Today we ran an online mediation simulation via Skype of a personal loan dispute between 2 old friends. The reason? To see what can happen when a mediator trained in facilitative mediation tries the transformative approach - for the first time.

All three mediators who participated in our simulation – Lisa (Hawaii, USA), Dorota (Florida, USA) and Derek (Barbados) – kindly agreed to share their mediation (and debriefing) session. They hope that their experience can be useful to other mediators around the world, when they ask themselves some tough questions like:

>> Which mediation method do I prefer: e.g. facilitative, transformative, narrative, evaluative? And why – simply because is the only method I know?

>> Which method would be most useful in this particular case, with these parties?

>> Besides, do I really need to choose between method X, Y, Z? Or can I create my own method? And if I do use my own method – or no method at all – how will it work from the parties' perspectives?

Kudos to Lisa, Dorota and Derek for their willingness to participate in today's “experiment”, aimed at answering some of those questions in our Virtual Mediation Lab.

To watch their 98-min video click here - http://goo.gl/HmPJS

Giuseppe Leone