The value of mediator soft skills to modern commercial practice

Abstract

This paper explores the nature of change in modern economies due to their growing interconnectedness and implications this has for the way professions such as mediation and legal services carry out their business. It argues that the biggest upheaval has been the rise in the commercial value of trust over that of competitive and adversarial behaviours and that this requires, in turn, that dealing with conflict takes account of the inherent human complexity found in trusting relationships. It contrasts the role of mediators in dealing with complexity and ambiguity with that of other professions, notably in the legal sphere. It notes attempts within the legal profession to rebadge itself away from litigation to dispute resolution and to promote evaluative mediation and semi-determinative processes as the pre-eminent conflict resolution process. It argues that the traditional non-evaluative ‘process’ approach to mediation is far more in tune with the modern collaborative economy and concludes that the legal profession should seek to learn from it and seek to adopt the soft skills of the mediator.