Introducing the Project Mediator

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Introducing the Project Mediator
Casey Bauer and Nicolas Hans   (July 31, 2008)




Can mediation models used in the judicial realm be adapted to improve conflict resolution on your projects? Yes, and for project managers in increasingly networked, multiparty environments, these techniques can also enhance collaboration among participants and elicit more enduring, even inspired, commitments. Here’s a primer.

Project managers plan, organize and manage limited resources to ensure the successful completion of specific goals and objectives. As a field of practice, project management has developed a number of tools to detect and prevent resource allocation issues. Although project governance guidelines often define a framework for handling conflicts in case of project failure, little research has gone into defining standard procedures for proactively managing conflict between parties during a project’s lifecycle. This is all the more of a paradox since by their very nature, projects are context to conflicts that require regular, if not constant, negotiations between the parties involved. Project managers and project directors are often expected to have the authority and experience to arbitrate conflicts that may arise within the course of the projects they lead. Though arbitration may work in single-entity organizations, it becomes a difficult model to adopt when numerous entities, departments and personalities are involved.
 
In this context, the expanding role of mediation in the judicial world can serve as a new model for project managers.



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