Many years ago a colleague described learning to mediate as being like trying to watch two different TV screens with different shows on them, and learning to meld them into one. On one screen was the story and facts of the case itself and on the other was the mediation process and all its related skills and strategies. The trick was to learn how to braid the two aspects into one flowing mediation. For a long time I liked and used that metaphor when talking with new mediators.
This weekend, I had an experience that replaced, or at least augmented, the TV metaphor. My teenage son tried to teach me to play one of his online video games. (more…)
