What I Have Learned About Virtual Mediation | Bruce Edwards
This post has been viewed 2,775 times.
Let me begin by sharing a few recent lessons unique to the virtual environment and organized around the traditional Edwards Mediation Academy course structure. Our hope is to begin a dialogue by inviting you to reciprocate, sharing your own experiences and reflections on adapting technology to dispute resolution.
1) Convening
The goal of the convening process is to gain the willing and meaningful participation of all stakeholders. The virtual mediation process has required me to be even more attentive to this phase than usual, including the following:
2) Opening
The goal of the opening session is to ensure an environment of safety and hope. Here is my approach in the virtual world:
3) Communication
The goal of communication is to manage opportunities for expression and understanding. In the virtual world, the two most significant issues I’ve needed to address around communication are participants’ confidentiality concerns and how to establish meaningful connection. Following are some of the techniques I have used:
a. Ensuring confidentiality: The Zoom platform has been criticized for certain shortcomings in ensuring the confidentiality of its participants and their communication. While many of these concerns are appropriately being handled by the company itself, there are additional steps I have taken to allay the fears of participants including:
- Informing participants not to share the Zoom invitation and its unique meeting code with anyone beyond the invited individuals.
- Providing participants a separate passcode to create an added layer of security.
- Letting parties know that I alone, as the mediator and host, control the “record meeting” feature. Unless otherwise agreed to by all parties, it is disabled.
- In the joint session, clearly identifying all participants, both those onscreen and offscreen. (Often participants will have a person nearby, off screen, to assist with any technological needs.) Consider asking offscreen participants to sign confidentiality statements as well.
- Disabling the “chat” feature to avoid the type of miscommunication that could create breaches in confidentiality.
- Helping educate participants on how to use the “screen share” function, so they only share documents with their intended audience. I have even disabled the function initially to ensure that when ready for joint sharing, the parties understand it will be seen by all.
- Letting participants know that unmuted conversations in virtual mediation should be thought of as the equivalent of “share all.”
4) Negotiation
The goal of the negotiation step is to explore the art of the possible. Here is what I have found to be helpful:
5) Closing
The goal of the closing step is to ensure a binding, enforceable agreement that reflects a complete understanding between the parties. In the virtual world this raises the issue of timely and appropriate document sharing, and in many jurisdictions, how to obtain client signatures in real time.
Conclusion
While the world awaits the “all clear” signal to return to business as usual, however that will be defined, we must assume that virtual mediation is here to stay. There have always been instances where the ability of the parties to meet in person were limited or inconvenient for a variety of reasons.
Learning how to seamlessly apply virtual meeting technology to benefit those in dispute will improve our mediation skill set, while greatly expanding our bandwidth to serve our clients. While I hope to never see the demise of in-person mediation, the benefits of virtual mediation are too numerous to ignore. As one attorney commented to me recently at the end of a long day of virtual mediation, “Now Bruce, tell me why I will want to get up for a 6:00 a.m. flight to come mediate with you in person in the future, when I can opt for this virtual approach, working from the comfort of home in my slippers?” I answered, “We still provide better lunches.”
Remember, we may be apart but we are not alone. Stay connected and stay well. If you have entered the world of virtual mediation, tell us about your experiences. What have you learned to be especially beneficial along the way?
Tags:
