And this is the tricky bit, especially with beginning mediators. At first mediators need to believe that is the ‘process’ that does the work — and that their job is to ‘manage the process’ to get a good outcome. And while there is some truth in this belief, there’s also a lot of hot air. Mediations may follow a similar trajectory, but that’s descriptive rather than presecriptive. The process unfolds, it doesn’t lead.

So the hard bit is convincing the mediators, not the parties that they should be more human, less technocrats. To shift mediation more into the ‘artistic sphere’ and encourage practitioners to find their own ‘artistic style’ — which will use elsements of the process, but in their own individualistic/authentic ways.