Four Days of Mediation Fun

by Nadia Crisan ('03) 

It is becoming clearer that today mediation plays a key role in our society, and that there is a greater need for training and professional mediators. We saw a clear example last week when the judge asked mediator Eric D. Green, a Boston University law professor, to step in after Microsoft negotiations failed. At Fletcher, alongside the International Mediation class, the most ambitious effort is the Mediation Practicum. A group of eighteen Fletcher students decided to participate in the mediation training offered at Fletcher over the course of two October weekends.

The training offered by Mediation Works Incorporated (MWI) (http://www.mwi.org) was practical, challenging, educational, and provoking. This is the third year that MWI has trained Fletcher students, and is an initiative of Professor Eileen Babbitt. Charles Doran, founder of MWI, believes that Fletcher participants have the future leadership of the world in their hands. "With the input of the Fletcher students, the mediation practicum has become a better program", said Doran.  The training was a challenge for both participants and trainers.

Each of the four days of the practicum started with a  "warm up exercise" as a way for the participants to get to know each other better. Some of the revelations were quite amusing. We found out, for example, that Grigore Scarlatoiu,  MALD '02 did advertising for Korean Noodles, and ate some samples of the famous product, which is “available for those interested and hungry.” David Abraham MALD'03 confessed his passion for both "giving and receiving a Thai massage."  Michael Scolnick told us an interesting tale about his pet lizards growing up.  (Ooops, have I broken the confidentiality rule?)

The most amount of  interaction, and arguably the best part of the training, took place during the simulated mediations, or the so-called "role plays". Participants were divided into small groups and assigned the role of mediator, party, or observer. Each participant was given a chance to mediate at lest three times. As a mediator, you face the challenge of parties who refuse to listen to one another, who simply enjoy their roles too much, or are asked by the trainer "to be very tough."

It was obvious that Fletcher students (or at least the training participants), are good actors, really able to get into their roles. Maria Stephan (MALD '02) and Jacob Hook (MALD '03) provided an excellent example of effective co-mediation. Personally, I found mediating with Kadu Sebunya MALD '02, a suave but soft-spoken colleague, in a role play with Elizabeth Beauvais (MALD '02) and Grigore Scartaloiu (MALD '02) my best experience during the entire workshop. It was hilarious to hear Grig insist with a raised voice that "the porno posters on the walls of the garage increase the work productivity", while Elizabeth felt that "it was a violations of the law, and the posters must come down."  In another role play, Aude Sophie Rodelle (MALD '03) whose role required that her body be full of piercing,  tried to explain to her supervisor, Adam Hind (MALD '03), that she could replace the "big pieces with little diamonds."  In some other cases, parties bickered realistically and did not reach agreement within the time allotted.

Each simulation ended with a debriefing section, where the trainer, the mediators, the parties and the observers would offer comments about what "went well" and what to "do differently." Robert Kirsch (MALD '02) a participant in the practicum last year and an MWI trainer this year said he was "very happy with the practicum, particularly with the last two role plays, because it was incredible to see how good the mediators were after only a few days of practice."

The trainers emphasized that is up to the parties to solve their problem.  Mediators should not evaluate or give advice to the parties, but rather facilitate the negotiations, and let the parties come with their own solutions to the issue before them. This was quite difficult for many of us who always thought we had the perfect solution to resolve the problem at hand.  The four trainers put us back into our places very quickly. 

We also learned how to take good notes, how to engage in "active listening", and most importantly, how to help the parties get beyond their positions to interests and to focus not on the past, but on the present and the  future. A large amount of time was dedicated to learning and practicing the technique of asking good questions and summarizing back to the parties the interests that we heard. By the end of the mediation practicum  we were well versed in mediation "speak" : “What I hear you saying is …"; "There seems to be a great deal of common ground, and (instead of "but") you still have a serious problem to resolve…." Moshe Cohen, one of the trainers, emphasized that a good mediator is a lazy mediator - one who lets the parties do all the work. 

With practice, we all learned to validate ideas and emotions, to work out easier issues first, and to ask the parties lots of open questions to draw out as many interests as possible. However, the topics that generated the most interested had to do with positions vs. interest and the extent to which the mediator should generate options for the parties. Moshe Cohen's advice: the parties know their situation much better than the mediator does. Empower them to come up with those options that match their interests. In Moshe's words, "the role of the mediators is to transform powerless, frustrated people into powerful decision makers." Another piece of advice from the trainers was not to give up even if you have to face difficult personalities. Alejandra Bolanos (MALD ’02) at one point did a remarkable job of pacifying a loud, overbearing Romanian who was trying to intimidate her during one training exercise.

Mediators face huge challenges, especially if English is not your first language. Horacio Falcão, another one of the trainers from Brazil, said he was pleased to see such a diverse group of Fletcher participants, "I enjoyed the international participation, and I did not feel that I was the only foreigner. I hope I served as a role model, and that participants realized they don’t have to speak English as their first language to be able to do the job."

The participants realized that mediation is an unpredictable process - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. They will have to bear this in mind when they go to small claims court to both observe and co-mediate as part of the Mediation Practicum. During the farewell session, marking the end of 30 hours of  mediation training, Moshe Cohen told us that "at Fletcher the intelligence level of the participants is impressive. They challenge many of the assumptions we make. This was definitely the best program."  We the participants certainly learned a great deal about mediation and had a great time in the process.

Nadia Crisan MALD '03 is a free lance writer, who has done stories related to the European Union, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. For three years she was a journalist in Romania, reporting and editing for a national newspaper and Romanian National Television. At Fletcher Nadia focuses on Security Studies and International Negotiations.

Comments? Write us at letters@fletcherledger.com.  

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