004
Order by
|
| |
| |
| |
The cognitive-systemic mediator listens first and foremost to the parties’ narratives for issues that might be subject to negotiation. |
Before the parties really start dealing with the negotiations, the mediator tries to get the parties’ original wishes and goals to surface in a logical overriding frame (context). |
In the universe of systemic theory, the relation and therefore the interaction between the individual components of the system are far more interesting that the individual components themselves. |
Examples:
“Have you been exposed to something similar before?”
“Do you know how others solve a similar problem?”
“Is something lacking that, if it was present, would make the problem easier to solve?”
“How would you solve a similar problem if it were to surface five years from now?”
“What would you advise your close friend to do if he had a similar problem?” |
The cognitive-systemic mediator not only listens for issues suitable for negotiation. He also listens for a party’s use of language, and what it contains of narratives within itself about value concepts of the speaker. |
Parties in crisis and parties reviving the traumatic experiences. |
The mediator listen carefully to metaphors employed. |
The underlying story is different from the metastory, and is rather like the next layer in an onion. Each layer represents a new edition of reality. |
How to identify the gatekeeper having the keys to the data of the system? |
Mediator makes his choices trusting that a party who wants an ignored component to be a part of the collective memory and future narrative will repeat the component in his upcoming narratives and answers until the mediator includes it in his summarising. |
A party cannot sustain a role unless he has the cooperation of the mediator. |
In mediation, the parties may gain new insight that can make them change course from what they started the mediation with. The task of the mediator is to create a safe environment for such course changes. |
Study the transcript of the dialog between mediator Larry Fong and his clients, Vicky, Janice and Henri at page ... |
Try to answer the questions below |
|
- Mention some differences between cognitive-systemic and generic mediation.
- Mention some differences between cognitive-systemic and humanistic mediation.
- What is autopoiesis?
- Is the human being a system?
- What is special about closed systems in relation to influence from the outside?
- Try to express respectively an empathetic and a cognitive-empathetic sentence.
- Why might a cognitive-systemic mediator does not use emotions as tools during the mediation?
- What is context?
- What understanding do you reach by thinking about thinking?
- Try to form five circular-reflective questions.
- What is the difference between the metastory and the underlying story?
- What is the systemically regarded reason why you cannot afflict your assumptions of what is natural, decent or true on another person?
- What effect does it have if you get into a situation where your paradigm is ignored?
- How does the cognitive-systemic mediator assist the party in making an apology?
-
What component must an apology contain to be empathetic?
- What can you use domain theory for?
- Give ten examples that fall respectively into the domains of the aesthetic, production or reflection?
- What is neutrality seen from a systemic perspective?
- What can you use hypotheses for?
- What is the disadvantage of using hypotheses?
- Mention differences in how empowerment is developed in generic, transformative, humanistic and cognitive-systemic mediation respectively.
- Mention differences in how recognition is developed in generic, transformative, humanistic and cognitive-systemic mediation respectively.
|
| |
|
|
Loosening the Grip of a Conflict, Narrative Mediation.
The choice of beginning the mediation with either joint session or with private sessions is made depending on what the mediator feels serves the process best. If you as mediator begin the mediation in private sessions rather than in joint session, you may consider whether just to talk about the process of the joint session, or you can, as in the example below, also deal with the content of the dispute. Whenever you act as mediator, it is wise to leave at least two third of the talking to the parties, - preferable more. It is difficult though.
In the video cut here the mediation is conducted by co-mediators having determined to begin the mediation with private sessions. The first cut shows the mediators met to prepare the mediation.
Videotraining clip ↓
The co-mediators decide to meet with Jim first and this cut shows the opening. |
Title:
Loosening the grip
Tape Running Time: 74 minutes
The DVD can be bought at
$80.00 for the DVD and
$40 for the film on VHS |
| |
Videotraining clip ↓
|
Gerald Monk and Alison Cotter of the University of Waikato's (New Zealand) Mediation Services act as mediators in this familiar conflict between neighbours. Disagreements about type of music and level of sound have led to police involvement and some physical violence. The viewer is led through the interviewing process from the planning, reviewing the guidelines and to the actual mediation. This video is a good accompaniment to the book by Winslade and Monk. |
|
John Winslade is one of the leading figures in the narrative therapy movement and is a teacher of narrative counselling at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. He is the co-author of Narrative Counselling in Schools (1999), Narrative Mediation (2000), and Narrative Therapy in Practice. |
|
| Occasionally the mediator or the co-mediators meet privately either before or during the mediation with one party. What we see here is part of a pre-mediation in a case with the neighbours Jim and Elizabeth.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
| Jim and Elizabeth is now in the joint session following the private sessions as shown below. They have been introduced to the process, and the opening is influenced hereof.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
| Part of the narrative process is to make the parties aware what the conflict has done to their quality of life. |
| In the next cut you see Jim and Elizabeth tell about that.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
| Elizabeth is now encouraged to tell about the impact of her life.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
| Elizabeth tells about the impact on her life.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
| The mediators now try to get the parties to agree on a context, - name of what happened. This is done to externalize the actions done in order to make the parties realize that concentrating on the action makes up an obstacle to get to where the parties want to go. The mediators try to make the parties relive other stories in which the both were participants.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
Mediator tries to get Jim to define the kind of neighbourliness he would like to have. Also that is a way to prepare for the alternative future common story.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
| Differences between what the parties have experienced in the conflict and what they would like to happen.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
| In this cut the mediators are discussing strategy in front of the parties and with the parties resulting in an adjournment of the mediation till next day.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
The parties have now had a day to ponder and are meeting the next day.
Videotraining clip ↓
|
Narrative mediation originates in the assumption that both feelings and conflicts arise in relations and are not an internal matter. The starting point is that we live in language and in stories as we tell them to others and tell them to ourselves. As stories or narratives are social constructions, it is to a wide extent possible, through other social constructions (other alternative stories), to change the feelings and to change the conflict. |
| The mediator tries to make the party take a place in another story dealing with the future. From the place in the story about the future, the perspectives and the feelings are different. |
| Throughout the mediation, the mediator tries to make the alternative narratives broader, richer, more filling, more comprehensive, more constructive and confirming. The idea is to make room for the alternative narrative and to restrict the dominance of the formerly overbearing narrative. |
Stories are told as an outlet for pent-up emotions, to get reactions from others, to understand yourself, to create meaning amid chaos, to get attention, to request support from others and to involve others. |
Stories lay out the right and the wrong about differences between the party and others, about events, surprises, offences, difficulties, inconveniences, dreams and focuses. |
Part of the appeal of narratives is that it involves others, and also because it contains the dynamic to influence others. Stories wake up our feelings while connecting the heart with the head. |
Problems are externalised and identified as roadblocks on the way to the hopes expressed in the beginning of the mediation. Such obstacles are externalised, isolated and liberated from the individual and regarded from the outside.
Externalising can, for instance, sound like this:
“So,
the calls are constant? What will it take to ignore them?”
“How does the problem interfere with your work and life? What will it take to reduce or eliminate the interference?” |
| The deconstruction of the dominating discourse (here, a story) can happen by the mediator making the parties focus on what the whole conflict really is about. Is there anything that they have left out of their stories? Is the story escapable?
Questions about identifying a context might sound like this:
“About well-being?”
“About finances?”
“About how you normally experience how and what you stand for (self-identity)?” |
The mediator’s deconstructing work is done along with constructing work. Having brought the parties to look at the alternative places together, the parties are now brought to the point of realising that there are now more options for action than they could see from their original place in the dominating conflict-saturated story. |
In the book you will find the transcript of a narrative mediation conducted by John Winslade. |
Try to answer the questions below |
|
- What commonalities and differences to you see between cognitive-systemic and narrative mediation?
- Try to formulate five externalising questions.
- Try to formulate five deconstructing questions.
- What would you do to make a party realise that, simultaneously with this conflict, he participates in a number of other stories as well?
- What would you do to make a party realise that the other party, along with this conflict, is participating in a number of other stories as well?
- How can you make the parties talk about those other stories?
- How can the parties’ dialogue about the other stories be used?
- How do you move a party from one place in the conflict story to another place in another story?
- What are the consequences of being moved from a place in the conflict story to a place in another story?
- How does the narrative mediator view the concept of neutrality?
- How does the narrative mediator view the concept of impartiality?
- In cognitive-systemic mediation, the focus is on problems. What does the narrative mediator focus on?
|
| |
|
|
| Settlement-driven mediation can be understood as a derivation of
generic mediation. Followers of settlement-driven mediation tend to prefer
this style to generic mediation because often they have not been exposed to
other styles outside of settlement-driven, because it is more goal-oriented,
and also because it is considered a more substantial aid in nature, rather
than simply facilitating the process of resolving the conflict at hand. |
You can approach the conflict from either a wide or a narrow angle. If you take the wide approach, this means that you encourage free storytelling about anything that the party feels like talking about, and ask questions that motivate the parties to tell not only about the conflict, but also about the conflict environment and about the human costs of the conflict. If you approach the problem from a narrow angle, the participants to the mediation very quickly get to talk about responsibility, liability, a prediction about what a court of law would decide, and – pure and simple – money. Provided that you approach from a wide angle, it may lead to the parties’ agreement not only dealing with money, but also what else the parties can do for one another, possibly compensating for money – expanding the pie. The “pie” is often money or other limited resources, and the expansion of the pie is frequently something else besides money or other limited resources. |
Leonard L. Riskin, Decision-Making in Mediation: The New Old Grid and the New New Grid System, 79 NOTRE DAME LAW REVIEW 1 (2003). In his special personal style of mediation, Len Riskin practices more or less what any of the other styles try to achieve. It is presumably empathetic qualities present while listening to a fellow human being, something the parties very quickly feel, that makes Riskin a model very difficult to formulate. The article, being forthcoming on all the styles presented above, is on a very high level of abstraction and is of lasting value for many decades to come. The article shades a previous simpler, easy-to-read and instructive article on the combination of wide, narrow, facilitative and evaluative mediation. |
Mediation in Action: A Complex Business Dispute.
Mediation in Action Video and Study Guide is available without CLE accreditation and involves an international commercial contract dispute between a computer manufacturer and distributor and demonstrates a complete mediation with counsel and client participation in 36 minutes with commentary on mediation phases.
The videotape is accompanied by a Study Guide. Order Code: VID-02. Price: $100
Videotraining clips ↓
|
Title:
Mediation in Action:
A Complex Business Dispute
Tape Running Time: 36 minutes
Order by:
Mediation in Action Video (PAL),
Order Code: VID-02P. Price: $100
Mediation in Action Video (SECAM),
Order Code: VID-02S. Price: $100
Mediation in Action, DVD,
Order Code: DVD-02. Price: $75
$125.00 (Section of Dispute Resolution)
ABA Mem $175.00 (Regular).
$125.00 (Section of Dispute Resolution)
ABA Members. |
| |
| |
| |
| |
Saving the last Dance is a co-operation between The Center for Mediation in Law, the Harvard Negotiation Research Project and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
The video, entitled Saving the Last Dance: Mediation Through Understanding, demonstrates the “Mediation through Understanding” mediation model that Gary J. Friedman, Jack Himmelstein, and Robert H. Mnookin have developed over the past several years. Focusing on a dispute between a dance company and its recently discharged choreographer over intellectual property and employment issues, the video alternates between excerpts from the mediation itself and an educational commentary.
The Mediation through Understanding model involves the mediator working together with the parties and their lawyers in plenary session, without caucuses or shuttle diplomacy. In this model, the law plays an essential but not necessarily dominant role. The mediator encourages understanding of differing perspectives, concerns, interests and aspirations. On the basis of this understanding, the participants work through the conflict together -- allowing tension to arise when necessary -- and generate creative options for resolution. The mediation is kept in joint sessions.
Gary Friedman is mediating between Mike (the CEO for the theatre) and Jackie (the former chorographer). Joan is the attorney for the theatre and Conrad is the attorney for Jackie. |
Title: Mediation in Action: A Complex Business Dispute
Tape Running Time: 50 minutes
As the copyright owners had wanted not to have vignettes from the video at any website, you should contact hans.boserup@gmail.com for arrangements to the vignettes from the video.
Order by:
More details at:
NTSC standard (U.S./Can.):
Non-profit/Edu/Gov $225.00
NTSC standard (U.S./Can.):
For-profit $300.00
PAL standard:
Non-profit/Edu/Gov $225.00
PAL standard:
For-profit $300.00
For ordering information, please visit the
Clearinghouse website,
or telephone
directly at 1-800-258-4406 |
American Bar Association, Section of Litigation and the Center for Continuing Legal Education: Representing Clients in Mediation, How Advocates can Share a Mediator’s Powers.
As mediation becomes an ever more popular way to resolve legal disputes, lawyers need to learn how to use the process to obtain better results for their clients. This sophisticated video program takes you far beyond the basics to explore how to apply the unique aspects of mediation to enhance your abilities as a negotiator. The video builds on a unique experiment performed at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, in which four different groups of professional mediators and litigators were asked to mediate the same lawsuit. In an unscripted setting, experienced lawyers and neutrals matched wits with each other as they worked to settle a commercial contract dispute. They achieved very different results. This experiment produced the most realistic video footage ever made of sophisticated mediation advocacy. Drawing on many years of experience as a trial lawyer, mediator and trainer, and combining incisive commentary with striking examples of experienced advocates at work, Dwight Golann shows how advocates can advance their clients goals at all stages of a mediation. This package includes a study guide.
Don’t get confused that new faces are showing up. The same case was mediated in role-plays by four different groups.
Videotraining clips ↓
|
Representing Clients in Mediation:
How Advocates Share a Mediator's
Powers (DVD Package)
Order by:
Product Code:
V00RCMD V00RCMD 2000
Running Time: 60 minutes 1 hour
Sponsoring Entities:
ABA Center for CLE,
Section of Litigation
ABA Center for CLE,
Section of Litigation
Pricing:
$175.00 (Regular)
$125.00
(ABA members) |
| |
As the lawyer has clarified his client’s position in the opening presentation, often punctuating the story with examples of failure or neglect by the opposing party, the following course often becomes limited by the themes that are presented by the lawyers. The mediator tries to employ a win-win strategy by expanding on those themes via exploring what specific interests and needs lie behind the positions. |
In settlement-driven mediation, the mediator is often less concerned than in other mediation about expressing his own substantial attitudes and beliefs about where common ground can be found and agreement can be achieved. Some settlement-driven mediators can be very open about indicating to the parties how he estimates a court of law would evaluate this factual information and which kind of laws the court would employ in deciding this conflict. |
There is little, if any, difference between the stages of agreement in settlement-driven mediation compared to that in the generic style.
Due to the variety of process, there will most likely be a difference in the content and focus of the agreement concluded respectively in settlement-driven mediation and generic mediation. |
The author strongly advises the mediator to get the parties’ permission to make a recording (via Dictaphone or a wire recorder) of the mediation sessions so that subsequently you can listen to yourself and to the parties’ reaction to your mediation. |
As a basis for certification or admission into a professional mediators’ organisation, the author suggests that as an alternative (or in addition) to prescribed education or practical experience, the applicant forward two or three audio recordings of previously conducted mediations. |
In mediation of appeal cases, one might believe at first glance that the first instance judgement plays a big part. Experience suggests, however, that parties to a wide extent are ready to leave the verdict alone while trying mediation of the appeal case. They normally see the potential in recounting from the very beginning bringing forth new information that was, for whatever reason, not included in the first instance in court. |
Try to answer the questions below |
|
- Please state some commonalities and differences between generic and settlement-driven mediation.
- Please state some commonalities and differences between humanistic and settlement-driven mediation.
- Please state some commonalities and differences between transformative and settlement-driven mediation.
- Please state some commonalities and differences between cognitive-systemic and settlement-driven mediation.
- Please state some commonalities and differences between narrative and settlement-driven mediation.
- In order to tune into the context or contexts in settlement-driven mediation, what can the mediator do?
- How is the attitude toward emotional data in settlement-driven mediation?
- How is the attitude toward empowerment and recognition in settlement-driven mediation?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of opening a mediation with a wide focus and a narrow focus, respectively?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of conducting a mediation with an evaluative manner and a facilitating manner, respectively?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the mediator as a messenger between the parties?
- To what extent is active listening normally adopted in settlement-driven mediation?
- To what extent do the parties in a court-annexed mediation of appeal cases place significance of the verdict and the exhibits from the case?
- What role does the court procedure from the first instance play an energy or motivation in mediation of appeal cases?
|
| |
|
|
The first microdynamic that the mediator employed was his way of bidding the parties welcome. He started with small talk to reduce any tensions surrounding the unknown and encountering the opponent, followed by handing over the mediation room and facilities to the parties for use as they saw fit. Then, he also handed over the responsibility of finding a resolution for the conflict to the parties, thus activating a microdynamic leading to empowerment. |
The dynamics of the process is very dependent of the level of empowerment and recognition. The participants in mediation have different power at different point of the process. The section provides the reader with tools to analyse the level of empowerment and recognition and tools to explore who at the moment have most power. |
A transcript of the Jacob and Awwad dispute is analysed. |
Discourse analysis can surface who has power and surface a speakers intentions. Exchanges follow certain natural laws which are very useful for the mediator to know about. |
A transcript of the Marlene and Dennis dispute is analysed. |
A transcript of the Vicky, Janice and Henri dispute is analysed. |
Like teaching psycho education to people needing insight in the interconnection between psychological strain and bodily pain, education in the emerge, the dynamics and the consequences of conflict may improve people’s awareness on the nature of conflict and how to deal with, how to live with and how to get past conflict. |
Conflicts are experienced differently depending on the parties’ relation to one another. In law, this relation is subdivided in conflicts with inside and outside contracts. When law uses the contract term, it is because the law in relation to private parties operates in regards to rights and obligations. For parties without any contractual relation, this is not sufficient coverage. Parties to a conflict have occasionally had a relation of trust on which the original relation was built. Western marriages are essentially built in that way – a relation of trust. The parties who are now in conflict may have also been put in relation to one another. Examples of this could be children in relation to parents, and parties in conflict with one another due to the forced removal of children. |
Depending on their relation, the parties to conflict encounter one another on the steps of the so-called conflict ladder, a metaphor for the development of conflict. Diana and John Lampden, Londonderry, Northern Ireland, began to study how conflicts and disagreements influence the parties and their community. It soon became clear to them that the escalation of conflict was connected to certain dynamics, and their work showed that these dynamics could have a promoting as well as a hampering effect in the escalation of conflicts. The Lampdens described conflicts, which began as a disagreement, could escalate to the point of serious harm |
Diana and John Lampden became aware of the fact that the above-mentioned dynamics at each step could be reversed to its reciprocal circumstance with the application of other dynamics. By tuning into the escalating dynamics, they saw that this could be reversed to détente (relaxation of tension) – that is, one could climb up the conflict ladder, but one could also certainly climb down as well. |
If we turn our focus toward the mainstreams of mediation presented earlier, we can see that each of them is designed to deal with escalating dynamics at the different steps on the conflict ladder. |
A conflict may arise because two insurance brokers were instructed to sell insurance policies on a commission basis in overlapping market areas. A conflict may arise as a result of the administration’s decision that a child should no longer live with his biological family but rather with a foster family. We refer to this as being a structural conflict. |
Individuals who, under normal conditions, manage to maintain a relatively even balance between fulfilment of their own needs and duty, may become imbalanced when under great duress so that either duties’ (superego) pole or fulfilment’s (id) pole is favoured, observable without a psychiatrist’s diagnosis. These situations are generally referred to as intrapersonal conflict. |
Occasionally a party to mediation is very assertive but has little capability for empathy, and sometimes a party has great capability for empathy but very little for assertion. Assertion and empathy share a connection to the poles mentioned above in regard to self-realisation or steering by a strong sense of duty. If both parties to a conflict are assertive but lack empathy skills, you will find much confrontation in the parties’ conflict. If the parties are very empathic but very hesitant or unskilled in assertion, the parties lacking the ability to solve problems reap the fruit of their own habit by avoiding confrontation with the problem at hand. |
Goal-rational meaning – based on a choice of goals out of a clearly defined value horizon and on a choice of means, also including possible negative consequences
Value-rational meaning – based on the value of the action itself, out of the conviction of ethical, aesthetic, religious or other characteristics, and without considering possible negative consequences
Affective (or emotional) meaning – without considering values or possible negative consequences
Traditional meaning – based on identifying oneself in custom or practice where the individual in action is not even conscious about the goal in action |
Is mediation efficient? The answer depends upon whom you ask, and which perspective is employed. Is efficiency understood in the same way by those financing the mediation (for example, legal aid entities), by administrative entities (for example, government entities), by the parties to the conflict, and by the mediators? Do the parties to mediation really know what mediation is about? Do they know that mediation is conducted in ways that can be experienced as very different from more mainstream methods (like lawsuits)? Do the judges, legal aid entities, governmental entities and legislators know this, too? Empirical studies from a number of countries suggest that this is not the case. |
From the goal perspective, an organisation or a process is successful if it meets defined goals within the right amount of time and within the right price. |
In the process perspective, a process is efficient if it runs smoothly. Dead ends, interruptions, tension or an overtly open expression of conflict are all regarded as symptoms of inefficiency. |
In the system perspective – not to be mixed up with systemic theory – processes are regarded as systems changing input to output. The focus is on functions and data, and the global focus is on what a system can produce. The system is a steering means, and the user is less important. |
In the interest perspective, it is not fruitful to talk about efficiency as an absolute phenomenon. Rather than talking about creating more ways for efficiency, the process is surrounded by numerous interest groups that evaluate the process and its outcome using a variety of criteria. |
According to the symbol perspective, a mediation process is efficient if it manages to appear as effective in the view of the mediator, the parties and other remote players such as the media and decision makers, among others. |
When mediation is simultaneously regarded from more than one of the perspectives mentioned above, paradoxes arise. In such a paradox perspective, it becomes a task to evaluate whether crossing pressure from different perspectives and the paradoxes themselves lead to a constructive development. |
Mediation can happen over distance, making it unnecessary to have all of the participants present in the same room. Exchange of letters and audio or video recordings via the internet, telephone conversations, teleconferencing and videoconferencing are all examples of how this can be done. |
In professional mediation terminology, ODR is something different than mediation via videoconference or telephone mediation. It is an individualised, computer-based process in which the communication is conducted via the written word. |
In ODR it is very difficult to repair damages from hampering microdynamics and speech acts. |
The ODR services currently provided are rooted in the settlement-driven mediation style. |
The digitalised ODR process currently happens via separate communication between the mediator and the individual parties, compared to private meetings in caucus. All participants in the mediation are not online at the same time. The existing ODR design contains a significant risk that the intervening third person (the mediator) takes control over the process, which is not consistent with the pre-condition that the parties should be offered autonomy. |
Both of the parties knew their individual status within the generic style, and the computer software was designed in accordance with the generic style. The parties were in the same room, but did not speak to one another. All communication was carried out via the conflict resolution software on a stand-alone computer, which the parties took turns using. The computer was the parties’ mediator, and no other individuals besides the parties were involved. For most of the students who participated in the software testing, the experiment was a success. |
Try to answer the questions below |
|
- Please give five examples of microknowledge.
- Please give five examples of microskills.
- Please give five examples of microdynamics.
- To what extent is microdynamics promoting or hampering?
- Describe the behaviour of a party that appears to have been psychiatrically diagnosed.
- How does a mediator relate to a party demonstrating neurotic behaviour?
- How does a mediator relate to a party demonstrating narcissistic behaviour?
- How does a mediator relate to a party demonstrating borderline behaviour?
- How does a mediator deal with a party crying or expressing emotion out of grief?
- What does the mediator do if a party becomes angry or frustrated at the mediator because of the way he is running the mediation?
- Please give an example of an exchange using the auditory channel.
- Please give an example of an exchange using the visual channel.
- Please give an example of an exchange using the tactile channel.
- Please give an example of an exchange using the kinaesthetic channel.
- How can metaphors be used during mediation?
- How can you analyse a transcript to see to what extent a mediator stimulates empowerment or recognition?
- By analysis, to what extent can you see who has influence at different times in the dialogue?
|
See a sample in the back of the book. |
|