Scottish Mediation Conference
Scottish Mediation Conference
BY GRAHAM BOYACK
The CMC’s Scottish counterpart Sottish Mediation recently held their first in person conference in 3 years. Graham Boyack reflects on the sessions focusing on listening, learning and reflecting. The conference discussed the potential of mediation, diversity in the mediation community and making an impact through your work.
Listening, learning, reflecting and connecting with Scotland’s mediators.
Scottish Mediation’s annual conference has always been a time I look forward to and even more so this year. After three years meeting on Zoom we hosted our event in person this year and in the run-up to the event so many people told me how much they were looking forward to seeing people in person again.
One thing I hadn’t remembered is that running an event in person involves a lot more than the online version; IT, room set up, food, badges and programmes all have to be arranged. Add in the worries about transport because of the rail dispute and making sure people know how to navigate the Edinburgh roadworks mean it was all quite a challenge.
Our first theme was listening and there are few better people than Kathryn Mannix to lead a session on that. For mediators listening isn’t just a skill; doing it effectively is at the core of work that we do. Many of the disputes that come to us are as a result of a lack of, or poor, listening and more critically, as Kathryn pointed out, involve people who strongly feel that they haven’t been listened to. One of the key tasks we learned is the need to listen without preconceptions and then exploring what we have heard in a way that allows more of people’s stories to surface. Sounds simple; but it’s really not and Kathryn’s session was a reminder that we need to constantly work at being better listeners.
In the afternoon we considered how equality and diversity and mediation intersect and the need for the mediation profession to better reflect the diversity of our Scottish communities. Our keynote speaker Dr Gurchathen S Sanghera drew on his research and experience of working with a variety of communities to highlight the conflict that exists between and within communities across Scotland and how mediation and mediators can play a positive role in creating safe spaces to allow discussion around these conflicts. That hate crime is a reality in Scotland for many people underlines the need to engage positively in these discussions. If the underlying issues of conflict are not aired and addressed it will be difficult to move forward positively.
