How can the roles of the Mavens, connectors and salesman be applied in getting mediation to tip?
How do you see each of these roles being beneficial and applied in getting mediation to “tip”?
If these three models were to be applied to mediation, I think it could be applied in the following way:
the maven should be the mediator with great knowledge (information broker) who can share information between both sides so that both sides can get to know each other and learn to trust each other. But the maven (mediator) is not the persuader (as it says in the book) and I think that the one to persuade should be a member within the group - who will have much better persuasive powers than the mediator and will be the salesman - perhaps the group leader, or an advisor, religious leader, leader's wife etc.
How do we know or find out who has the persuasive powers and who we should talk to? The connecter - also a member of the group, the social glue the connects everyone, if we can identify this person, then this person can lead us to the right people to talk to. Most conflict mediation (when dealing with groups in conflict) is lead through the leaders of each group, but how do we know if they are truly the 'salesperson' of the group? The concept is to get an idea to stick and then to spread. The idea that peace is possible may be hard to sell in a situation of conflict where there seems to be no other way out and the key is to sell it to the right person, a salesman (or a group of salesmen) and let the idea spread and become contagious.
Of course, the mediator must also 'sell' the solution to the salesman, but as a good maven, this should not come across as selling but as just damn good sense as there's nothing in it for the maven, the maven wants to help and must make his case so emphatically that the one recieving the information understands and believes in it and therefore persuades and sells the idea to the rest of group (hoepfully) creating a tipping effect.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Thompson on
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Jo,
You bring up interesting points. I agree in that mediators can easily be seen as Mavens. The issue which I think currently the mediation field is facing is the lack of salesmen and possibly also connectors to garner a broader appeal. All too often mediation and the skills of the mediator are brought in while a conflict has been 'brewing' for some time.
Perhaps looking at it from the perspective of not mediation but rather conflict resolution (or simply effective communication skills!) that needs more of a 'tipping' could be more effective.
Maybe there is too much pressure on mediation to tip when as conflict resolution professionals, other services should be offered as well (conflict coaching, negotiation assistance, communication skills building, etc.).
I agree in that the connectors are the ones that can help identify the right person. It seems like though at the moment, it is up to the individual mediator to be all three in order to be successful.
I think if mediators rely on the parties to be the salesmen and connectors it will remain a fringe type of service still not fully known or viewed as not applicable to most situations.
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Permalink Reply by Tamera Drozd on
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I appreciate your eloquent post Jo.
I agree that the mediator plays the role of both maven and salesperson, selling the idea to the salespersons themselves. To that end, in international conflicts, the mediator should be a carefully selected individual.
I also believe there are groups of salespersons and connectors, as well as mavens, in conflict mediation addressing conflicts of large groups. It is interesting to ponder how the interactions of these 'groups' play out in the overall mediation.
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