Mediation
Here is my pre-flection.This week's art of democracy is mediation. Mediation is facilitating interaction to help people in conflict hear each other. Here is the link to media resource on mediation: http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/mediation/success.asp. This article showed how people use mediation to settle issues. In this one, the Supreme Court of Ohio mediated a case in which homeowners believed that the county sewer authority had caused their sewage problem. Fifteen people arrived to negotiate on the morning of the mediation session. The homeowners had had a previous sewage backup corrected and had then renovated their basement so they could entertain friends. They then experienced four sewage backups that ruined the improvements. They wanted the problem fixed, and they also wanted compensation for the damage to their basement. The county officials, on the other hand, claimed that the outlet pipe, running from the house to the street, did not have enough drop. The parties agreed on monetary compensation, who would maintain the pump, and who would maintain the easement over the pump. With this agreement, the parties were able to put to rest four years of disputes and avoid more years of litigation. We all use mediation once in a while. We see mediation in our everyday life as well. For example, I love watching Oprah and she works on mediation quiet often. I also practice this art myself recently. Last week, two of my friends decided to stop talking to each other for some reason. I decided to use mediation and sat them all down so they could work it out. Each of them told their side of the story, their feelings and so on. We talked it through and in the end, they were able to reconcile after listening to the other's point of view and understand it.

Here is my reflection on mediation. Mediation is not necessary a legal binding. A mediator may be able to help achieve certain goal. He or she should be unbiased or has no conflict of interest. It is better to have an unemotional or contained mediator. In addition, the mediator should focus on the issues and may not be liked by one of the party... Always keep in mind that mediation may fail. The process of mediation includes the following steps:1. Hear both sides2. Separate the issues (from the people, from one another...)3. Clarification4. Understanding5. Use logic/ Move from subjective to objective6. Identifying options that lead to solutions.7. Written Contract (for formal mediation)For the mediation to work, the key factors are:- No bribes- One issue at a time-Tell the truth- Both parties trust and/or commit to mediators- Willing to work to a common goal- No yelling/ intercepting- Confidential/ RespectfulDuring the class of AOD, we practiced the art of mediation by acting out. I though it was a helpful exercise because it helps me understand mediation in the everyday-life form. It required lots of effort to make mediation successful but it's not something impossible to achieve.

Application: During the fall quarter in Speech 100, we were working on a project about Safe Cosmetics. It was an all-girl group, so even though we were very supportive of one another, there were time when we have the need to express our own opinions. We are very strong especially when it came to defending our own ideas. So there was a little argument going on between two group members about what we should do to prepare for the mall’s presentation. One side wanted something that can be gross but memorable. The other side said it was better to send a positive message with pretty pictures and happy slogan. Both ideas sounded pretty good to me but we can only pick one. We all sat down and listen to each side’s reason why we should pick their idea. We then separate the issues from the person. As a mediator, I value both sides’ ideas instead of picking my close friends’ ideas over the others. Together, we clarified and try to understand the existed issues. We then came up with different options that can be used to solve the problem of differences .At the end, we agree on a theme that is not very graphical but at the same time, effective and captivating. We worked out our differences and thus, achieve our goal using the skill of mediation.