2002, Carol Orme-Johnson, Mark Cason-Snow / Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
This Manual is intended to serve as a guide for the trainer(s) leading a Basic Training in Mediation for participants with no prior mediation experience. It reflects the style of mediation and the style of teaching used at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This version contains the changes and improvements made in training over 250 faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduates over the years.
The mediation model used in the peer mediation program and taught in the training utilizes two co-mediators and is somewhere between problem-solving and transformative in its approach. Mediation is totally voluntary and confidential. No one “sends” participants to mediation and no one enforces the agreement. The parties must choose mediation, or it will not happen, and chose to abide by their agreement (if one is reached). Mediators maintain complete confidentiality and parties are asked at the outset not to reveal anything said there. There is no official record of the agreement or indeed of the mediation.
The teaching style is highly experiential. The best way to learn to mediate is by doing it. Accordingly, participants spend approximately half of their time in role plays, and lectures are mixed with exercises. Feedback from participants has reinforced the value of the role plays.
Three themes recur throughout the lectures and role plays: party control, self awareness, and diversity. It has been the experience that most participants are not familiar with a dispute resolution process in which the parties themselves decide what issues to address and what the outcome will be. They must be taught to resist their impulse to fix or tell the parties how to fix their problems. It is emphasized that a good mediator must be aware of, and therefore able to prevent interference from, his/her own approach to conflict, own sensitive issues, and own assumptions about others. Mediators' and parties' assumptions based on gender, race, religion or ethnic background and ignorance of others beliefs are particularly likely to impede the open communication so crucial to mediation.
The training comprises eleven sessions, nine lasting three hours and two lasting four hours for a total of thirty-five hours. At MIT it is not offered for credit but is compressed into two weeks during our Independent Activities Period between semesters. Two trainers attend every class and divide the teaching load.
The five formal and four informal mediation role plays allow opportunities for all participants to mediate two or three times and observe the process (as neither mediator nor party) once, as long as the groups do not exceed five people each. The quality of the role play experience will be significantly affected by the ability of the coach assigned to each group to identify and explain both mistakes and achievements. Limiting the class size to between twenty and twenty-five participants has the benefits of keeping down the number of coaches needed and allowing for the group to bond, which can be a very valuable experience.
Because this training was created for a college setting, the subjects of the examples used in class and of the role plays are primarily drawn from campus life. The skills and insights acquired are, of course, equally valuable in nonacademic settings. In fact, in every class at least one person reports that the training has fundamentally changed his/her life.
