Are you experiencing a downfall in your business due to conflicts and disputes with your customers and clients? If yes, then this post is definitely for you.
No business would ever wish to enter into a conflict with its counterparts because it’s distracting and stressful. Also, it leaves a huge impact on the reputation of the business along with financial sufferings. The condition turns worse if the conflict is not resolved on time.
As per the current situation, the business owners often move to court for settling the issue. They think it’s a powerful unbiased authority that decides on proofs.
Seeking help from the court is not a bad idea, but have you ever thought about how long and expensive court battles are. You might give your entire life and money to fight the case, but still, the result is guaranteed. And meanwhile, you would lose everything in your business. So instead of keeping your hard-earned money at stake, you should opt for a business mediation process for resolving the conflicts.
In this post, we will discuss business mediation in detail.
Business Mediation
As the term suggests, it’s a process to bring an agreement or reconciliation between two or more parties. Here, a neutral third-party (also known as mediator) guides two or more parties to settle the dispute out of the court. It’s a voluntary semi-formal process where the concerns of all the parties are heard and a proper decision is made.
Once the parties mutually agree on the solution, the agreement is prepared and signed by them along with the mediator.
The Steps in Business Mediation Process
To start the business mediation process, both parties should agree to participate and chose a mediator with a mutual decision. As it is voluntary, no party can pressurize another. Based on the mediator, the mediating style would be different but the basic structure will be the same.
- Preliminary talks- The mediator will talk to both the parties and get a brief of the problem. He will prepare a summary of the situation and schedule further meetings.
- Introductory talks- Here, the mediator will schedule a meeting at a neutral location in the presence of all the parties. He will give an overview of the process along with his understanding after preliminary talks.
- Clarify the different visions- After the mediator completes, the party members or the representative will be allowed to make opening statements. You can keep your points and problems you are suffering from.
- Elucidate conflicts- The situation will become a bit difficult at this point as both the parties will try to prove their points. You will also explain the reasons why the decision should be in your favour.
- Find a solution- After listening and summarizing your points, the mediator will try to identify common goals and reach an agreeable solution. If in case, the conflict is not coming to a solution, the mediator might take a day or two to decide. And schedule another meeting.
- Agreement- After a solution is found and agreed upon by all the parties, an agreement will be signed along with the final signature of the mediator.
Though the court is not involved in the business mediation process, the impact and value of the decision are almost the same. So you should not take the process for granted and should hire a neutral mediator for an unbiased decision.
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