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TOT 188- WEEK 188
“Coaching the technique of Facilitation”.
Mediation is considered as a facilitation process. Mediator facilitates the parties to arrive at a solution (which is always subject to their right of self determination). The very concept of facilitation has to be imbibed in the trainees from the very first basic training in mediation , and has to be part of continued learning. Any attempt to facilitate has to be based on the principles of ‘empathy with neutrality’.
- Separating facts from opinions:-
Making the participants understand the difference between the facts and the opinions, is a challenge.
Give a role play. Ask the parties to give their lengthy narratives.
Ask the mediator to restate the facts , and facts alone.
Eliminating any thing that falls under the category of opinion is the crucial part.
Wherever the opinion part is made part of restatement, the trainer as a coach has to correct the trainee mediator.
- Remove the assumptions.
When the trainee mediator restates, trainer as a coach has to find out, whether the (i) assumptions of the party/s is reflected by the trainee mediator (ii) Whether the assumption of the trainee mediator is introduced.
If any or both of these is/are identified, the trainer has to coach the trainee mediator as to how to avoid this.
Summary: i)What is the objective of Coaching in the chosen part of entire exercise has to be identified.
Pre briefing : Trainer has to clearly give pre briefing as to the chosen objective.
Ex: i) Listen to the parties’ narratives. (ii) Restate – summarise (iii) Stick on to fact (iv) Remove opinions (v) Filter assumptions of parties and avoid personal assumptions.
Debriefing: Highlight the objective, once again.
If through the coaching , the point is clearly understood by the participants, lengthy debriefing can be avoided.
Otherwise, the essence of the exercise has to be reiterated.
Benefits: When this exercise is done effectively, every mediator understands that restatement cannot be a mechanical process. They understand the nuances of restatement and finer tune their skills of restatement.
“The interesting thing about coaching is that you have to trouble the comfortable, and comfort the troubled.”
Ric Charlesworth-Former member of Australian House of Representatives.
(All Copyrights reserved by the author S.Susheela)
Training of Trainers in Mediation 