What’s up with the gears?
We believe that mediation is complex, interesting and provides rich personal and professional experiences and that the process should reflect this diversity by being fluid and capable of change depending on the needs of the participants, the type of dispute and the resolution sought. Often gears symbolize a mechanical process and are used as a metaphor for automatic, linear thinking and processes. So, it’s fair to ask, “What’s up with the gears?”
We took another perspective in looking at gears. Rather than looking at gears as representing an automatic, routine, process we look at them as being pieces of an intricate, shifting process that creates possibilities or outcomes only possible with the participation of each piece. Each gear is capable of working together with the others in an integrated, highly functional manner. In mediation, we believe that parties are generally better off engaging with one another for at least part of the process so that they have an opportunity to see and hear each other’s stories and receive information to create new understandings. With appropriate timing (sometimes like the gears of a clock that ticks slowly and methodically and sometimes like the gears of a fast moving sports car), we work together to develop appropriate pacing for the mediation. We manage the pace of the mediation as the parties pace work through identifying issues, assess strengths and weaknesses of both sides of the case and react to positions and proposals from other parties. Part of our job is to avoid getting intractably stuck, keep things rolling, move forward and build momentum. People may work together in ways only contemplated once new information is obtained and different perspectives are considered. These shifts allow forward momentum with parties acting collaboratively and in sync with a common goal or outcome. Just as with gears, mediators can help navigate the pacing, increase force and change direction of a conflict.
When things come together and relationships are repaired or resolution is reached it is because the parties have at least engaged in a congruent, connected manner if not always in a completely smooth or harmonious way. Even with gears in highly effective machines, there is sometimes a little grating and grinding before there is appropriate forward movement. However, gears arranged in a strategic manner, as are parties in facilitated negotiation and strategic processes, often produce an outcome that an individual gear could not accomplish on its own. We have stopped thinking about gears as neat, predictable and mechanical but rather like the mediations in which the myriad of pieces, including information, beliefs, positions, interests, and emotion need to be integrated in a holistic manner so that multiple parties in a dispute can work together and effectively integrate to produce creative and effective outcomes.
