INKOVEMA Podcast „Well through time“

#170 – Not all mediation is the same

Discussion on the opportunities and risks of interest-orientated mediation and mediation to help clarify issues, initiated by the Deutsche Bahn mediator pool.

In conversation with Kirsten Schroeter and Tilman Metzger

Well through time. The podcast about mediation, conflict coaching and organisational consulting.

Tilman Metzger, lawyer, mediator of the first hour in Germany and passionate clarification helper; trainer for mediation and clarification help; co-founder of the Federal Mediation Association; specialises in: Conflict management in organisations, associated with Sascha in the mediator pool of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft.

Kirsten Schroeter: Dipl.-Psych., mediator, supervisor and trainer, specialising in conflict management in organisations: Conflict management in organisations; academic director of the Master's course in Mediation and Conflict Management at the European University Viadrina, co-editor of the series "Interdisziplinäre Studien zu Mediation und Konfliktmanagement" (Nomos) and the journal "Konfliktdynamik". Together with Sascha, she is responsible for the methods section.

Contents:

Welcome to this special episode of the podcast: This episode is a conversation hosted by the DB AG Ombudsman's Office. The conversation took place in an online live stream. The listeners and questioners were the mediators from DB AG's mediator pool, who carry out in-house mediations as part of their training and alongside their normal work.

CONTENT STARTING POINT: In this episode we talk about different styles, varieties, approaches to mediation in conflicts, especially

  • on the one hand, the interest-orientated, rather (one of several) US-American-influenced mediation approacheswhich strives for a conflict decision in which the respective interests are to find a common optimum (so-called win-win orientation) and
  • on the other hand, the more German-influenced clarification aidwhich Clarity (for the individual parties to the conflict and their further decisions).

In view of the German Mediation Act, both approaches are mediation – as well as the 6-12 other mediation styles that could have been called up here. – Transformative Mediation;
– GfK mediation, – TA-based mediation, – Evaluative mediation; – Negotiation-orientated mediation (Harvard concept); – Strategic mediation, – solution-focused mediation; – transgressive mediation; and – not to mention the varieties of mediation that exist and have proven successful in cultures other than the Western world)...

In short: it is not mediation and clarification assistance that are facing each other, but two mediatorsThe mediators discuss the opportunities and risks of selected mediation styles and approaches in order toand conflict parties to clarify similarities and differences.

  • In detail: Conflict Dynamics, Issue 2, Volume 2023.
  • Redlich, Alexander / Schroeter, Kirsten: Variants of mediation. Similarities and differences between common mediation approaches, in: Konfliktdynamik, No. 4, 2015, 260-263.
  • Metzger, Tilman: Clarification support and mediation, SdM 45; 2012, pp. 38-43
  • Butcher, Tilman: Klärungshilfe und innerbetriebliche Mediation, Teil 2, Die Voraussetzungen für die offene Klärung schwierigster Fälle, SdM 46, 2012, pp. 36-41
  • Metzger, Tilman: Klärungshilfe und innerbetriebliche Mediation, Part 3, Klärungshilfe im Feld der Mediation. SdM 47, 2012, 57-60.
  • Metzger, Tilman: Clarification assistance – an independent form of mediation, in: SchlHA, 12/2022; pp. 460-464.

Training in organisational mediation - mediation in and for organisations.

Organisational mediation is the handling of conflicts that arise in the business and working world. It takes place in, with and for the organisation - by enabling the relevant members of the organisation to deal with conflicts appropriately.

We train you for this or professionalise your mediation and conflict counselling approach. We start our training programme regularly in March each year.

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