Last week, thanks to the kind cooperation of 3 mediators who participate in our ACR Hawaii pilot project Virtual Mediation Lab, we did something we had never done before.

After we ran an online “transformative” mediation via Skype of a typical workplace discrimination case, we made its video recording publicly available on our website - http://goo.gl/Z2SgK

Why? For two reasons. First, to show HR managers around the world what mediation means and why it is so effective for resolving workplace disputes. And second, to show mediators how “transformative” mediation works and differs from the “facilitative” method most of them are familiar with.

A week later, according to YouTube statistics, our 72-min video has already been watched 118 times in 19 countries, listed below by number of visitors.

United States, Canada, Italy, United Kingdom, Australia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria,
Poland, Kenya, Philippines, Romania, Belgium, Norway, United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Uganda, Barbados, and Greece.

So, what have we learned from our little experiment?

We have learned that perhaps “showing” people around the world what mediation means, how it works, and how it can help solve their problems can be more effective (and easier) that just “telling” them.

What do you think of this “don't tell me – show me” approach we are testing in our Virtual Mediation Lab?