Mediation Hertfordshire
Monthly Bulletin
June 2009
Well, we finally have some good weather and Wimbledon is on so it must be summer!
We have a short but informative newsletter which contains the following items;
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On Tuesday 23rd June, Macarena Mata-Porras and Jacqui van Loen ran a workshop for the University of Hertfordshire Business Forum. Seventeen delegates attended a class in Conflict Resolution Skills, which included how to identify ‘red flags’ ‘conflict management styles’ and ‘mediation skills as life tools’. Macarena used a mixture of exercises to help the delegates recognise conflict in themselves, as well as conflict in others.
One exercise, which was used as an icebreaker, asked the delegates to pair up and find three things they had in common and one difference. This task was easy at first but got more difficult as the pairs teamed with other pairs until, in the end, all seventeen delegates were one group. It showed that it is easy to find common ground with a few people but, when the group gets larger, more differences are exposed. As many of the delegates work in large teams or have many students under their supervision, it is no wonder that they found work-life stressful and frustrating.
The workshop awoke awareness in the delegates regarding how they personally deal with conflict and showed them that by changing their reactions to conflict they would be able to influence the outcome of challenging situations.
The delegates, who were all leaders of teams, gave some encouraging feedback and many said that they would be able to put their new skills into practice immediately. Another triumph for Mediation Hertfordshire!
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It would seem that the ordinary folk of the world are not the only ones with problems with their neighbours, even the rich and famous feud over the garden fence!
The queen of pop has been embroiled in a two-year dispute over hedges at her Hollywood home Her neighbour wanted Madonna to trim the hedge to an acceptable height, which she failed to do. After a lot of ‘words’ and a court case Madonna was ordered to trim her acacia hedge to 2.4 metres.
Peter Hutchins, a millionaire lawyer in the States agued with his neighbour Beverly Hollingworth, a state politician, over her parked cars on the gravel road beside his house. He was so annoyed that he hammered a nail into the politician’s tyre and accused her husband of filming his wife with a surveillance camera.
Even Sean Connery has been involved in a long-standing feud with his neighbours in his apartment block in New York. His neighbours, who happen to be sultans, claim he is a bully who ignores “the norms of neighbourliness and decency”. Surely James Bond isn’t nasty! And finally George Harrison annoys his neighbours by blocking the shared access drive, declaring he “wouldn’t have purchased the property had he known strangers would be allowed to walk within 30 metres of his home”. Perhaps you should have read the surveyors report George !
Thanks go to Jacqui van Loen for contributing the 2 articles above.
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The Trustees of Mediation Hertfordshire are beginning to work on some action points, which came out of the May workshop.
The first issue is for us to look at the organisational model of the organisation, and decide whether we need to make a change to becoming a registered charity with a separate trading arm. This would allow us to have a charity number, and would also open the way for us to offer other services more extensively, such as Workplace Mediation, and charge for these services. I will be attending a meeting with a Charity Lawyer next week, together with one of the Trustees, to get the ball rolling on this.
The second action to be progressed is that a small working group has been formed to research the feasibility of offering a workplace mediation service, particularly to Local Authorities and the Voluntary Sector. A small group of 4 people, to include a Trustee and a mediator, will be working on this over the next few months and we will be consulting with the wider team on its views and suggestions.
There will also be another workshop, possibly in the autumn, which will include all volunteers and staff and will seek input from them on the way forward and an updated Strategy Plan. Please watch out for more news on these developments and let the office know if you have particular thoughts related to the actions already underway.
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What is a good mediation?
Hazel Genn has researched mediation over ten years at Central London Civil Justice Centre. At the Civil Mediation Conference in May 2009, she summarised the factors that in her experience make for a ‘good’ mediation.
�� Finally, mediation is most likely to succeed when the other side is prepared to be reasonable (this works for both parties, of course)
�� Not surprisingly, lawyers are happy when their clients are happy – especially if a settlement is agreed
�� A mediator who does not address any imbalance in power, knowledge or negotiating skills between the parties – being neutral doesn’t mean allowing one party to bully the other
�� Both sides should be satisfied with the result
Hazel Genn argues that ’justice’ is important for society as a whole. A good mediation doesn’t only resolve a particular dispute; there should be a perception that both the process and the outcome are fair.
2 This figure is based on estimates given by claimant solicitors interviewed for the ‘Dynamics of Judicial Review’ research. See page 15 for the subject matter of the cases.
3 Note that the settlement rate varies considerably between 62% for homelessness cases and 5% for cases involving the police.
4 Only 8 out of 54 cases were withdrawn pre-permission without benefit.
Reproduced from the Advice Services Alliance Briefing of May 2009.
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Summer Event
A reminder to everyone who is planning to come to the summer gathering on the afternoon of 12th July to send their money into the office as soon as possible as we want to buy the tickets very shortly. Many thanks.
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