Today is July 4, Independence Day, and my thoughts turn to the relationship between mediation and independence. No, I don’t believe that mediation would have resolved the dispute between England and the Colonies. Nor does it seem likely that mediators could have prevented the Revolutionary War with a mediated resolution. Conflict resolution does have its limits.
But families, business partnerships, and others in conflict pay a price for it. Some of the price is fairly easy to calculate: attorneys fees, court costs, damages awarded to “the other side”. Some is much hard to put a dollar amount on: the stress, the distraction, the lost opportunities, the ruined relationships. These are the costs that can be overlooked or consciously ignored.
Finding a way to resolve a conflict can allow you to declare your independence and to move on. Mediation can help.
