Holla!
I greet you in peace. What an exciting few weeks. We have seen a steady rise in registrations on our five day ADR Program and there seems to be rising demand. We get daily enquiries from corporates, local goverment and individuals. It clearly signifies the fact that the profile of Alternative Dispute Resolution is rising which is encouraging. We are also seeing consistenmt increase in demand fore our correspondence program which is research based and registrations from great thinkers and academics are assisting us in producing cutting edge research.
Our programs are benchmarked against national and international standards. However we are including aspects gleaned from further research and experience. Notably we have included The Culture of Honour in our Programs. Inspired by the work of Danny Silk, myself, Adam Bright and Hilton Mundell of Juiced Strategies are building models around a culture of Honour that we see working in practice. We feel we have only scratched the surface of the value of Honour in conflict resolution. I will be writing much more about this topic, but essentially Honour is profoundly not about history, but about destiny. And so when we as mediators engage with parties that have made poor choices ending in tragedy for themselves and others, if we are able to view those parties in terms of their destiny rather than in terms of their history, then we feel we can add more value to the decision making process. Of course history is important and I will discuss this further in discussions around the storytelling aspect.
Also we find that modelling a culture of honour at the table, also shifts the parties from the victim/bully mindset to a mindset which is more empowered and even fights for the honour of an opponent rather being locked in a space of defending self-honour.More about this soon!
We are also seeing the profile of ADR lift in all sectors with an exponential increase of referrals in commercial, workplace, family and other disputes.
We remain committed to raising the profile of ADR Processes in the interests of all role players and disputants. To this end we are looking to meet with influencers in all sectors of society. I have been honoured recently to spend time with represenatives of the Department of Justice Rules Board, the DG for tourism, a represenative from Treasury and a whole host of union leaders and business leaders. They all back ADR processes in a big way. Tomorrow I travel to Joburg tro meet business leaders, the minister of traditional affairs, the DG of Human Settlements and the Department of Justice.
Next year I will be concentrating on public speaking and conferencing around raising awareness for ADR processes. I have been honoured and humbled to be invited to speak at a one day program for 80 business leaders in Africa including some presidents, in January next year.
As many of you know, at the heart of my commitment to ADR processes and mediation is access to justice and storytelling. It is difficult to achieve justice in court as it is essentially a contest which relies to a large extent on the genius, or lack thereof, of the lawyes that the litigants are able to afford.
Storytelling is also a high value for me. It is in being heard and being prepared to listen, that parties are able to shift into patterns of forgiveness and collaboration. To this end we are starting a talk show in January to raise the profile of storytelling and consequently, mediation.
I was most honoured to spend time with Dali Mpofu acting for the injured Marikana Miners. My view is that his and his teams work in uncovering the story of the miners will help to retell South African History authentically, and if we are prepared to listen, this may be significant in helping to shape a better future for us all.
I honour Advocates Dali Mpofu, Dumisa Ntsebeza for the work they are doing for these miners, and actually for us all. I also honour the courage of the first witness, Bishop Seoka.
Until next time, peace!
Sheena
Please email me at sheena@mediatorsa.co.za