A Biased Mediation

If you’ve heard about mediators you have probably been told that they do not have biases. According to Dictionary.com a bias is:

“to cause partiality or favortism in (a person); influence, especially unfairly.”

Many mediators will say that they are not biased. They treat both people equally, they do not favour one person over the other, everything they do is fair and equal through mediation. There is no biases. I agree with a lot of this, but guess what…

I’m a biased mediator.

The beautiful thing about mediation is that the people who are in conflict are in control. They are the ones who run the mediation, they choose what to talk about, where they want to go with those subjects, and they choose their outcome/solution. However, I am biased because I control the process. I am biased towards the process. While you control what happens within the process, I decide how the process itself.

Why am I bias towards the process? The process is what guides the mediation. Notice I said guides…not drives…You (people in conflict) drive what happens in mediation, but it is the process that gets us to where we want to go. It is for that reason I am bias towards the process.

                       

Jason Dykstra

Jason is a Conflict Management Specialist who is helping organizations and congregations move from conflict situations to creative solutions. He specializes in relational and communication issues and uses his experience and training in mediation, group facilitation, conflict management coaching, speaking and teaching to aid you and your surroundings to better… MORE >