Mediation involves helping individuals impacted by conflict to resolve issues where they have different goals, perspectives, beliefs and personalities. So, no matter how hard we try to reframe the issues, employment mediation is about people as much as their problems.

Therefore, to advise and prepare our clients for mediation and help parties to successfully resolve issues, we must navigate the way people think, feel, and behave. We need mechanisms to help parties to consider these emotional and behavioural issues, explore intangible matters like trust and power and analyse their influence on the way conflict escalates and how people make decisions.  We ignore these issues at our peril. 

As mediators and advisors, we need to seek intentional strategies and techniques that support parties as they “pick these issues up”, acknowledge the impact of these intangible issues and start to actively address these underlying concerns. 

Our goal in this third instalment in our Mediation in Employment Law Workshop Series is to delve into these psychological dynamics in mediation and their influence on mediation outcomes, shaping agreements and/or disagreements. We will provide guidance on how to approach these complex relational questions, emotional issues and psychological factors using tools and techniques that have been effective in real-life cases.

• Session 1: Mastering Essential Skills and Strategies for Success
• Session 2: Effective Mediation Advocacy Unlocked

Click here to register for all three sessions of this Workshop Series and take advantage of a 30% discount!

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

• Psychological Dynamics: Highlight the significance of psychological factors in mediations (including neurodiversity), how they influence the resolution process and can affect outcomes.
• Emotional Influence: Understand the role of emotional elements in driving agreement or disagreement during mediation.
• Practical Insights: Gain valuable insights and conflict management strategies to enhance your practice and achieve better resolutions in employment disputes using real-life case studies and tools like ECD and Trust Cards.  
• Enhance your mediation and advocacy skills and improve your ability to help parties to navigate the psychological aspects of employment disputes.

Who should attend?

All lawyers who specialise in employment law, as well as those who may not focus on employment full-time but encounter mediation in their practice.

Facilitator

Stephen Hooper, Senior Resolution Practitioner, Fair Way, Wellington