Making Mediation Your Day Job™
It was the first day of the new term and of my advanced-level course, Trends and Issues in the Field. I asked my graduate mediation students to work in small groups and answer this challenge:
Imagine that you have decided to create a private ADR practice. On what marketplace trends would you capitalize? Where would you primarily focus to bring in clients?
The small groups took their markers and flipcharts and disappeared for half an hour. As I paused periodically at the doors of the breakout rooms in which they worked, I could see earnest and diligent conversation unfolding, words appearing on paper. This was a smart group of adult students who came back to school after successful careers in other arenas.
The small groups returned and hung their lists on walls around the room. I skimmed through the posters. Surprise made me do so again. And I had one of those moments of disquieting clarity.
Every single group listed only court-, government- and community-associated ADR programs and projects, like these examples from my notes that day:
Try to get on the postal service roster.
Contact the courts in our state to find out what mediation panels are recruiting new mediators.
Contact our state’s child welfare agencies about child guardianship and permanency adoption programs.
Call local community mediation center and volunteer in order to build my portfolio.
Their lists, collectively, included many more such options. They had produced a thorough and exhaustive list of the kinds of formal programs and opportunities that now exist in many states.
The hole in those lists was apparent only to me. And it seemed a glaring hole indeed. As the students discussed their lists, I jotted down several notes to myself. This is what I wrote:
Whoa! Only court, community and government programs. What’s that about?
This explains why so many mediators can more rightly call mediation a hobby than their professional work.
How many mediators do they think these programs can possibly handle?
How on earth do they expect to pay the bills if they’re turning to free and low-fee programs like these for work? More under-employed mediators on the loose…
Why do they only see work coming from opportunities someone else has created?
Why are they the real opportunities so invisible?
The following month, I conducted an informal experiment at the Association for Conflict Resolution New England chapter conference. In conversations with other mediators, I asked the same question: Where is mediation growing in your state? Where do you turn to catch a new wave of opportunity?
The responses were uncannily familiar now. It wasn’t just my grad students.
The seeds for this book sprouted in that moment. It’s a book ostensibly about building a successful ADR practice through effective marketing strategy and the use of online technology to inform, educate and promote.
But it’s really a book about following your passion, uncovering what’s behind that passion and making it visible to others, creating your own opportunities to prosper, and finding the voice that draws others to what you love.
There are far too many under-worked mediators and other ADR professionals in a world that could most assuredly make use of your services. If you’re one of those under-worked mediators, then the time has come to begin reversing that trend.
Are you ready to make mediation your day job?
Copyright © 2006 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.
Article Series
- Making Mediation Your Day Job™
Liked this post? A few others to consider:
- The best of making mediation your day job 2008
- Making Mediation Your Day Job, Part 2: The Art of Framing How You Help
- Making Mediation Your Day Job, Part 4: Creating Dialogue with Your Market
- Making Mediation Your Day Job, Part 7: Setting Your Mediation Marketing Agenda
- Making mediation your day job in Ontario bar association news
Making Mediation Your Day Job: How to Market Your ADR Business Using Mediation Principles You Already Know
Hi Tammy! I’m enjoying the emails from Mediatortech. They have spurred me to explore the blog. I wish the conference call had worked for me, but I am winding my way through your website, etc. I was flattered to see the same font and colors as I used on my brochure last year on your “new look.” I take it that means my graphic artist is VERY savvy.
I’m writing because I want to create a website for a reasonable dollar amount. Can you tell me who worked on yours and what the original cost was?
Anyway, I’m mediating and making a name for myself in my field. You were right-on in one of our first classes; use it in the field you know best and where you are known. Thanks for all your wisdom.
L
Hi there, Lee, great to hear from you! It sounds like things are percolating for you and it’s great you’re moving forward with practice building so successfully.
I built my website myself, both graphically and the coding behind the scenes. I also used the Semiologic theme package for WordPress, which I adapted for my own use. I wrote an article about it a few days ago and you can find it here:
http://mediatortech.com/mediator-tech-gets-a-new-look/
Keep in touch, Lee!
I’m really looking forward to the blook. The introduction grabbed me, though I think your initial question may have been a little difficult for the general public to digest. (”On what marketplace trends would you capitalize?”) I guess you can’t change that, though, and I’m assuming you are going to go into trends, etc., so it will be clear. I also questioned the use of “under-worked” rather than under-employed. But you have more experience than I, so I think that must be the case–that there isn’t even enough “freebie” work to do, nevermind paid employment.
If you can help people here, it is going to be such a major leap forward, for the profession as well as individuals.
Judy, that’s really helpful feedback and I appreciate it. Good point about the term “under-worked,” too. Many thanks!