In the last set of exercises, I asked you to reflect on your decision to become a conflict intervener and some of the reasons you made that choice. In the next set of questions, I’m asking you to look more closely at mediation as a choice, in whatever way you choose to define mediation for yourself and your clients. What exactly is it about this thing we call mediation that calls to you?
Exercise 2.2.1: Why Mediation?
What lead you to choose mediation as a way to act on the desires you wrote about in the Exercise 1.1 series? In other words, why mediation per se? Be as specific as possible.
Exercise 2.2.2: What Problem Does Mediation Solve?
Using your response in 2.2.1 as your launching point, write a list of all the reasons you can muster: What problem does mediation solve for people? Ignore lists you’ve seen (maybe on your own website) that attempt to make the case for why mediation is a better process than another dispute resolution approach. Think only about the problem it solves for people. Write your list as though you are explaining your answer to someone who’s never been in a mediation—no jargon, straightforward and simple language.
Exercise 2.2.3: What Do People Want?
For the next exercise, you’ll need to send an email to at least 10-15 friends or colleagues, ideally people who don’t know much about mediation. Ask them the following question. It’s critical that you not move forward with other exercises until you get at least 8 answers back. And please, don’t guess what they would say and skip the effort of the email! Your own convictions about and knowledge of mediation will probably color your thinking. The question you should ask:
Imagine that you’re stuck in a conflict with someone you can’t avoid, maybe a spouse, partner or colleague at work. It’s making things difficult and adding stress to your life. Imagine that you win an offer of free help from a professional who knows all sorts of things about conflict and its resolution and that person will just give you a week’s worth of their time and expertise to use in any way you want. To gain access to this person, you must be able to tell them specifically the ways they can use their expertise to be most helpful to you. What would you tell them?
Gather the responses and compile the results into your notebook, journal or computer file. I’m going to give you a few days to complete this exercise before I post the next one.
Copyright © 2006 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.
Liked this post? A few others to consider:
- Making Mediation Your Day Job, Part 3: Reframing Your Marketing Intentions
- Setting Your Mediation Marketing Agenda: Offer Compelling Services
- Reframing Your Offer: Finding the Overlap and Noting the Gap
- Creating Your ADR Business Brand
- Setting Your Mediation Marketing Agenda: Focus on a Target Market
Tammy, you have some great questions here and if folks from other fields inserted the word related to their unique work, it is a very workable tool for self-reflection and growth.
Tammy, I’d like to suggest and additional question for you that helps your readers to go beyond the present and look into their future as a mediator. Ellen Weber and I use this as part of our “Reflect” step in MITA Brain Based approaches:
“Where to from here?” Describe where you’d like to see your business in five years. List the dream you would have for your business and begin an action plan to get there based on your survey results and ways you could distinguish your work.
I did it! I was going to just breeze past here and see how I could fake it through the following sections, but I actually emailed folks and we’ll see what they say.
Thanks for the inspiration!