Open Forum

Mediators gain initial accreditation by attending a 5 day course somewhere in Australia and pass a live mediation simulation. The course and the 100 point marking system are process driven. Nowhere is the mediator taught to be a mediator. It is assumed that because a person wants to be as mediator, they can be by learning a process -by-rote.

Yet mediation is "by the people, for the people". It needs to pass what the politicians call "passing  the Pub test". It is not conducted within the rigid codes of the law, nor in the adversarial, "muscle" negotiations, and client bias, of lawyers (see Barbara Wilson[1]). Mediation needs to be given to the people and a mediator needs the personal and interpersonal & communicative skills to be a part of a triadic conversation.

If mediators want their community to be defined by relationality, dynamism and shared responsibility, rather than by hierarchies and formal rules, they need to be able to articulate that vision and fight for it'[2]

 a good mediator requires the intellect to hear, feel and understand each participant's actions, reasoning, and emotions, process this practically and objectively, and reflect back understandable, credible, even compassionate, non-judgemental information. Simultaneously, the mediator's cool, calm, collected and compassionate demeanour is meant to be comforting, emotionally levelling and removing 'stinking thinking' in the participants. However, there are no given ways or means of accessing or enhancing any such qualities in mediation articles and manuals.[3]

Feedback in Scheirer's research on mediator training in EQ deduced that EQ is 'part talent, part gift, part personality, part experience, part training.... but most of it is life experience. You can't just act like a mediator; you must live your life that way'[4]

Bowling & Hoffman talk of "the transition from feeling that "I am someone who mediates" to realizing that "I am a mediator""[5]

:There are close similarities between Bowling & Hoffman quote from Bouile[6] and Aristotles moral and Intellectual virtues[7]. Both authors attest that these personal characteristics can be learnt or inhanced, by imitation, practice (habituation) and study.

Once we have learned the basic principles and skills of mediation, and practiced them to the point where they feel natural, the next frontier of learning and development is within ourselves.[8]

SOLUTIONS:

That mediator and mediation courses leading to NMAS be extended to 12 months:

1. The process driven Mediation course and its 100 point assessment continue.
2. That a six-12 month mentor-guided teaching syllabus focussing on personal development of a mediator as a unique and unrepeatable person who is a mediator.

At the end of this study, NMAS accreditation can be applied for.
 

3. That ongoing, career-long, regular supervision by a qualified mediator-supervisor be mandatory for every mediator. (Similar conditions are mandatory for many people-orientated professionals).
4. That peer-review groups be encouraged and developed to further the knowledge acquisition and practical application of internal skills in a mediator- as-a-person.

David Mitchell

[1] Barbara Wilson No trace of a footprint

[2] Jonathan Crowe 2017 Two Models of Mediation Ethics. Sydney Law Review VOL 39:147

[3] David Mitchell Would Aristotle make a good mediator? Pulse 2019

[4] Schreier, L. S. (2002). Emotional intelligence and mediation training. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 20(1), 99–119. doi:10.1002/crq.13

[5] Bowling and Hoffman⁵ ibid

[6] Bowling, D., & Hoffman, D. (2000). Negotiation Journal, 16(1), 5–28. doi:10.1023/a:1007586102756 

[7] Mitchell ³ ibid

[8] Bowling, D., & Hoffman, D. (2000). Negotiation Journal, 16(1), 5–28. doi:10.1023/a:1007586102756 

Mediators gain initial accreditation by attending a 5 day course somewhere in Australia and pass a live mediation simulation. The course and the 100 point marking system are process driven. Nowhere is the mediator taught to be a mediator. It is assumed that because a person wants to be as mediator, they can be by learning a process -by-rote.

Yet mediation is "by the people, for the people". It needs to pass what the politicians call "passing  the Pub test". It is not conducted within the rigid codes of the law, nor in the adversarial, "muscle" negotiations, and client bias, of lawyers (see Barbara Wilson[1]). Mediation needs to be given to the people and a mediator needs the personal and interpersonal & communicative skills to be a part of a triadic conversation.

If mediators want their community to be defined by relationality, dynamism and shared responsibility, rather than by hierarchies and formal rules, they need to be able to articulate that vision and fight for it'[2]

 a good mediator requires the intellect to hear, feel and understand each participant's actions, reasoning, and emotions, process this practically and objectively, and reflect back understandable, credible, even compassionate, non-judgemental information. Simultaneously, the mediator's cool, calm, collected and compassionate demeanour is meant to be comforting, emotionally levelling and removing 'stinking thinking' in the participants. However, there are no given ways or means of accessing or enhancing any such qualities in mediation articles and manuals.[3]

Feedback in Scheirer's research on mediator training in EQ deduced that EQ is 'part talent, part gift, part personality, part experience, part training.... but most of it is life experience. You can't just act like a mediator; you must live your life that way'[4]

Bowling & Hoffman talk of "the transition from feeling that "I am someone who mediates" to realizing that "I am a mediator""[5]

:There are close similarities between Bowling & Hoffman quote from Bouile[6] and Aristotles moral and Intellectual virtues[7]. Both authors attest that these personal characteristics can be learnt or inhanced, by imitation, practice (habituation) and study.

Once we have learned the basic principles and skills of mediation, and practiced them to the point where they feel natural, the next frontier of learning and development is within ourselves.[8]

SOLUTIONS:

That mediator and mediation courses leading to NMAS be extended to 12 months:

1. The process driven Mediation course and its 100 point assessment continue.
2. That a six-12 month mentor-guided teaching syllabus focussing on personal development of a mediator as a unique and unrepeatable person who is a mediator.

At the end of this study, NMAS accreditation can be applied for.
 

3. That ongoing, career-long, regular supervision by a qualified mediator-supervisor be mandatory for every mediator. (Similar conditions are mandatory for many people-orientated professionals).
4. That peer-review groups be encouraged and developed to further the knowledge acquisition and practical application of internal skills in a mediator- as-a-person.

David Mitchell

[1] Barbara Wilson No trace of a footprint

[2] Jonathan Crowe 2017 Two Models of Mediation Ethics. Sydney Law Review VOL 39:147

[3] David Mitchell Would Aristotle make a good mediator? Pulse 2019

[4] Schreier, L. S. (2002). Emotional intelligence and mediation training. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 20(1), 99–119. doi:10.1002/crq.13

[5] Bowling and Hoffman⁵ ibid

[6] Bowling, D., & Hoffman, D. (2000). Negotiation Journal, 16(1), 5–28. doi:10.1023/a:1007586102756 

[7] Mitchell ³ ibid

[8] Bowling, D., & Hoffman, D. (2000). Negotiation Journal, 16(1), 5–28. doi:10.1023/a:1007586102756 

Mediators gain initial accreditation by attending a 5 day course somewhere in Australia and pass a live mediation simulation. The course and the 100 point marking system are process driven. Nowhere is the mediator taught to be a mediator. It is assumed that because a person wants to be as mediator, they can be by learning a process -by-rote.

Yet mediation is "by the people, for the people". It needs to pass what the politicians call "passing  the Pub test". It is not conducted within the rigid codes of the law, nor in the adversarial, "muscle" negotiations, and client bias, of lawyers (see Barbara Wilson[1]). Mediation needs to be given to the people and a mediator needs the personal and interpersonal & communicative skills to be a part of a triadic conversation.

If mediators want their community to be defined by relationality, dynamism and shared responsibility, rather than by hierarchies and formal rules, they need to be able to articulate that vision and fight for it'[2]

 a good mediator requires the intellect to hear, feel and understand each participant's actions, reasoning, and emotions, process this practically and objectively, and reflect back understandable, credible, even compassionate, non-judgemental information. Simultaneously, the mediator's cool, calm, collected and compassionate demeanour is meant to be comforting, emotionally levelling and removing 'stinking thinking' in the participants. However, there are no given ways or means of accessing or enhancing any such qualities in mediation articles and manuals.[3]

Feedback in Scheirer's research on mediator training in EQ deduced that EQ is 'part talent, part gift, part personality, part experience, part training.... but most of it is life experience. You can't just act like a mediator; you must live your life that way'[4]

Bowling & Hoffman talk of "the transition from feeling that "I am someone who mediates" to realizing that "I am a mediator""[5]

:There are close similarities between Bowling & Hoffman quote from Bouile[6] and Aristotles moral and Intellectual virtues[7]. Both authors attest that these personal characteristics can be learnt or inhanced, by imitation, practice (habituation) and study.

Once we have learned the basic principles and skills of mediation, and practiced them to the point where they feel natural, the next frontier of learning and development is within ourselves.[8]

SOLUTIONS:

That mediator and mediation courses leading to NMAS be extended to 12 months:

1. The process driven Mediation course and its 100 point assessment continue.
2. That a six-12 month mentor-guided teaching syllabus focussing on personal development of a mediator as a unique and unrepeatable person who is a mediator.

At the end of this study, NMAS accreditation can be applied for.
 

3. That ongoing, career-long, regular supervision by a qualified mediator-supervisor be mandatory for every mediator. (Similar conditions are mandatory for many people-orientated professionals).
4. That peer-review groups be encouraged and developed to further the knowledge acquisition and practical application of internal skills in a mediator- as-a-person.

David Mitchell

[1] Barbara Wilson No trace of a footprint

[2] Jonathan Crowe 2017 Two Models of Mediation Ethics. Sydney Law Review VOL 39:147

[3] David Mitchell Would Aristotle make a good mediator? Pulse 2019

[4] Schreier, L. S. (2002). Emotional intelligence and mediation training. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 20(1), 99–119. doi:10.1002/crq.13

[5] Bowling and Hoffman⁵ ibid

[6] Bowling, D., & Hoffman, D. (2000). Negotiation Journal, 16(1), 5–28. doi:10.1023/a:1007586102756 

[7] Mitchell ³ ibid

[8] Bowling, D., & Hoffman, D. (2000). Negotiation Journal, 16(1), 5–28. doi:10.1023/a:1007586102756