With 3 Italian mediators who participate in our pilot project Virtual Mediation Lab, today we ran an online mediation simulation via Skype of a family case.

During the debriefing session, we wondered what would have happened to the case if the parties' roles, instead of being played by 2 mediators, had been played by their actual “spouses”, who know absolutely nothing about mediation.

We all agreed that it is an experiment worth trying and interesting to watch. Such setting will create for the mediator a situation closer to reality, considered that for many people who come to mediation it's their first time.

True, during the debriefing session the two spouses/parties won't be able to name the techniques used by the mediator. But certainly they will be able to tell the mediator whether what he or she did worked well or not-so-well.

What do you think of such simulations with people who have never participated in mediation before?

Giuseppe Leone