If your leadership or management work places you in the role of “insider” mediator, or if you’re a professional mediator working in organizational settings, here are seven questions to ask yourself when you’re in the mediator’s chair:
1. Are you all solving the right problem?
2. Are you imagining the future together or getting stuck in the past?
3. Are you listening with your answer running?
4. Are you keeping your advice-giving in check?
5. Are you making it possible for them to change their positions?
6. Are you taking the right amount of time to build understanding instead of rushing to solutions?
7. How are you helping them bring their best problem solving to this conversation?