The Process Of Mediation

Before hiring a mediator or choosing any type of dispute resolution I want you to understand two things

. First, I want you to understand how mediation 'fit's in' to the greater spectrum of dispute resolution methods. Second, I want you to understand the various methods that exist within mediation.

As an introduction to the various mediation styles I would like to first present to you some dispute resolution styles other than mediation, in order to get a feel for the advantages of each of the various mediation styles.

The "coldest" and most conservative types of dispute resolution method trial court and arbitration. In both trial court and arbitration the parties compete to convince the judge or arbitrator, respectively, of the righteousness of their position. At the conclusion of the case a decision is issued and one party goes home victorious and the other goes home the loser.

On the completely opposite end of the dispute resolution spectrum is counseling. As you can imagine, counseling is much less based in what the law books would designate as the final outcome to the dispute. Rather, the counselor pursues peace between disputing parties through attempting to expose the deeper causes to the dispute. Then the counselor will work with the disputing parties to work out their issues either together or separately.

Mediation lies somewhere in between the more conservative, law-based styles of dispute resolution, and the more liberal, emotional based styles. And at the conclusion of the mediation process both parties mutually agree on a solution that, and as a result, nobody needs to walk away feeling like the loser. Let's micro-analyze the various methods of mediation on the mediation spectrum.

1. Evaluative Mediation- Evaluative mediation is on the side of the mediation spectrum which most resembles the conservative approaches like trial court and arbitration. During evaluative mediation the mediator analyzes the positions of both parties from the perspective of a judge. Then the mediator proposes his position, to the parties, as to who merits what. Although the evaluative mediator does offer his diagnostic opinion, as in all types of mediation, the final outcome is completely up to the disputing parties to agree upon.

2. Facilitative Mediation- In facilitative mediation the main focus is getting the disputing parties to agree without taking into account the legalistic interpretation of the case or the underlying problems causing the dispute. Simply speaking, the whole focus of the facilitative mediator is simply to 'facilitate' the agreement.

3. Transformative Mediation- Transformative mediation is the most liberal form of mediation, almost reassembling counseling. A transformative mediator will encourage the disputing parties to take a look at the deep issues causing the dispute. Assuming that those deeper issues can be worked out the dispute should naturally be able to conclude with a happy and peaceful ending.

A talented mediator is often able to apply more than one of the approaches when dealing with disputes.

by: Karel Stan

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