Mediation and Conflict Management Skills Course, Spring 2011
It sounds like a cliche but is nevertheless true: Core’s flagship Mediation and Conflict Management course was the best, most valuable and rewarding training course I have attended and is undoubtedly a hard act to follow.
Each day was intellectually stimulating, challenging and intensive when we learnt about the mediation process, and the skills required as a mediator. These were also put into plenty of practice (along with enhancing our acting skills when playing disputing parties!). These skills included learning to separate the people from the problem; how to provide a safe environment in which parties can express what really matters to them; facilitate the finding of a way forward by disputing parties themselves that will work for all sides; listen at the margins; challenge assumptions and also deploy methods of breaking deadlock.
Core’s coaches all brought such enthusiasm to this course, sharing their insights and experiences as mediators and providing a supportive environment in which to learn both from ourselves and each other. As the participants were drawn from a number of different professions and therefore came with different perspectives, this further enhanced the course.
Ken Cloke and his book “Mediating Dangerously” were referred to in the course so it was an added bonus to have a surprise “audience” with him following the practical assessment. His inspiring words put the value and importance of mediation in a global context and were both the icing on the cake and the perfect end to the course.