When they hear the word “mediation” most people think of sitting still and focusing on the breath, and then I say, “no not meditation, mediation”, and they might think of the resolution, via a third party, of a dispute between two individuals – for example neighbours, people who are going through an acrimonious divorce, business partners, etc. Civil mediation can be part of a court process.
As well as having a foundation in Non-Violent Communication and utilising the Lewis Deep Democracy approach, I have been training with DPC Global in the Dialogue for Peaceful Change methodology, which is a mediation and conflict resolution approach developed by a team who have been working in the field of conflict resolution and peacebuilding for decades, in Northern Ireland and around the world.
Alongside designing events and workshops for when everyone’s on the same page, I include in my facilitation practice working more deliberately with team dynamics and conflict transformation. I have long been working with conflict in the context of organisations and teams, helping people have brave conversations that strengthen their working relationships.
At a more macro scale, and from working with various public services for well over a decade now, I can see areas where some kind of mediation would be supportive to the relationship building process. I’m most interested in working with groups who might be in oppositional positions but need to find common ground to make progress together, such as environmental protestors and statutory organisations, policy makers and farmers, or local government and communities.
“Civic mediation uses mediative processes to seek constructive ways through societal challenges. It values the role of building relationships within a system to bring about effective change, and works to transform conflict to achieve long-term positive outcomes.” – Centre for Good Relations, highlights my own
If you are based in Wales and this is in your scope of work, I would be super excited to hear from you. Where are my civic mediation people at?
Photo by Jarosław Głogowski on Unsplash