Ch 9. Third Party Intervention

Preview: 

• Advantages of third party

• Informal mediations

• formal interventions

When is a Third Party Necessary?

• When you and other person engage in the same cycle of the same destructive behavior

• You and your conflict partner(s) have been involved in this fight for a long time and can’t work through it

• You are struggling and don’t know how to fix the situation

• Others are being affected by the situation at hand

Skilled Third Party

• Definition: someone who is trained in intervention and does not have an interest in the outcome of the conflict; not emotionally invested

• Advantages:

  • Help people express themselves in a more productive manner

  • Help people change their perceptions and work together

  • Can help create creative solutions

Informal Third-Party Mediation

• Occurs when those who are not professionals offer or provide their assistance

  • Should you be an Informal Mediator?

    • Are the people in conflict ready?

    • Are you sure they want you to help?

    • Do you have the skillset to help?

    • Are you biased? (you have to be neutral)

    • Are you available to help?

    • Can you say NO if you wanted to?

    • Do you want to help?

Formal Intervention:

• Occurs when someone with formal training/education focused on intervention gets involved in a conflict; ethical obligation not to invest emotionally or have bias

  • Modes of Intervention:

    • Conflict Coaching: one-on-one coach and client develop the client’s conflict-related understanding, interaction strategies, and interaction skills

      • Listen to full story, then give skills that could help, surface level

      • help people in organizations and families

    • Counseling: licensed professional who is licensed to handle disputes and is paid for their services

      • deveoping skill sets

      • helping solve problems

      • help identify goals 

      • beyond surface level

    • Mediation: Disputants attempt to resolve their difference with the assistance of a third party whom everyone approves

      • Occurs in a variety of context, context might help drive the goals of mediator

        • Agreement: Settling the conflict, finding a solution; best with topic goals

        • Transformation: Finding a solution AND changing how individuals in conflict see themselves and other person; best with underlying relational or identity 

      • Mediator is in control of the process: Do not impose or force solutions; instead they help individuals in finding a solution.

      • cost effective, requires commitment to parties, power balance, can’t become emotionally invested

        • Stages of Mediation:

          • Entry: Mediators explain mediation process, inform participants, express credibility, consequences of not mediating (motivation)

          • Diagnosis: Mediator conducts interviews with participants and does observations of them communicating (deeper understanding to find what conflict goals exist)

          • Negotiation: Mediator creates safe setting where everyone is comfortable to open up and be honest, establish common ground (commonality leads to creative solutions and seeing others as an individual), balance power

          • Agreements: Mediator helps ppl involved generate diff ways to solve problem; write down info about how agreement will be carried out, help ppl who are in conflict figure out how to move forward

          • Follow-up: Mediator decides how they wish TO follow up with people, future actions to take to support problem, ensure everyone has a way to hold themselves accountable to make changes

    • Arbitration: occurs when people voluntarily allow a third party solve their conflict for them

    • Adjunction: a process in which parties present their case before a judge or jury, which then solves conflict for them