The Power Of Mediation

It was an early start on a grey rainy day for the 4 ½ – hour journey to the venue and on arrival I found that we had only 2 rooms booked – an office and a very cosy storage room no bigger than a cupboard. This was a workplace dispute where the breakdown in the relationship between colleagues had been ongoing for 2 years and had now reached the point where the tensions had escalated into work-related stress; ill health and absenteeism.

Following telephone preparation calls, I met and settled the parties in their rooms and made sure the agreement to mediate was signed. Both then came together for the joint session where I reintroduced the principles, process, roles and how we would work together for the day before inviting each side to make their opening statement and what were the key issues they wanted to talk about. Thus far, it was a very typical mediation.