The Four Ways To Assure Mediator Quality (And Why None Of Them Work) (Michael Moffitt)
This article begins with an exploration of how consumers derive confidence in the services of practitioners outside of mediation. Why are we confident that the doctor we have chosen will not be lousy? The lawyer? The plumber? The tattoo artist? It turns out that, regardless of the context, whatever confidence we have in the quality of these practitioners’ services derives from one of four sources. A careful look at these available mechanisms, however, reveals that none of them currently operates as effectively for mediation as they do for other practices and professions.
Poor Quality Mediation – a system failure? (Tania Sourdin)
Mediation can in some respects be likened to a train ride. Our perceptions of the train ride will be determined by many factors and it is likely that passengers, frequent passengers, train guards and train drivers will all experience the train ride differently. Our perceptions will also be shaped by what happened before we got on the train (was it easy to get a ticket or get to the station?), any delays, whether we had any food for the trip, and, whether we got to our destination at the end. So it is with mediation and our perceptions of process. As mediators, (potentially train drivers although we may not know our destination) our experience of a quality travelling experience may be very different from the passengers – particularly if they experience a lack of security, are fearful or uncomfortable during the journey.
