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Communication Barriers
Last week, I presented some information on the role of negotiation in mediation. This week I would like to discuss the role of communication barriers in mediation. In their (1988) book, Getting together: Building relationships as we negotiate, Roger Fisher and Scott Brown outline barriers to communication and ways we can improve communication. Communication is…
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The Role of Negotiation in Mediation
Today I would like to present information on the role of negotiation in mediation based on Roger Fisher’s and William Ury groundbreaking text, Getting to yes, and to lay out their central tenets and their relationship to conflict management. Fisher and Ury founded and continue to work at Harvard Negotiation Project and were pioneers in…
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Power Imbalances in Mediation
Today, I would like to discuss power imbalances in mediation and their impact on relationships. Power is when one person has influence over another person or making someone think, believe or behave in a way that person would not do so on a voluntary basis. In many cases, parties often overestimate their own power and…
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Facilitative Mediation Theory
Today, based on my discussion of frame of reference, I want to discuss Facilitative Mediation Theory so that clients can see that I have a particular theory that drives my work with the caveat that I use all theories like many mediation specialists. In subsequent posts, I will discuss each of the remaining three theories.…
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Mediation and Culture
Last week, I discussed frame of reference and its importance in the mediation process. Today, I would like to outline its importance in mediation with people from different cultural backgrounds. When mediating parties of different cultures, it is paramount that a mediator understands how change occurs in individuals (Ewert, Barnard, Laffier, & Maynard, 2019) or…
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Frame of Reference in Conflict Situations
Today, I would like to discuss the frame of reference in relation to conflict resolution and mediation. I will start with a brief discussion of what a frame of reference is and then move on to how its importance is realized in conflicts. A frame of reference is “a person’s subjective reality, shaped by his…
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Essential Questions for the Conflict Coach – Part 3
Last week, I discussed three of Bungay Stanier’s (2016) seven essential questions and outlined how they can be applied to conflict coaching: the Focus Question for zeroing in on the problem for the client (rather than for others with whom the client interacts); the Foundation Question which helps the client understand and articulate wants rather…
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Essential Questions for the Conflict Coach – Part 1
This week (and for the next two weeks after), I would like to discuss conflict coaching. Today will be the introduction which will include a preliminary discussion of a model of coaching that I have applied to conflict coaching. This one will be followed by a further discussion and then I will conclude a week…
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Conflict in the Workplace
Conflict happens all the time and especially in the workplace. The best approach for dealing with conflict in the workplace is to identify what is happening and to use assumptions that are being made as a focus for the conflict resolution. For the purpose of this first post, I will provide an example from when…
