news
December 2007
Mediation Training: Early Bird discount
Historic
debate in the Scottish Parliament
Mediation
Institute of Ireland Conference
Festive Tips for Negotiators
- Pause before responding in difficult situations
- Assume that everyone means well and is doing the best
they can
- Remember that the way someone behaves is not
necessarily who they really are
- There are many sides to most stories – theirs is
usually as valid as yours
- What we intend to
communicate and what others hear may be quite different
- Don’t believe
everything you think!
Charlie Woods comes on board
Charlie Woods, until recently Director
of Strategy and Chief Economist at Scottish Enterprise, has teamed up with Core
as an associate to develop Core’s strategy of taking the idea of mediation and
mediation techniques into the corporate and public sectors, with the target of
helping business partners and contractors to collaborate more effectively in
commercial arrangements, joint ventures and other enterprise partnerships.
This
initiative builds on the growing recognition that the use of a third party to facilitate
delicate discussions and negotiations offers significant added value in many
business situations.
Click here to read more and here to read the Scotsman’s report.
Mediation: Good for Business
Recently
announced figures indicate that commercial mediation has saved businesses £6.3 billion in the
By
achieving earlier resolution of cases that would otherwise have proceeded
through litigation, it is estimated that, looking ahead as the use of mediation
expands, the commercial mediation profession will save business in excess of £1 billion a year.
The
total value of cases mediated each year is approximately £4.1 billion. Since
1990, the total value of mediated cases is estimated to be £23.5 billion.
(Source: CEDR)
Supporting
these findings, the law firm Herbert
Smith has recently published the results of research into how large
organisations across a range of industry sectors, including BP, RBS, GE, KPMG,
Royal & Sun Alliance and Virgin, are using “ADR”.
Those
businesses which use early case assessment and systematic management of
disputes, including mediation, as central to their dispute resolution culture
achieve greater savings in external
costs and in management time spent on dispute resolution. Mediation was overwhelmingly the most
frequently used “ADR” process.
For
more information contact Alexander.Oddy@herbertsmith.com or click here to view.
Another milestone passed
Core
is now well past its 200th mediation,
signalling the continuing expansion of the use of this process.
Core
mediators have been engaged in a total of over 275 days of mediation, the majority in the past two years.
Recent
examples include:
- differences in a multi-million pound family business
- a long-running agricultural agency dispute
- differences between sporting governing bodies
- breakdown in relationships among senior executives and
academics in educational institutions
- claims and counter-claims arising out of a house-building
project
- succession in an international family business
- claims of professional negligence and misconduct directed
against solicitors
- board level disputes about intellectual property and
shareholdings in a business start up
- management difficulties in a local authority
- allegations of discrimination and bullying at work and
- contractual complications in an iconic construction
project.
Dealing
with a difficulty early is usually to be preferred over long-running and
sometimes polarising unresolved differences. Many of Core’s recent mediation
experiences have been of the Nip it in
the Bud variety: early and effective
intervention to prevent escalation.
Senior mediator
Mediation Training:
Dates
announced for Core’s next flagship Mediation
Training Course – limited places are already filling
Ø
Module 1: Dealing with Differences and Disputes using Mediation
25 - 28 March 2008
Ø
Mediator Assessment Module (Optional)
30
April and 1 – 2 May 2008
**Discounted Early Bird rate available if both
modules booked and paid for by 31 December 2007**
Click
here to read more and for information about
registration before the expiry of the Early Bird deadline
“I am now converted to mediation as a fantastic means of
enabling people to see solutions where they could not.”
Scottish Civil Courts Review
The
review group’s consultation paper has recently been issued and was formally
launched at a conference addressed by the Group’s chairman, Lord Gill.
The
topics addressed are wide ranging and mediation is only a part of the overall
picture. In the conference, 73% of the audience thought that the courts should
actively encourage mediation or other methods of dispute resolution and a
similar number felt that mediation should be considered at any stage in the
process and would not adversely affect the development of the law and
precedent.
The Review has been
invited to consider whether greater use of mediation and other methods of dispute
resolution generally would be beneficial. Apparently, “several submissions
expressed some caution, with one taking the view that the benefits of mediation
may have been “oversold.” Advocates for mediation say that mediation is not a panacea
and that it is “underused” rather than oversold. They say that it needs to be
embedded in our system so that it is available as one of the range of options
open to people who are considering how to resolve their differences.”
The Review will consider
evidence about the use of mediation and other methods of dispute resolution to
assess whether, and in what circumstances, it can offer an effective
complement, supplement or even alternative to litigation.
Click here to read the issues which the Review
group suggests should be considered.
The
consultation paper can be found at
http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/civilcourtsreview/SCCCompleteR.pdf
Historic debate in the Scottish
Parliament
In
November the Scottish Parliament debated mediation and other forms of dispute
resolution. Click here to read
News from Abroad
“
The
solution to this widespread problem is simple mediation techniques that enable
employees to resolve conflicts between themselves in order to maintain a
harmonious and more productive work environment. In the life of every conflict, there is a
point when it’s large enough to be recognized, but small enough to be resolved. “There’s nothing new about mediation per se,”
says Dr. Dan Dana of the Mediation Training Institute International, a company
specializing in mediation skills for the workplace. “What is new is that employees and managers
alike can learn simple mediation techniques in a single day that effectively
resolve and even prevent most workplace conflicts.””
Mediation Institute of Ireland
This
excellent conference in
to be helped to express
their point of view; to redress a sense of power imbalance; to obtain more
information; to be given recognition; to achieve vindication; and to achieve
procedural justice in the sense of being listened to and having concerns fairly
addressed..
He
spoke of the importance of living with conflict, managing it rather than
resolving it, recognising that containment may be a good thing where there is
no simple solution.
In
emphasising the place of conflict coaching, Cinnie Noble from
And
don’t forget:
“The dangers of life are
infinite…and among them is safety” Goethe
We
wish you a very happy Christmas and a healthy new year. This year, instead of
sending Christmas cards, Core is supporting two excellent charities, 500 Miles
(www.500miles.co.uk),
established by Olivia Giles and Jamie Andrew to support amputees in areas of
desperate need, and St Andrews’s Clinics for Children (www.standrewsclinics.org.uk), which provides basic
primary health care for mothers and children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Please feel free to
forward this newsletter to colleagues who may be interested in it.
To access Core’s news page, click here.
For more information about Core's activities and
to view older editions of Core News, please visit our website at:
If you wish to have your name removed from our
subscription list for Core News, please let us know by emailing a message to Core.