Source: Image of Co-Workers, Public Domain, http://mrg.bz/aSQSl7
Hi. I'm Julie Tietz. And welcome to Conflict Resolution-- Putting the Pieces Together. Today, we're going to talk about how we can help parties come up with an effective agreement to their conflict, and really come up with a great solution.
A written agreement is the agreement that is one of the final steps in the mediation or conflict resolution process. And it's a formal document. It's written down with all of the parties favored and chosen options.
And so when we are helping the parties write the agreement, we want to be sure that we are using all of the parties' favorite options. So we've identified their interests, brainstormed, and now come up with options and evaluated which ones would work best.
And so we want to include all of those in the agreement. We also want to be sure that we are using clear and direct language. And so everybody can understand what's going on.
And each party receives a copy of the agreement before they sign off on it. So they can review it to make sure their favorite options are in there and that it's clear and direct, and that it is a satisfactory or balanced solution.
So they may be on the outside or the surface of it to somebody that isn't really informed about the situation. It may appear that one person is doing a lot more than the other. But the parties have agreed to this. And so that means it's balanced.
Balance doesn't necessarily mean that it's even-- one person does this, the other person does that. It really all depends upon what the parties come up with and agree to be balanced and satisfactory. The parties also want to consider feasibility when looking over the agreement, so making sure that they are able to follow through with the proposed options.
So I'm going to give you an example of what a written agreement might look like. And it's between Camille and Thomas, who were having conflicts in their office. They shared an office. And so this is what they have decided to come up with.
One is Camille agrees that Thomas will have uninterrupted work time from 10:00 to 12:00 every day. Thomas agrees that Camille can listen to the radio without headphones from 8:00 to 10:00 everyday. And Camille and Thomas will set aside 30 minutes at the end of each workday to check in on their work.
And finally, Thomas will try this agreement for three months and re-evaluate to see if it's working. I stuck this last one in there to let you know that this is not a good use of clear and direct language.
What does re-evaluate mean? Is he going to talk to Camille about it? Is he going to come to mediation? So we need a little bit more clarification on this one.
And also, I want you to notice that I alternated between Camille and Thomas starting first in each of these agreement points. So we want to demonstrate that we are being fair in alternating each of the parties names here.
So now that we've gone over creating an effective agreement, let's look at the key points. One is we want to be sure that when we're writing an agreement, all of the parties' favorite options are included, and we are using clear and direct language. So there is no vagueness and everybody is on the same page on what needs to happen.
And we also want to be sure that there is a balanced or satisfactory solution for the parties. And balance doesn't necessarily mean that it's even-- one person does one and the other person does the other, et cetera. It's what the parties determine to be fair and for them to be satisfied.
Well, that's all we have for you today. Let's look at our key terms-- written agreement and balanced solution. Feel free to pause and look them over.
Thank you so much for taking the time out to view this tutorial. I really hope that you've learned something. And I can't wait to catch you again next time.