Dubuque Circles Initiative

Leadership Track Series

*Don’t Lose Your Cool: Applying Mediation Tricks to Everyday Life

*Let’s Fight

*Conflict is a normal, natural, and inevitable aspect of life

*Conflict occurs when individuals or groups of individuals believe that another individual or group is:*Preventing them from achieving their needs

or goals

*Preventing access to resources they need to achieve their needs or goals

*Preventing them from expressing their values of beliefs in a way which they consider reasonable

*The Stages of Conflict

*Pre-Conflict

*Antecedents to conflict

*Early-Conflict

*Enter the conflict zone

*Taking a stand and the blame game

*Mid-Conflict

*Actions speak louder than words

*Late-Conflict

*Conflict erupts or eats away

*Post-Conflict

*Picking up the pieces

*3 Components of Most Conflicts

*Content

*Describes individuals concerns

*Tells us what the conflict is about from their perspective

*Interaction

*How people behave towards each other

*Their feelings towards for one another

*Expectations

*How they want the situation to be handled

*Typical expectations seek a win/lose outcome

*This is Where Mediation Comes In

*What is Mediation

*A process of conflict management resolution where by a neutral 3rd party is invited to intervene into a workplace situation to assist with the constructive resolution of that conflict

*Creates a safe environment where all parties can communicate and work towards restoration

*Attempts to create win-win situations

*When is Mediation

Appropriate?

*Low levels of anger and physical or verbal intimidation

*No serious breaches of company rules or policy

*Facts which are unsubstantiated

*People who are committed to the problem and are willing to solve it

*Concern about ongoing relationship

*People not prepared to work things out without outside help

*Don’t Use Mediate If…

*There are extreme power imbalances between parties

*There is behavior which makes parties feel that communication or negotiation would be unsafe

*Agreed rules need to be applied first including internal company policies and procedures

*Both sides are unwilling or unable to mediate

*The FAIR Mediation Model

*Facilitate

*To make the process of dialogue easier

*Appreciate

*To build empathy and understanding between the parties

*Innovate

*To encourage practical and creative problem solving

*Resolve

*To help parties reach a resolution to the conflict

*The Mediation Process

*Before the Mediation

*Build credibility with the disputants

*Create a relatively close, comfortable relationship with the parties

*Educate the parties on the mediation process

*Secure the parties’ commitment to mediation

*Starting the Mediation

*Identify the interests at stake in the conflict

*Clarify respective goals

*Explore the range of possible, probable and acceptable outcomes

*Describe the basic types of strategies for dispute resolution

*Clarify criteria that will guide their strategy

*Assist in weighing their options and reaching a decision

*Coordinate strategies into a coherent, consistent approach

*In the Mediation

*Opening statements

*Maximize accurate information exchange

*Tools needed:

*Active listening

*Paraphrasing and restatement

*Summarization

*Probing or clarifying questions

*Identify the broad topic areas of their concerns, identify specific issues of contention, and decide on the order in which they will be discussed

Interest-Based*Can be reframed by

either broadening or focusing the issues

Values-Based*Can be reframed either by

reinterpreting the issues as interests or by appealing to broader shared values

*Are less amenable to compromise and integration

*Avoid describing disputes in terms of value differences when possible

*Types of Disputes

*The Exploration

*Parties are very rarely able to give a clear or complete statement of their interests

*Hidden interests of the parties need to be uncovered and clarified

*Parties may intentionally hide their interests in an attempt to gain a negotiating advantage

Positional Bargaining

*Holding on to a fixed idea, or position, of what you want and arguing for it and it alone, regardless of any underlying interests

Interest-Based Bargaining

*More likely to produce integrated or win-win outcomes

*The preferred approach

*Settlement Options

*Reaching a Settlement

*Settlement Range: the range from target point to resistance point

*Target point: optimal outcome

*Resistance point: outcomes that are too costly or not beneficial enough to accept

*When the parties’ settlement ranges overlap, there is a range of possible mutually acceptable settlement available to the parties

*When the parties’ settlement ranges have no overlap, there are no mutually acceptable settlement options

*Stages of Final Bargaining Stage

*Incremental Convergence Strategy

*Parties each make small concessions until they reach a mutually acceptable compromise

*Leap-to-Agreement

*Parties engage in some prelim bargaining, but then leap directly to accepting a comprehensive proposal

*Agreement-in-Principle

*Parties first seek agreement on general principles, then seek to apply those to the situation at hand

*Procedural Strategy

*Parties make to resolve disputes without directly deciding the issue

*Application to Real Life