As a mediator who likes to think that I help parties understand and work with their emotions and their underlying needs and interests, the training I attended last month on Nonviolent Communication (NVC) was fascinating. They say it can take three years to really understand how to incorporate NVC fully into your life, and I don’t profess to really understand NVC after one weekend, but this introduction was fascinating. This introductory seminar didn’t address how to mediate in the light of NVC, but it left me reflecting on how that might happen. (more…)
Archive for the ‘Training, Skills & Techniques’ Category
Mediation and Non-Violent Communication
Susan M. Yates, July 5th, 2012E-Discovery Mediation and Litigation Planning
Just Court ADR, April 30th, 2012Welcome Jennifer LaDuke, RSI’s guest blogger, writing about her experiences at a recent e-Discovery mediation training.
As an attorney shifting her career toward mediation, I am always on the lookout for training opportunities to further my skill set and knowledge base. I have previous experience with litigation and electronically-stored information, including participating in a half-dozen large-scale cases where tens of thousands of electronic documents had to be reviewed, tagged, and logged. So, I was thrilled to link my interest in mediation and my previous experience by attending a recent two-day training program offered by the American College of e-Neutrals on the use of mediation to (more…)
What Makes a Mediator Effective? The Need for Empirical Evidence
Jennifer Shack, March 23rd, 2012As a mediator, I was trained that particular actions I took during mediation would bring the parties closer to settlement in a facilitative process. As a researcher, I know that no one has proven what I was told to do is effective. As a field, we’ve examined the outcomes of mediation, but we haven’t examined empirically the reasons for those outcomes. Now, Gary Weiner, a mediator and administrator for an appellate mediation program, has proposed that we do just that. He has organized a mini-conference on research for the upcoming ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Annual Conference in April that is designed to get participants discussing the possibilities for researching the effectiveness of mediator behaviors.
In preparation for the mini-conference, Weiner has written a very lucid and thought provoking paper that outlines why he believes such research is necessary. He recognizes that gauging whether something is effective should depend on what the goals are. He sees the outline of those goals for each program as the first step in determining whether 1) mediation is effective and 2) what behaviors lead to its being effective. He then notes that research into the effectiveness of particular behaviors has been reliant on mediator self-evaluation or participant feedback, both of which are unreliable methods for assessing what happened in mediation and the causal connection between behavior and outcome, starting with settlement. He’s interested in devising other ways in which mediator behaviors can be empirically tested. Does providing an evaluation of the case really lead to settlement, or is something else the mediator is doing the causal factor?
Research in other fields, most notably psychology, provides promising evidence that mediator behavior can be examined empirically to discover what is effective. I’m looking forward to discussing the possibilities at the conference. If you would like to weigh in before then, comment here or get in touch directly with Gary at Gary.Weiner@jud.ca.gov.
Part 3 of 3: Foreclosure Mediation Best Practices
Just Court ADR, March 14th, 2012MEDIATION SESSION ELEMENTS
Ensure Mediators are Well-Trained
Some programs, fearing they will not be able to attract people to mediate, lower the requirements for training mediators. Instead of the normal 40 hour mediation training, they may require only 12 hours of training with an additional training in foreclosure law, or only require that the mediator be an attorney. This lack of training jeopardizes the mediation process itself, as people may not have the tools after 12 hours of training to manage such a complicated discussion. Connecticut’s program boasts a high settlement rate, in part because (more…)
