Mediator power mapping, 5 of 5

I promised some examples of power mapping in the last blog. Let us start with a relatively simple one. One party starts to use disrespectful language about the other during uninterrupted time e.g. ‘she’s just an idiot!’.

There is range of behaviours you might use including:

• Just watching and waiting for the language to stop
• Looking sternly at the speaker
• Pausing the speaker using their name and acknowledging their feelings and asking for a change in behaviour
• Making a strong request for them to stop doing what they are doing
• Talking over the speaker and quoting a ground rule at the speaker
• Issuing a warning about the behaviour
• Threaten to stop the session if the behaviour does not stop.

I have arranged these in a sequence which I think is from indirect to more direct. In real life your choice of strategy may be influenced by:

• Your own reaction to the behaviour
• The reaction of the other party
• Where the parties are in the process
• What has happened up to this point in the mediation
• The range of strategies you are capable of and comfortable with.

Your role as an Interactive Mediator^© (CMP’s facilitative relationship-driven model) is to tailor the response to the situation in order to achieve maximum participation, while sustaining rapport, impartiality and balance. It is advisable to also leave room for more direct interventions if necessary by starting with a behaviour which is relatively low and does allow some movement along the directive continuum if necessary.

Here are some more examples of charting the continuum of mediator influence and power:

For more on this contact john.crawley@cmpresolutions.co.uk.

This blog is 5 out of 5 in this series.

This blog is available as a pdf download here.