Setting Yourself Apart and Learning Useful Skills: The Benefits of Mediation Training
Post by Matt Hard ’16
As any Organizational Behavior class will teach you, and as many know from any work experience, conflict is a natural phenomenon that occurs in a business setting. Often what people forget is the opportunity presented by these conflicts, and people often approach situations with an avoiding approach, hoping the issue resolves itself. While there are many ways to handle conflict, mediation should be kept in mind as an opportunity to facilitate a productive conversation around the tension, and foster a collaborative environment where a solution can develop to help everyone involved. As young business professionals seek additional opportunities and options to expand their skill set, mediation training should not be overlooked, providing skills applicable in any business setting.
While mediation holds its formal place in the legal sphere, many overlook the benefits meditation can bring to businesses. Through mediation train, young professionals will learn skills to help deal with difficult clients, gaining the ability to ask probing and open ended questions to understand underlying drivers and desires. Trained mediators will also be able to navigate difficult internal workplace conflicts – the capability to understand and identify wants and interests of coworkers and supervisors can help individuals tailor their work, style, and solutions to meet the needs of everyone.
Trained mediators working in the business world will also obtain skills that can be applied after disputes arise in the workplace. This may seem like an obvious fact, but people often undervalue the ability to have the wherewithal to hear both sides of a dispute and derive a way for both people to work collaboratively. Young mediators working in a business environment understand that realities may differ and that it is okay! They have the desire to let both parties voice their values and come to a resolution moving forward, rather than getting at the specific details that clutter the past.
Even before workplace conflicts arise, young business professionals who have been through a mediation training have the ability to recognize conflicts as they begin. Being able to address issues as they come up, trained mediators can pull their team aside and help everyone understand each other’s drives and motivations before moving forward. Addressing and defining everyone’s needs and wants can help mitigate workplace disputes, and create the opportunity for everyone to propose solutions that can benefit each everyone while ensuring the task at hand gets completed.
Mediation can be an instrumental tool in helping individuals become better team members and provide a value add to employers. Going through a mediation training will allow you to better understand the skills needed to pull out interests of both parties and help them come to a mutual solution moving forward. While this collaborative method of conflict resolution may take time, it allows for relationships to further develop and give each party the chance to walk away with a beneficial plan of action.
Thankfully, I was able to attend Mediation Works Inc’s meditation training in Boston through the help of Babson College’s Professional Accelerator Fund. This amazing program offered at Babson is dedicated to helping driven students develop beyond the classroom, and helped fund my mediation training. I would highly encourage anyone to attend a mediation training to help develop skills to set yourself apart in this competitive job market.