Ken Strongman, Esq. – Mediator

Category: Conflict Resolution

What is Conflict Resolution and how to resolve conflicts.

  • I’m tired of being called a Mediation Neutral.

    I’m tired of being called a Mediation Neutral.

    Most Mediators describe themselves as being neutrals. I’m tired of being called a Mediation Neutral. It doesn’t help that the courts and clients expect us to be neutral and describes us as such.  But mediators in Europe have difficulty with the description.

    In the German Language the term for neutral most closely translates back into English as ‘null’.  So translating it back to English, to be a null means a Mediator as a neutral is without value, effect, consequence, or significance. Further more a Mediator amounts to nothing and is nonexistent.  In math when a variable has no value, it is considered to be null. Having a null value is different than having a value of zero, since zero is an actual value.

    No wonder Europeans have had difficulties with the term neutral.  I am much more than a zero let alone a null.  The German term used to describe what a Mediator does is a better description of what I do without speaking German.  Their term encompasses the following ideas:

    • I’m parcel to everyone equally.
    • I’m acting for everyone and in everyone’s best interest.
    • I advocate for a just solution to the dispute.
    • I’m attentive to all the interests of the parties.

    This concept is better idea of what I am as a mediator.   I am not a potted plant just sitting there all day hoping that a solution pops up.  I work hard with the parties to find a just solution in a timely manner.

    Thanks to my Mediation Society Colleagues, Bruce Edwards, Patrice Prince and Dana Curtis for sharing this idea.  They attended the International Summer School on Business Mediation in Admont, Austria this last summer.

    Mediation Neutral

    Ken Strongman, MediatorAbout the Author: Ken Strongman (www.kpstrongman.com) has years of experience and a growing national reputation as a mediator and arbitrator.  He has successfully resolved more than a thousand disputes in the fields of construction defects, real estate, intellectual property, and employment.  He is also a Mediator and Arbitrator for FINRA.

    © 2020 Ken Strongman. All Rights Reserved. Please do not copy or repost without permission.

  • We need more conflict in our lives.

    We need more conflict in our lives.

    Management expert Margaret Heffernan postulated this counterintuitive lesson learned in her years running businesses and organizations in her TEDGlobal 2012 presentation.

    Her insight has great implications for successful mediations.  I have always contended that mediation is conflict at its best and her insight bares this out.   Heffernan has developed five guidelines for productive disagreement:

    1. Appoint a devil’s advocate
    2. Find allies
    3. Listen for what is NOT being said
    4. Imagine you cannot do what you all want to do
    5. After a decision is made, declare a cooling off period

    These are counterintuitive guidelines because it is assumed in mediation as well as life that we need to avoid conflict; smooth it over if we have to and compromise if all else fails.  Our job is not to avoid, smooth over or compromise, it is to find a better way.

    Margaret Heffernan (born 1955) is an international businesswoman and writer. She was born in Texas, raised in the Netherlands, educated at Cambridge University and settled in the UK near the city of Bath.

    She is the author of five books: The Naked Truth: A Working Woman’s Manifesto about Business and What Really Matters, How She Does It (published in paperback as Women on Top), Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril, A Bigger Prize: Why Competition isn’t Everything and How We Do Better, and Beyond Measure – a short book commissioned by TED.

    While Heffernan’s first two books focused on these issues as they impact women in the workplace, her overarching theme has been the need to recognize and release the talent that often lies buried inside organizations, under-valued and under-rewarded because it is unconventional. Heffernan’s voice is primarily one of critical challenge, taking little at face value and regularly questioning received wisdom.

    Ken_Strongman_003smAbout the Author: Ken Strongman (www.kpstrongman.com) has years of experience and a growing national reputation as a mediator and arbitrator.  He has successfully resolved more than a thousand disputes in the fields of construction defects, real estate, intellectual property, and employment.  He is also a Mediator and Arbitrator for FINRA.

    © 2020 Ken Strongman. All Rights Reserved. Please do not copy or repost without permission.