After how much training can you call yourself a mediator?

Diane Levin, who facilitated the latest episode of our new collaborative podcast, Cafe Mediate, launched conversation with that very question. Diane, Amanda Bucklow, Jeff Thompson, Vickie Pynchon and I dove in to answer and we weren’t shy with our opinions (Jeff, we particularly loved your choice of the word “absurd” in response to one rule in a certain new Nevada mediation program!).

We invite you to stream the 40-minute audio from the Cafe Mediate site, get it from iTunes, or subscribe to get new episodes automatically.

We’re taking on certification as our next topic, which we’ll cover in two parts. Have a topic you’d like us to discuss? Leave us a comment to let us know!

Many thanks to Amanda, Jeff, Vickie and Diane for another engaging discussion – it’s a tremendous gift to have such good colleagues to join in invigorating conversation.

Making Mediation Your Day Job by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.

What makes a great mediator?

That’s the question we asked and the answer we discussed and debated in the most recent episode of the Cafe Mediate podcast.

Joining me were fellow New Englander Diane Levin of The Mediation Channel, London-based Amanda Bucklow of The Mediation Times, and New Yorker Jeff Thompson of Enjoy Mediation (and whose Project Bluejay is worth checking out).

Listen to the podcast at the Cafe Mediate site or get it on iTunes.

Future Cafe Mediate topics include certification, getting the best training and preparation, mediation “schools” or “styles,” getting past fear of failure, debunking persistent myths about our work, and social media best practices. Have a topic you’d like us to discuss? Leave us a comment to let us know.

Many thanks to Jeff, Amanda and Diane for engaging conversation, great spirit, and smart, collaborative thinking. I’m privileged to have colleagues like you to bounce ideas off of and spark my thinking.

Making Mediation Your Day Job by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.

There’s nothing like a good cuppa joe, friends and meaningful chat to re-charge and re-energize. Even when those friends are on other continents.

In this instance, the friends are London-based mediator Amanda of The Mediation Times and fellow New Englander, Diane Levin of The Mediation Channel. We brought our own coffee and the chat was via Skype. And it’s the start of something new: Cafe Mediate.

Cafe Mediate was born out of our interest in chewing over with trusted colleagues some of the issues that captivate us, that we grapple with, or that we get lots of questions about from fellow ADR providers. Think of it as mastermind group meets peer supervision meets kaffeeklatsch. We plan to talk monthly and have a couple more colleagues who we hope to have join us next time around.

In our kickoff discussion, Amanda, Diane and I discussed the problems associated with both hourly and fixed-fee billing, and mused about the promise – and early-adopter challenges – of value-based fees.

You can listed to the podcast at Value-based fees in the mediation and ADR world. Download your own copy or click on this icon on the podcast page to stream it:

If you use an RSS reader (see this video for instructions), you can subscribe to be alerted to new podcasts at CafeMediate’s main page. I’ll announce them here as well, as I’m sure partners in crime will do on their own blogs.

Many, many thanks to Diane and Amanda for their willingness to be part of this! It was so fun to chat with you.

Making Mediation Your Day Job by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.