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How To Be Your Own Mediator
Listen to an interview with the author about this article on the Better Humans Podcast.
Mediation is not just a skill to be used when setting a legal conflict, it can also be used to settle issues before they get to an escalation point of no return. Doing this takes some practice and preparation but yields results that are worth the time.
Mediation is, by definition, a facilitated negotiation and is used to facilitate a dispute between two parties, and the mediator plays the role of a neutral third party.
Mediation is a legal skill, business skill, but most importantly, it’s a life skill.
Mediation differs from negotiation. A negotiation is a transaction between two or more parties where each side has something to gain or lose from the agreement. Mediation is a conflict resolution technique between two or more parties, where both parties agree to come to an agreement. The differences here are subtle, but important. A negotiation can occur with or without a conflict to resolve. Mediation occurs because there is a dispute to intentionally find a solution to in order to better the relationship between the two parties. If you are mediating your own dispute, and it is not a legal dispute, as this is not possible due to legal necessities; it is imperative that you can and do remain neutral. This requires you to purposefully…
