About the Mediator’s Handbook
Designed as a resource for active mediators, the core chapter lays out a basic mediation process, and the next chapters cover three skill families: supporting the people, controlling the process, and solving the problem. The book is heavily used for mediation training and as a classroom text. We are particularly honored that mediators all across the world tell us that it is one of the few books on their shelves that they actually open up and *use*.
The emphasis is on “how-to”, with lots of short examples of what you might say or do in the moment. Pages are laid out to make it easy to find ideas, methods, and advice, usually with one topic per page or page spread.
The mediation process grew out of Friends Conflict Resolution Programs’ (Quakers) work in community-based mediation in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It was designed to encourage a distinct set of values: empowerment, respect, non-violence, consensus. Our mediators have given much further thought to these underlying principles and concepts, which we are incorporating into the next edition.
We believe the Mediator’s Handbook was the first widely-available published mediation manual in the English-speaking countries–the first edition in 1982 was a mimeograph book of our training materials. This too reflected our core purpose: to disseminate mediation and conflict resolution skills widely. An inexpensive handbook would be accessible to many more people than those who were involved in our programs and workshops.
Want to see more? Google reader has scanned and posted much of the 3rd edition. You can often find it in the business / negotiation section of your local bookstore. Or purchase it directly from New Society Publishers, from Amazon.
About the Authors
The main author, Dr. Jennifer Beer, started mediating in 1981 with a community mediation program (now Center for Resolutions) led by Eileen Stief. Today Jenny is a teacher, mediator, and anthropologist, based in the Philadelphia region of the U.S.A.. She facilitates for organizations and communities that are negotiating conflicts and cross-cultural issues, and teaches courses for Wharton (University of Pennsylvania), for Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work, and for ALBA, an international MBA school in Athens, Greece. Email: jbeer@culture-at-work.com. A full bio is posted on her Culture-at-work website.
Eileen Stief was the main “inventor” of the mediation process in the Handbook, which she and her cohort of fellow mediators developed through the school of trial and error. When people follow the Handbook or their trainers too obediently, she reminds them “We just made this stuff up!.” Over the years she perfected a humorous and practical approach which shapes the tone and content of the Handbook. She has retired from her community and environmental mediation practice and is happily indulging her love of animals by volunteering as a docent at the Philadelphia Zoo.
Friends Conflict Resolution Programs was laid down in June 2010, after almost 40 years. It had shed its skin and re-emerged in new colors many times. This Quaker program developed a county-wide mediation programduring the experimental years of the community mediation, and has led decades of trainings, as well as supporting each edition of this Handbook. For the past 15 years, the focus has been conflict resolution services for nonprofit organizations. FCRP members who contributed much to this Handbook include Charlie Walker, Chel Avery, Ann Richan, Caroline Packard, and Brenda Wolfer. Most of the charming cartoons were sketched by Ann’s niece Elizabeth Elwood.
The team working on our new edition
For the 4th edition, Caroline Packard will be joining as an author, bringing her strengths as lawyer, empiricist, and facilitator / mediator for organizations to the table. She is making the new edition both broader in terms of different contexts where mediation is used today and sharper, keeping us close to what we have experienced and analytically well organized. Our mediator and wise observer in this process is Joan Broadfield, who has been a volunteer mediator with us since the early 80s. The tearing – apart process has everything in a mess right now, but we think our readers will appreciate our big re-think re-write changes!