There is a better way to resolve your dispute: by hiring an expert mediator with a focus on interests – the needs, desires, or concerns that underlie each side’s positions, according to negotiation research on mediation techniques.
During the course of negotiation dispute resolution, if someone is asked why a dispute is important, normally the answer will reveal her interests.
A Simple Negotiation Example
As a simple illustration, imagine that two administrative assistants with adjoining desks disagree about whether the window behind them should be open or closed.
One claims that she has the right to decide because she has seniority, while the other insists he should get his way because he conceded to the colleague in a disagreement about lighting.
The office manager asks both to explain their preferences.
The senior employee says that the draft from the open window gives her allergies. Her colleague says that without the fresh air, he gets sleepy.
Suddenly, agreement is easy: the office manager opens a window in the adjoining storeroom, and the two assistants have fresh air with no draft.
Acting as an interests-based mediator, the office manager probed for the interests underlying the assistants’ positions. When the positions of the disputing parties cannot be reconciled, a focus on interests will often lead to a mutually satisfactory outcome.
Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management in Business Negotiation – Focus on Interests?
But can a focus on interests be applied to complex business disputes?
From experience, we know that a skilled mediator can often resolve conflicts even when she knows little or nothing about the underlying technical issues behind the most complex disputes.
Why?
In the first place, a good interests-based mediator will be a fast learner, capable of quickly picking up the technical mediation knowledge necessary to discuss the problem.
More importantly, an interests-based mediator doesn’t need to fully understand the technical aspects of a problem to assess why the dispute is important to each party and which solutions each party might accept.
By beginning with this knowledge and eventually exchanging negotiated agreement proposals, the interests-based mediator can help parties resolve the most complex technical problems.
What mediation techniques have you tried during a negotiation? Share your negotiation mediation stories in the comments.
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Adapted from “Beyond Blame: Choosing A Mediator” by Stephen Goldberg for the January 2006 issue of the Negotiation newsletter.
Originally published in 2013.