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Paper On Advocate And Neutral Faclitator

{text:bookmark-start} Individual Paper on the Challenges of Being an Advocate and Neutral Facilitator (mediator) {text:bookmark-end}   To begin with, there are many challenges in being an advocate and/or a neutral facilitator. Perhaps the biggest challenge is actually being able to remain neutral throughout the proceedings. One must strive to appear as neutral as possible to both parties, so that neither side feels that they are being cheated out of anything, or that the other side has an unfair advantage. To achieve this, a mediator must listen very closely to everything both sides are saying. A mediator must be calm, patient, and provide effective alternative communications between the two parties. These alternatives include a spectrum of potential processes that range from arbitration, which is mostly a traditional court-like procedure and process to resolve conflicts, to facilitative mediation, which is mostly a facilitative and cooperative process. Unlike arbitration where parties are subject to an arbitrator’s ruling on the conflict, mediation is an alternative dispute process that allows parties to resolve their conflict through voluntary participation in an interest-based process with a mediator acting in a non-judgmental role and facilitator of the mediation process. I believe that a mediator’s presence - more a function of who the mediator is rather than what he or she says or does- has a profound effect on the mediation process. The most subtle influences of the mediator’s affect and manor can in fact be powerful influences in helping the mediator bring peace and resolution to his or her room. Most mediation problems and issues arise because the mediators lack structural support and a clear understanding of what type of mediator they are. As mediation becomes a more mature area of practice and as the functional framework of mediation is better understood, most of the common problems and issues should be resolved. The only real issue that remains, and by...