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.
Tammy, I can’t begin to thank you for inviting me to participate. What a wonderfully stimulating discussion – makes me wish I could spend every day in the company of such wise and experienced practitioners. What a privilege to get to spend some time in the company of you and Amanda. I’m glad that social media have made us even closer neighbors than we already are. Can’t wait until the next time!
I count myself lucky indeed to have the chance to chew things over with you and Amanda, Diane. Thanks for all the smart things you added to the conversation.
Hi Tammy. Good discussion. I hope you’ll do another café. I’ll listen! My ears perked up when someone mentioned how mediators tend to be conflict-avoiders themselves (I know I am), and how this makes implementing different approaches – e.g., values-based billing, a challenge. Makes me think you’re in the right business (e.g., teaching mediators how to market themselves). And one thought for a future podcast on the same topic… knowing that mediators come from many backgrounds (arts, legal, academia, construction, hi tech, …), does building a consensus on business practice (values-based billing) require representing that diversity in the dialogue?
Hey there Ben! Glad to hear you sampled the podcast and found it interesting enough you’ll tune in next time — we have another one on the books for January and hope to do about one a month.
Can you say more to me about diversity in the dialogue? Do you mean that those of us on the call should try to represent diverse backgrounds? I come from academe originally with a doctorate in higher ed and leadership, Amanda and Diane from legal backgrounds. We’ve had a couple of other folks who’ve said they’ll participate (will announce who they are when they’re able to join in). I also expect we’ll invite occasional others who bring some specific experience on a topic we’re discussing.
Tammy, glad to hear about the session planned for January. Re: my comment about diversity – no, I don’t think you should represent backgrounds other than your own. However, having others participate in the dialogue (as you mention for future talks), who themselves are of different background, might add positively to the mix. Cheers, Ben.
Great! Thanks for the feedback, Ben. Really helpful to double-check our own thinking.
Tammy,
Good stuff, I hope to be part of a future episode!
-Jeff
I’m so glad you’re able to make the next chat, Jeff. Happy holidays!