When problems turn into disputes, people stop communicating effectively with one another, and trust is lost. Instead of allowing a dispute to be decided by a third party, judge or arbitrator, evaluative mediation can often lead to voluntary resolution by agreement and, in many cases, restoration of trust and the ability to work with each other in the future.
There are two powerful forces that make mediation an effective dispute resolution tool. The first is the fact that all parties to a dispute understand the risk associated with not reaching an agreement. Generally, mediation is viewed as the last opportunity to avoid the additional expense of further litigation and the risk of an adverse, and too often irrational, outcome.
The second force is less obvious. It’s critical to the mediation process that the ultimate decision-maker for each party attend the mediation, so they can personally witness the presentations by all parties, as well as gauge the relative strengths and weaknesses of their own team’s positions as they watch their representatives respond to the mediator. Most ultimate decision-makers are not accustomed to spending an entire day dealing with one issue. They are used to making decisions and seeing them implemented within hours and often within minutes. The idea of spending an entire day or more and walking away from an unsuccessful mediation provides a powerful motivator to reach an agreement.
Mr. Dean, principal of Integrative Business Solutions, LLC, brings a relatively unique set of skills to the mediation process. As a non-lawyer mediator, with extensive contract and dispute resolution experience as a business executive, Mr. Dean brings both a thorough knowledge of the legal principles applicable to the dispute process, as well as the practical experience necessary to understand the need for parties to balance maintaining relationships and developing new business with properly managing risk and simply doing the right thing.
Mr. Dean’s background and his natural ability digest, distill, organize, and simplify vast amounts of information in a short period of time, allows him to not only evaluate and bring forward the relative merits of each sides’ positions, but also to help develop solutions, often “outside the box”, within the time constraints of mediation that can be accepted by all parties to the dispute. Mr. Dean’s extensive experience working with both business executives and outside counsel also allows him to communicate with each individual in terms relevant to them, sometimes acting as a translator between the various principals, their outside counsel, and their technical experts.
When people are having difficulty reaching agreement on their own, effective evaluative mediation with a skilled mediator, like Mr. Dean, can help provide what you and your business needs: a real-world solution to real-world problems in real time.