Thursday, February 16, 2012
Ch.11
The one concept that I wanted to talk about from this chapter was "The Role of Mediator". I found this to be really important in this chapter because in life I feel too many people take a defensive role in life when it comes confrontation. And we need more people to take the role of mediator, but as it states in the book, it must be somewhat that remains neutral. I find this very important because you need to be able to see all aspects of what may be going on with no favoritism to either person. I felt that in the book it made a really important point that as being a mediator, you must promote equality. This is important because it shows that your willing to look at all sides of whats going on. You need to believe both stories while they are being presented whether you feel untrue or not because that allows you to not lean either way until both stories are complete and evaluated. I relate this to me because in a house of all woman I have found myself being the mediator plenty of times, and the one thing I learned is dont play favoritism because you will find yourself in a hold especially if you live with the people. I found that no grudges are held if your decision is found to be neutral and genuine.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree that it would be beneficial to have more neutral mediators in our world. However, it seems that being truly neutral is not possible. I have read some writings by Supreme Court justices that state basically that it is not possible to remove ones bias completely and the greatest risk comes from not acknowledging ones bias. I believe the same concept applies to mediators. If mediators have an awareness of their own bias, then they can make the necessary mental adjustments to provide the balance necessary for equality. Of course, bias is slightly different than favoritism but not too much so as to not apply. For example, if a mediator likes the personality of one participate better than the other, the mediator can have a mental chat with themselves acknowledging that they prefer the personality type of one of the participants and place an internal alert within their own thought process to help promote neutrality. If the mediator feels that they cannot do this then they should recuse themselves just the same as a judge would under similar circumstances.
ReplyDeletewords 180 posted 2/17 @ 1:25P
Hello Ateschera, nice post. I really like that you said “being a mediator, you must promote equality”. You are right. Mediators equally listen to both sides of the story, and help to find a solution so that it is a win-win. That got me thinking. A mediator, in a way, is technically taking the “relationship-centered” orientation when facing conflict. The best way to manage conflict within our relationships is to be considerate of the other person’s perspective, and work together to come to an agreement. Therefore, if we are good mediators, we will most likely handle conflict well when needed. Effective communication is so intertwined, and benefits in so many areas.
ReplyDeleteIt can be really hard to remain neutral in a situation that you naturally have an opinion on. It is human nature to favor some things more than others and is nearly impossible to be completely unbiased. Despite this, it is the responsibility of a mediator to remain neutral and promote equality. Rather than making sure that someone wins an argument, a mediator makes sure that the people involved reach some sort of conclusion that they can both agree on. A mediator should not speak of personal preferences but guide the people involved to come up with a solution that works for them.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been hard to be in a house filled with girls! I can see where you are coming from when you say that you could not play favoritism. Yeah, that usually will make us girls pissed off =) But I like how you said mediators should promote equality, because if you are not promoting what you are trying to get your patients to achieve, then they will not find you credible and will not relate to you. Mediatores have to relate to who they are trying to help in order to get them to listen and follow advice.
ReplyDelete