In this episode, I say thank you – for 2021!

With the last episode of this year, I would like to thank you, dear listeners.

You were great this year! 

You have literally breathed life into this podcast with your interest, time and attention. Without you, this podcast would certainly have developed differently. You have significantly influenced its continuation.

I would therefore like to say thank you at the end of this year. Thank you – I really appreciate you taking the time these days (and elsewhere) to listen to my conversations here.

And that is why I would also like to thank the many people I spoke to this year. There were 29 men and 15 women. It was only thanks to them that this podcast was able to provide the insights and perspectives and show the many facets of mediation and conflict management.

I still remember the beginning of the year, when I was with Dr Gudrun Töpfer and Christoph Frey on the issue of ambidexterity in organisations... for me, this was another important impetus for my article on the subject, which I had been thinking about for a few weeks.

A first highlight of 2021 was the interview with a pioneer of the first mediation lesson Ed Watzke. After a long search, an ancient entry on the Internet spit out a Viennese telephone number. And there I had him on the phone – and a creaking chair of calibre. Both will live long in my memory. Some listeners wrote to me afterwards that I shouldn't answer e-mails on the side...well, nothing could be further from my mind. It was a great conversation and Ed Watzke has lost none of his energy, impulsiveness and improvisation.

For me personally, the two interviews on the Act on the Stabilisation and Restructuring Framework for Enterprises (StaRUG) with professors from Halle were a real eye-opener. Lucas Flöther and Stephan Madaus...particularly instructive. A field for mediation skills seems to be opening up here, the size and significance of which will only become apparent in the coming months. The topic will therefore also be addressed in the podcast in 2022.

I was then particularly gripped by the technical possibilities of artificial intelligence and the potential for mediation. I still remember the conversations with Dr Michael Bartl. and Dr Katharina Höhne. But – it seems to me – that the topic is still far from having arrived on the mediation scene.

With Prof Dr Haiko Wandhoff I was able to have three conversations about the history of counselling. This helped me personally a lot to categorise the emergence of mediation. The narrow view of mediation can quickly lead us to attribute the emergence of mediation primarily as an expression of a changed view of conflicts. In fact, however, mediation has emerged in the wake of an epochal counselling boom since the 1980s. The growth of the consultancy sector, first and foremost management consultancy, which has recorded enormous growth rates since the 1960s and then especially since the 1980s, is a frequently described phenomenon in the history of economics and in the sociology of postmodernism.

This also includes the growth of life counselling and the expansion of therapeutic methods into everyday life and work. Under the banner of self-growth, autonomy and personal responsibility, personal development and lifelong learning, counselling has permeated every area of life and work in the broadest sense – and represents a genuine economic pillar in today's society. In this context, mediation becomes understandable. Many questions remain unanswered here and have become clearer in 2021 thanks to discussions with Haiko Wandhoff, Dr Bernd Schmid, Rolf Balling and Günther Mohr placed.

In 2022, I will be following this topic more closely here in the podcast and will be doing so immediately in January with a conversation with Dr Wolfgang Looss. Few names are more closely associated with the concept of coaching in Germany than Wolfgang Looss, who played a key role in the emergence and establishment of this form of counselling in Germany.

With Dr Markus Troja last year, I shed light on the darker side of mediation. A topic that is still underexposed by far – even among mediators, which is mainly due to a lack of case numbers. In the podcast, we will (be able to) prepare ourselves for future disappointments and disappointments – and thus be able to understand the dynamics of mediation more clearly and insightfully.

In 2021, however, the core topics of mediation – were also an important professional concern for me as a trainer...Here I am very happy that I can provide important content to mediation training candidates; a purpose of the podcast.

• Liability Prof. Dr Th. Riehm
• Creativity Ralf Fassbinder
• Individual discussions Dr I. Lütkehaus
• Storytelling Dr H. Milling
• Relationship needs Chr. Behrens

And then, at the end of the year, a real topic of attack: marketing for mediators. In two parts

• Four colleagues
• Four experts.

Mediation policy: BMJV process: chamberisation Prof. Dr Greger, Dr Bauckmann, Cl. Kluck and M. Plassmann

Outlook for 2022

• Debates within mediation (Dr Schneider-Brodtmann vs. Dr von Oertzen)
• Core topics of mediation for training candidates
• Marketing and development of mediation (interview with W. Looss on the beginnings of coaching)
• Fields of application, developments...

That was the year 2021. Many thanks to you, dear listeners.

If you have any suggestions for me, for this podcast, an interesting If you have a dialogue partner or an important topic or a current issue that you would like to have addressed here, write to me at s.weigel@inkovema.de;

I would be delighted if you like this podcast and subscribe to it, be sure to recommend it to others, share it on your social media channels, send friends and colleagues a link and use the hashtag #goodthroughtime.

I am Dr Sascha Weigel, mediator, coach and trainer. Here in the podcast you can listen to basic and in-depth topics on mediation; get to know new perspectives on conflict management; listen to debate contributions on the development of mediation and out-of-court dispute resolution methods and learn about the range of applications of mediation.

I speak here with mediators, managers and academics on the relevant topics relating to mediation, coaching and organisational consulting. And will continue to do so in the coming year 2022.

I am Sascha Weigel from INKOVEMA in Leipzig.

I wish you a successful transition, get through this time well.

See you soon.