Critical Thinking – A Starting Point for Impact Building

How to cite this journal: Author, Date of the post, WMO Conflict Insight, Title of the post, ISSN: 2628 6998, https://worldmediation.org/journal/

EDITORIAL

This contribution is an editorial reflection by the founder of the World Mediation Organization, written as a spoken address and published here in that form. It does not argue a position so much as invite the reader to attempt something, and readers may find it more useful to follow the invitation than to assess it. A note for trainers follows the text.

ABSTRACT

This editorial proposes an alternative to the accumulation of theory as preparation for mediation practice. The author sets out what conventional preparation demands, namely conflict analysis, conflict theory, management strategies and de-escalation techniques, observes that the list is unmanageable, and asks the reader to consider setting it aside. What remains when the conceptual apparatus is put down is described as the practitioner themselves: the experiences gathered in a life, the social competencies developed over time, and the skills learned in family, friendship and neighbourhood. From this the author develops the idea of working from an inner centre characterised as empty mind and nothingness, from which questions arise that are formed by the situation rather than imposed on it. The reflection closes with the three competencies the author calls mindful mediation: deep listening, critical thinking and wise speaking.

KEYWORDS

Mindful mediation, empty mind, practitioner formation, letting go, self knowledge, questioning, authenticity, deep listening, critical thinking, wise speaking, inner logic, preparation

INTRODUCTION

When we talk about mediation, negotiation, and conflict management in general and in its widest sense, we face two main options of how to proceed and start our labour. The most common and most broadly practised concept is the one of getting as well prepared as possible, which may mean that we need to study as many conflict theories, conflict management strategies, and potential crisis de-escalation techniques as possible. This, obviously, is quite a task, but it is worth its price if we wish to impress our colleagues with our knowledge.

Being well equipped with all available conflict theories, conflict management strategies, and potential crisis de-escalation techniques, we still missed one very crucial point, namely the skills that we need to analyse and understand the conflict properly. By understanding the conflict, I do not only refer to ourselves but also to making the parties understand their dispute, as this may turn out to be the key for them to work towards a settlement.

MAIN CORPUS

We may find ourselves at a point where we genuinely need to question the concept that ought to prepare us fully for conflict counselling. Somehow, the list seems too long to me. We need to study all available skills of conflict analysis. We need to know all conflict theories to have an idea of the potential conflict dynamics that we may face during the mediation. We need to be able to put into practice, at least, the most common conflict management strategies in order to settle the dispute, while we hope that our strategies match the nature of the conflict. And we need to be able to make use of an endless list of potential crisis de-escalation techniques that may help us maintain a non-harming environment for dialoguing.

If you feel overwhelmed and pretty helpless at this point, you are not alone, as I totally feel the same. So the question is, what can be done, or better said, what is the other option of treating a conflict? When we talk about professionalism in conflict counselling, we should not misunderstand our task. First of all, we get in contact with real people, and therefore we need to be authentic, we shall create empathy, and we may set up an environment where dialogue can take place. As there is no mediation without dialogue.

In order to progress with our journey, I would like to ask you: what would you think about letting go? Namely, to detach from all these models, theories, dynamics, and strategies that you learned. Take your time, imagine such a setting, and try to identify how you might feel. Would you feel like you are unprepared, unequipped, and somehow not professional? Or would you say that being somehow professionally nude makes you feel uncomfortable?

So let us go into this topic much deeper. Who, by the way, told you that you are naturally unequipped, and who told you that you need to study this horrific number of topics to be an effective professional? Maybe it is the general impact of institutes, colleges, and universities that make you believe that they offer the solution to all our challenges in life. Please do not get me wrong. We are talking about a field within the theme of social science, and I simply believe that before you are able to appreciate or evaluate the content of such educational authorities, you need to take some preliminary steps, and this is what we are targeting.

It is my belief that first of all you need to commence a journey with a unique destination, which I will not communicate right now but a bit later, and yes, maybe you will be able to name it by yourself. So, in order to get started, I kindly ask you to detach mentally once again from everything that you heard of or learned so far. Just free your mind, detach, let go, and leave things behind.

The question is, what can you see and find right now, being rid of all this professional and conceptual luggage? Open your eyes and see, identify, and evaluate, but do not only look in an external way, look also in an internal way. So what you see, first of all, is yourself. You, being here, at this point in your life, in this specific spot, and at this very private level of your personal development.

See what your status of being unconscious veiled from you, and learn from what your status of being conscious now teaches you. The question is, who are you, where do you come from, and what do you bring with you? This is a simple example of a set of questions that breaks you free by offering you information about yourself. All you are going to work with is the set of the experiences that you gathered in your life, the social competencies that you obtained and that you developed up to a certain level, and the social skills that you learned within the environment where you received your initial education, namely in your family, with your friends, and in your neighbourhood.

See, listen, and understand, that these are the features that make you unique, and this is the starting point for critical thinking. Everything in life can be questioned, and it has an impact on the environment, as everything in life is interconnected and follows the rules of action and reaction. Now that you have learned about the initial starting point of discovering yourself, you will also understand that once you know who you are, you will be able to understand the interlinkages of life and the impact that our actions and reactions have. Being conscious about that, you are now free to break this rule up, and to become a change-maker.

Now that you have started the journey towards your inner self by questioning who you are and who or what made you be yourself today, you will see that once you understand and dominate the power of these questions, you do not need a vast quantity of techniques, strategies, and models. Once you know and understand who you are, you will find peace inside yourself. This specific peace, or status quo, will be guarded in your inner centre, where your empty mind and nothingness reign. This is where your journey ought to lead you, namely to your inner core, from where all your actions and questions may be born.

Being conscious regarding the empty mind and nothingness enables you to go professionally into the mediation setting and to place the proper questions. Learn to work with the questions that are born out of your nothingness and empty mind, focus on the content delivered by the parties, exclude assumptions, and keep the mediation setting clean and transparent.

SUMMARY

The text moves in one direction and arrives at a destination it withholds until the end. What is set down first is everything a practitioner is told they must carry; what is picked up in its place is the practitioner. The turn on which the piece rests is that the alternative to accumulated technique is not improvisation but self knowledge, since a person who has examined where they come from and what formed them can meet a situation without needing to sort it into a category first. From this follows the practical instruction that closes the argument: questions asked from an empty mind are formed by what the parties actually say, while questions asked from a framework are formed by the framework and arrive at the room already knowing what they expect to find.

CONCLUSION

This is correspondingly the setting that you can adapt to all conflict situations, settings, and environments. Act or work from your inner centre in a way that you now know everything about yourself but nothing at all about the rest of the world. Now you are free, able, and entitled to work from the core, showing you that all situations in life, including our mediative dialoguing, are based on an inner logic. You simply have to ask yourself what is required, what is expected, and what shall I do?

All these questions will now guide you the way to be a mindful mediator, a conflict counsellor who works from the inner core, following a situation’s inner logic, having an empty mind, and being a change-maker by creating a new and more peaceful reality. Put trust in yourself, as you are key to all your questions, answers, and the new and more peaceful reality that you can build.

Thank you for your attention, and I kindly ask you to practise Deep Listening, Critical Thinking, and Wise Speaking. The world needs people like you.

A NOTE FOR READERS AND TRAINERS

The instruction at the centre of this reflection carries a precondition that the text leaves unstated, and naming it makes the invitation safer to accept.

Setting something aside requires that it be there. A practitioner who has absorbed frameworks thoroughly enough that they no longer need to be consulted is describing expertise, and the research on decision making under pressure documents exactly that phenomenon: experts perceive situations whole and act on recognition rather than analysis, and they experience this as intuition precisely because the learning has ceased to feel like knowledge. A beginner who has learned nothing and calls the result intuition is describing something else, namely whatever assumptions they happened to arrive with. The reflection is therefore addressed to people who have already done the work, and it should be received that way.

Read with that qualification, the argument is stronger than it first appears and its consequence for training is the opposite of what a quick reading suggests. One studies frameworks in order to be able to stop consulting them. The list the author calls too long is not wrong, it is simply the wrong thing to be holding in the room, and the discipline being taught here is when to put it down rather than whether to pick it up.

Two further observations for those using this text in a group. The invitation to question who one is and what formed one is not neutral in its effect, and participants have on occasion arrived at material they were not prepared for. A trainer should be ready for that, should not press, and should be able to say plainly that the exercise is not therapy. And the emptiness described here is a working condition rather than a permanent state: it is what allows a question to be shaped by what was just said instead of by what one expected to hear, and it is entered and left rather than achieved once.

Finally, the same destination can be reached by a route that suits participants at the beginning of their training better. Rather than asking them to let go of what they know, ask what they already bring, and let them find that the list is longer than they assumed. The recognition is the same, and it does not require anyone to feel professionally undressed before they have had a chance to get dressed.

FURTHER READING

Dreyfus, H. L., & Dreyfus, S. E. (1986). Mind over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer. Free Press, New York.

Klein, G. (1998). Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions. MIT Press, Cambridge.

Kahneman, D., & Klein, G. (2009). Conditions for Intuitive Expertise: A Failure to Disagree. American Psychologist, 64(6), 515 to 526.

Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. Jossey Bass, San Francisco.

Lang, M. D., & Taylor, A. (2000). The Making of a Mediator: Developing Artistry in Practice. Jossey Bass, San Francisco.

Bowling, D., & Hoffman, D. (Eds.) (2003). Bringing Peace into the Room: How the Personal Qualities of the Mediator Impact the Process of Conflict Resolution. Jossey Bass, San Francisco.

Erdmann, D. (2021). Mindful Mediation: The Shapeless Art. Lulu Press.