Guide on How to Mediate - Term Paper Example

Mediation is a process of solving conflict between two parties. Mediation can also be regarded as a process of manipulating complexities of human behavior. A person who is involved in mediation is called mediator who is often known as the third party leading to help the other two parties by being neutral. The role of the mediator is not make any judgment of the two party but a mediator does a relative different task that is to manage the problem with providing a solution that could be better for both the parties. This paper aims to describe how mediation process should be done. The paper also describes the responsibilities of a mediator in negotiating through mediation conductive approaches in brief. The problems that called be solved through mediation could be from any aspect of human life. The dispute could be between the two partners at business. Other most popular problems that have been solved with the help of mediation are divorce. Mediation can also help in interpersonal conflicts between neighbors living in a same block. Most commonly considered case for mediation are those between employees at workplace. For a mediator, it is important that he or she manage conflicts with the help of a particular structure of steps that could help in resolving complex issues between parties. A mediator should reframe the blames and statement to make the environment ready to be solved (Stitt, 2004, p.13). There are certain types of mediation with respect of the types of problems that are solved by a mediator. The problems and conflicts that are solved with the help of mediation are not legal in nature. A mediator does not have to get a professional degree of mediation but he simply needs to have a neutral attitude towards problem solving and in terms of providing necessary information and help to the conflicting parties. But nowadays mediators are trained by many institutions. According to Valerie F. Butler, “The increasing popularity of mediation makes it available to a wider audience than in the past. There are so many businesses that provide mediation training for their employees. Public entities and non-profits promote mediation as an alternative to court litigation for the clients they serve (Butler, 2004, P.83).” Moreover, if a mediator knows the ethics and codes of conflicting parties then it is more likely that the mediator can easily get away with the problems. Though there is no need of degree required for mediator for a mediator but it is important to look at things with different ages. This is only possible in the case when there are different sides of a perspective. It is the duty of the mediator to perceive the sense of conflicting parties while they make the first encounter with the mediator (Strasse & Randolph, 2004, p.34). How to Meditate: The most important pointer that one needs to be aware of completely is to make sure that mediator is not gained for the purpose of gaining the victory of party but it is a process that helps both party solve the problem with dialogue process. The outcome needs to be equal for both the parties. Mediator needs to be highly talented person in terms of controlling anger of others and providing a decision. For example in some families it is believed that a young child of the family could easily help the parents in getting away with the problem because he or she can grasp the need of the conflicting parties or in other words the child has the ability to help in conserve. It is due to the fact that the human behavior likes to do reciprocal of what happens in daily life. People can gain benefits by actually sharing their fears (Williams, 1998, p.149). The result of the process of mediation is not suppose to be either in terms of failure of one party or should lead to the separation of both the parties. It is better that mediator is able to conserve the conflict or dispute between parties. The tool that must be used at the best level is the communication tool. A mediator must make sure that he continues and provide better mediation chances to both the conflicting parties. Before getting started with the process of mediation it is important for a mediator to know some of the terms that could easily help him or her in solving a particular problem. The most commonly used terms that are used to solve conflicts between conflicting parties are mediation and negotiation. Mediators are recommended that they follow a structure of negotiating and helping the conflicting parties. The most commonly used and successful type of interpersonal communication technique that best works in terms of solving problems is called mediation. Mediation in a more general sense means to make sure that a mediator is looking at the problem through many distinct situations and angles. In this way the mediator can easily catch the problems without any difficulty (Butler, 2004, p.82). Mediation can be further classified in different types in terms of conflict that could be seen between two conflicting parties. Mediation could easily reframe the problem in almost every dimension and angle of the problem that could also be regarded as possibility. Mediation actually takes shape depending upon the understanding of the conflict between conflicting parties. The most commonly used types of mediation are as follows: BATNA WATNA These types of mediation helps in providing a structure to the context of problem solving between the conflicting parties, BATNA and WATNA are the most commonly used terms. It is important to carefully understand the concept of mediation as it is considered to be a structure of solving problem between conflicting parties through negotiation and convincing parties. For a mediator, it is most important to understand the relation between mediation and the job that is to be done by the mediator in order to solve the conflict between different parties outside the law suit judgment. Mediation and its Phases: Phase 1: The most important step of mediation is completely based upon secrecy and giving your ear to listen the whole story of the conflicting parties in particular. A mediator needs to be a more secret listener to the conflicting party. In this phase the mediator needs to assure the party that what ever is being said is highly confidential. A mediator must make sure that he or he does not throw decisions. In this very first step, the mediator needs to explain everything step wise. A mediator needs to make sure that party fully trusts you. The assurance of trust can be done through dialogue stressing the confidentiality of the story as the cases which are solved in law suits are publically available and are not private at all. The two processes that take place in the very first phase of the mediation process are opening and assurance to the conflicting parties that their information would not be revealed to the other party and storytelling by the conflicting party with reliance (Haynes, Haynes, & Fong, 2004, p. 25). Phase 2: The second phase of the mediation is to make sure that the mediator analyzes the stories of both the parties keenly and more observantly. In the same phase of mediation, the storytelling process must take the nature of the open dialogue and conversation between both the parties. It is important to listen to the stories more carefully without giving them any hopes or judging their stories by telling them their mistakes and where they could have gone wrong. Confidentiality matters a lot in the case of a listening the stories of the conflicting parties. A mediator needs to be very keen when it comes to listening different cases and opinions regarding the primary problem. As the step one of the mediation processes is all about convincing the parties that a mediator is being more than a friend. In this way it could be resolved and understood that the conflicting parties are ready to tell you their stories (Alexander, 2003, p.83). Once the stories are carefully told by both the careful parties then the time of mutual conversation comes. The mediator becomes highly responsible in this phase of mediation process for presenting a very warm environment to both the parties. The conversations must be heard carefully by both the parties so that they can indulge in a peaceful dialogue. Most of the mediators have been very successful because they have been extremely successfully in solving the problem through dialogue, but there are as many patterns of human behavior, there are as many questions that ask for more than one solution. This phase of the mediation process needs to be coherently smooth because it completely has the hold of the entire mediation process (Haynes, Haynes, & Fong, 2004, p.7). Phase 3: The third approach towards mediation is to make sure that the mediator does brainstorming that could help him find more answers to a single question. When it comes to human psychology there is a great deal of possibilities and thus it is necessary to think from all dimensions. In this step of the mediation process it is necessary for the mediator to conduct mediation through BURST that is an abbreviation of Belonging Understanding Respect Safety Trust. BURST is an approach towards safer planning of concluding solutions. A mediator needs to make sure that there should be no way in which the results of the conflicting parties give statistics against the each other’s ego. Brainstorming thus would be a great idea for a mediator to think of different patterns which result into mere problems and disputes. Brainstorming could be done through evaluating the cause that has somehow resulted in the dispute (Alexander, 2003, p.8). The mediator could easily jot down the points of what the conflicting parties are asking for. Once the evaluation had done correctly then there could be no problem in thinking and prescribing different solutions to the problem. Finding possibility of more than one solution to a problem in terms of fragmentation also helps a mediator to reach to conclusions which are applicable and agreeable to the conflicting parties with complete awareness to their objectives. Brainstorming thus enables the mediator to write pointers of every possible solution or conclusion. Most of the time, the mediator would constantly be having a derived situation of estimated results. The mediator in this phase of problem solving will likely be adding following the same solution because it is predictable that everything and almost every problem could be solved by jotting-down the jigsaw puzzles of the story. In other words the mediator can have several back up plans for the purpose of solving the problem in the favor of both the clients. A mediator is expected to solve the problem with different dimensional approach towards planning and problem solving. Phase 4: Negotiation could not be studied as in the context of the meaning of the word because when it comes to mediation process it becomes a complicated one because humanistic behavior tends to create confusion thus leads into objectives of conflicting parties. Mediation itself is regarded as study and through process of solving negotiation between the two parties. In the thematic structure of a problem negotiation is done from both the sides of dispute. As it is quite evident form the term negotiating that it means to bargain on something that results in getting something between the original objective and your negotiation approach. Once the stories has been heard with all the proper reasoning then negotiating takes it toll. It is the process of mediation that completely absorbs the phenomenon on negotiating. The two most important components of negotiation are following: Integrative Principles: It should be noted by both conflicting parties that the need to negotiate rises when the offender takes toll of the complete bargain. The integrative principle of negotiating at the first place educates both the mediator and conflicting party about the anchoring. Here anchoring means to break the ice or initiating the war with the negotiated terms and objectives. Integrative principle warns the mediator that if in any case the anchor is places by the party that it means that there is possibility of more and more questioning. The party anchor to set the anchor has often been noted to be on the disadvantageous side of the conflict. Thus before initiating the negotiation process, it is recommended that the conflicting party gains complete understanding of the problems that could harm the position in any way (Alexander, 2003, p.19). Distributive Principles: The mediator needs to help the conflicting parties in realizing the fact that negotiation is that process in which you need to sacrifice simultaneously with making offer. The most important factor that one needs to understand is the fact that what ever one is likely to get, greatly depends on the other person. Thus mediation is a process that helps in gaining the prospects and objectives of conflicting parties with conversations and dialogues over and over. This is what that makes difference from those cases which are studied and conducted in the law suit. Law suit are completely dependent upon the fight of rights. In law suits, negotiation merely means the rights that could be exercised to win the objective. Another most important factor that needs a closer study is the fact that the negotiating commodity remains fixed for negotiating. In other words it could be said that negotiation can take place only in that case when the two parties are agreed to sustain on the basis of what they get (Butler, 2004, p.81). Thus the above two important components of negotiating tends to give way to the mediator and the conflicting parties to understand the fact that negotiating can only take place in case of Mediator is not just responsible to listen to the stories of the conflicting parties but also to make sure that mediator is creating an environment that takes the case to a higher level of understanding where the case becomes much mature and thus solved maturely. Phase 5: The last step of the mediation process is the most important in the process as it binds the conflicting parties with a conclusion of all mediation and negotiation. Agreements on which both the conflicting parties agree in the mediation process are called mediated agreement which are far different from the law suit contracts and agreements. A mediated agreement consists of some of the most important parts of a mediation process such as the bearers of mediated process. Mediated agreements also consist of the name of the mediator along with a brief introduction of the problem or conflict. Another most important part of the mediated agreement is the use of clause. The clauses in actual refer the confidentiality and privacy matters of both the conflicting parties. Mediated agreement also includes the fees of the mediator that had been utilized for the purpose of negotiation by the mediator. The mediated agreement also gains the applicability of the fact that the rights of the conflicting parties are mentioned in the clauses of the agreement. The clause must also adhere to the possibility of a law suit judgment in case the mediation process fails to conduct negotiation between the two conflicting parties (Alexander, 2003, p.118). Difference between Mediated Agreement and Law Suit Contracts: The difference between mediated agreements and law suit contacts is the use of content and terminology. Mediated agreements are greatly dependent upon the proposed content by both the conflicting parties. One similarity that could be found in the mediated agreement and law suit contracts is the possibility of the agreement to become either as litigation, arbitration etc. Mediated agreement is often considered to be a causal written draft of agreed upon clauses but the day it is signed, it becomes legally active that means its implication on the solution must be legally sustained and practiced without any delays. The clauses are though written outside the law suit judgment but its legal implication is for sure to be done carefully by both the conflicting parties and mediator. Mediation to Mediation Agreement: A mediator is expected to make sure that almost every ends possible to the mediation process and negotiation has been carefully overlooked. A mediator needs to make holes in every possible solution and to come up with the techniques that could help the conflicting parties to measure depths of problem and coming out of them with ease. A mediator is responsible for following the paths of mediated agreement by convincing the two conflicting parties completely without any difficulty (Stitt, 2004, p.16). Concluding Remarks: Thus it could be said that mediation is a formal planning of solving a problem without involving any law suit judgment. Mediation is a process that could be conducted by a mediator who is able and skillful to present and brainstorm solutions to a problem. Most of the conflicting parties choose mediation process because this enables them with the clause of privacy and confidentiality. The phenomenon of mediation and negotiation furthermore adds in the flexibility of the process of mediation. A mediator could get a great deal of knowledge regarding problem solving, negotiation, mediation or in other words about the process of mediation. A mediator is the backbone of solving problems without any complication. By following all the phases and their significant activities could help a mediator to understand the mediation and mediation structure more closely. At the end it must be noted that mediation is a voluntary task that should be done for the betterment of conflicting parties rather than benefits. Reference List Alexander, N. (2003). Global Trends in Mediation. New York: Otto Schmidt Verlag DE. Butler, V. (2004). Mediation: Essentials And Expectations. Pennsylvania: Dorrance Publishing Co. Haynes, J., Haynes, G., & Fong, L. (2004). Mediation: Positive Conflict Management. New York: SUNY Press. Stitt, A. (2004). Mediation: A Practical Guide. London: Routledge Cavendish. Strasse, F., & Randolph, P. (2004). Mediation: A Psychological Insight into Conflict Resolution. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. Williams, M. (1998). Mediation: A User's Guide. New York: Michael Williams. Read More