I once had the privilege of watching one of the UK’s top mediators in action. The issues were all about a sizeable but largely derelict ship sold by A to B, with a view to B stripping it down and converting it into a luxury cruiser for a passing Asian billionaire. B duly paid A his deposit of $500,000 or so.. However, to B’s consternation the ship was even more derelict than B had believed, and would not sail to … Continue to full article…
Category Archives: Getting results
The other day I was presiding over some senior-level policy mediation roleplays at the Foreign Office. And I saw something interesting The roleplays featured three FCO officials. Two were playing the role of odious dishonest rival warlords scheming for advantage at a forthcoming peace conference after a ruinous civil war had wrecked their country. The third played an EU-style Ambassador who had been asked to help sort out various problems about the way the conference was being organised (nameplates, titles, … Continue to full article…
It’s not unusual for ‘creatives’ to be more interested in the challenge at hand than in the detail of contractual arrangements or changes to these arrangements required during the design process. I sat on the committee re-drafting the joint BIID/RIBA Interiors contract due to printed by RIBA Publishing later this year. I assure all interior designers reading this that it’s straightforward, and easy to use and update. Occasionally, however, the pace of developmental changes in the course of a project … Continue to full article…
I once took part in a short mediation (the time scheduled was only a couple of hours) where the parties were different factions in a large extended family arguing over the way an inherited family property had been handled. This was (as they all are) a dismal and complicated problem. Brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins and second and third cousins had fallen out. The issue had been dragging on for years, and was looking likely to end up in the … Continue to full article…
One of the most important mediation techniques is helping the parties explore privately in greater depth the likely consequences of their different choices. Sometimes the issue is being presented by one party to another in terms of Carrots and Sticks: if you agree with what we want, something nice will happen. If you don’t, expect something bad. This seemingly banal Carrot/Stick paradigm is fraught with psychological complexity. What if the party offered carrots does not in fact like or need such … Continue to full article…
Part of our mediation offering is support for people interested in learning about mediation and negotiation technique. We have one roleplay based on an attempt to reach a deal over an education initiative in an imagined developing country. The Minister, an NGO, a UN organisation and a major international corporation all have things to offer, things they want and outcomes they don’t want. How best to present themselves in the meeting and so steer the meeting to a positive outcome? … Continue to full article…
Let’s start at the beginning of any mediation. How to address the parties? I took part in an international mediation competition where an issue of ‘cultural sensitivity’ quickly came to the fore. The mediator introduced himself/herself to the parties to the dispute, who came from different parts of the world and so might well have very different instincts about deference to seniority/authority/age/gender and so on. In the UK/US mediation tradition it would be usual to suggest that everyone use first-name … Continue to full article…
People who end up entangled in professional disputes are often cross and are impatient: time is being wasted in a frustrating and perhaps horribly expensive way. So a mediator has to work with the parties and help them tackle a question to which there is no good answer. Should they cut their losses and try to reach a quick ‘good enough’ deal, or a slower, more patient, ‘deeper’ deal? This is part of a wider key issue in all negotiation. … Continue to full article…