Credentials Don't Count in Mediation

 When I used to work at Hillingdon Community Mediation in West London as Director of the service, we were once contacted by a gentleman who wanted to be a volunteer mediator for us. I wrongly assumed at first that he wanted to train with us on our next course as this was a requirement for all people who mediated for us irrespective of any previous experience. 

On discussing this with him it turned out he was a Police officer and so could not mediate for us anyway as it would often lead to a conflict of interests in that hearsay or allegations made when meeting with parties would lead to him having to pursue and investigate thus preventing a 'without prejudice' service being possible.

However, further discussion led to the gentleman saying that he would not have the time to do our training course anyway as he’d already done a course and gained a ‘nationally recognised qualification’ in mediation. 

There seem to be many such 'qualifications' around but while it's important to have training there is not a 'nationally recognised qualification' to do so and, indeed any such training itself does not give an indication of level of experience, often it will just mean someone has attended a course. I've discussed this issue more in this post...Mediator Accreditation - Red Herring, Rip Off, or Real Sign of Quality?

The gentleman went on to comment that he did not want to be sitting next to someone on a training course who had a ‘vague interest’ in mediating while he had 30 years of experience working for the Police in which he ‘mediated every day’. 

I started to think that, despite having such a 'qualification' the gentleman had a very different understanding to me of what mediation involves and the kinds of practices and conduct it requires. To have done a mediation course and to consider that in his role as a Police officer his daily work was the same as mediating would suggest to me the crucial differences between the two roles had not been highlighted on his course, nor had he come to an understanding of the differences himself. 

As well as this, to consider that learning to mediate ends at the point of completing a course and getting a qualification and that others could not then teach us much beyond this, as if learning to mediate was about acquiring a body of knowledge which, once learned, ‘qualified’ us to mediate, is also greatly at odds with my understanding of mediation and how we learn and develop as mediators. Indeed I find some of my greatest insights come from working with people who are new to mediation as they require me to be clear about exactly what it is I do in my role and to work on any shades of complacency that come into my practice.

But perhaps the thing that most of all told me the gentleman would need to do our course before he could ever work for us, was his continuous practice of ‘bringing his credentials’ to the discussion. His qualification, his years of experience as a Police officer, his association with ‘well known names in the field’, all of which suggested to me that his approach was one of using 'credential power' to try to bring about actions in others. 

There was very little humility, openness to learning, a desire to present himself ‘in the moment’ about his thoughts and views on conflict and how to support its resolution, all of which were notable features of the mediators I worked with at our organisation. 

In the case of many of our mediators I knew very little about their ‘background’ or their ‘status’, even in some cases having known them for 10 years. It just wasn’t important. I don’t mean by that, that such things were ‘dismissed’. They just didn’t often come up in conversation.

I wondered many things about this person’s practice:

• Had he considered that ‘agreements’ achieved in his mediations may have come about because it was known that he was a Police officer - his 'status' and 'influence' may have led to people agreeing to things because of their perception of him as an 'authority' and so they could easily feel 'compelled' to agree in his presence? That's fine if you just want a 'result' as a mediator, but it may not actually mean there has been a resolution, more a 'suppression' of the conflict and thus little likelihood of it being sustainable.
• Had he considered that his use of language and his references to his ‘credentials’ were, in themselves part of an attempt to 'leverage' his desired outcomes through emphasising his influence and status and ‘power’ rather than to work co-operatively with another person to create them? And as a mediator would he be using the same 'strategy' to influence outcomes between those for whom he was providing the process?
• Had he considered that to use such approaches in community mediation disputes would be very likely to lead to confrontation with him as he would not have any power in the same way as he did as a result of his status as a police officer, and to use such an approach would lead to resistance and sometimes aggression from those being ‘pushed’ if he persisted?

It was an enormous lesson to me in how distinct the two approaches to communicating are and how one relies on an attempted use of power to influence and overwhelm while an approach informed by mediation seeks to be about openness and acceptance that we can always learn something new that can assist us, and that our ‘status’ is irrelevant, and necessarily so, in the carrying out of our work.

I am often baffled by the sight of mediators' ‘credentials’ on websites outlining their ‘status’ and non-mediation ‘experience’and 'qualifications' as if this is what they ‘bring’ to the mediation. 

Why are they wanting to bring anything other than the process of mediation? 

Some mediation training providers even suggest that a mediator 'should have a degree'. Why? What reason would there be for that kind of academic requirement for something that is about how people inter-relate and respond to conflict and supporting them in doing so more effectively? I know of many very experienced and very effective mediators who do not have a degree. I'm glad they weren't put off by some training providers who emphasise that.

The dispute/complaint/disagreement is the focus of a mediation meeting, the role of the mediator is to enable communication and creativity between those experiencing the difficulty and as far as is possible within that to make themselves as invisible in the meeting and irrelevant to the outcome as possible so that it is clear that it is the parties themselves that have created it and it is not in any way ‘imposed’ by the actions or ‘influence’ of the mediator. In this way it is more likely to be sustainable as the participants will fully engage with their created outcome because they understand their reasons for resolving things in the way they do and feel a sense of 'ownership' of its creation.

In the past, in our own service at Hillingdon Community Mediation, we sometimes came across a practice amongst mediators of emphasising to parties that the mediators were 'volunteers' with the aim of trying to elicit some form of 'gratitude' in the belief this will more likely lead to a willingness by participants to resolve. We explored that intention and whether it was ultimately an attempt to manipulate parties rather than continue to facilitate their reflection and creativity. You can probably guess what our decision was and whether that practice then continued. 

Credentials, status, CV's etc. - they don't count in mediation.

Biography:

Alan Sharland is Director of CAOS Conflict Management a Mediation, Conflict Coaching and Conflict Management provider organisation based in London, UK and has been a Mediator for 22 years and a trainer for 20 years. He recently published a book on the topic of workplace bullying: How to Resolve Bullying in the Workplace - Stepping out of the Circle of Blame to Create an Effective Outcome for All, and provides mediation, conflict coaching and training to support organisations in dealing more effectively with unresolved conflict. He provides coaching via Skype or in person for HR professionals, Senior Managers and Team Leaders on managing interpersonal conflict in the workplace. Feel free to contact Alan via LinkedIn or on 020 3371 7507.