One of the great things about mediation is that it enables you to be creative and to try new things. Not that long ago, I had four innovations occur in one mediation day.

Firstly, on the technological front, I found myself without a flip chart in the first plenary meeting in the main room. However, I was able to make use of my new micro projector (Phillips PicoPix) which attaches to my iPad, permitting me to simulate a flip chart using the Penultimate digital drawing app. Carefully removing a picture from the wall and projecting onto the wall gave me real flexibility to note and illustrate things as we went along, throughout that meeting, while remaining seated with the parties. Quite different from standing with a marker pen in hand.

The next two innovations came at the end as the agreement was being drawn up. The first was the inclusion at my suggestion of a modification of Collaborative Scotland’s Commitment to Respectful Dialogue. Having had some tense communications recently which affected their ability to make decisions, this gave the parties, a number of company directors, a benchmark for behaviour going forward. They would need to adhere to it of course.

Then the parties suggested that I, as mediator, be appointed to chair the next board meeting of the company as they waited for a new non-executive chairman to be found. For the first time for me, my tenure as mediator was to be extended in this specific way. This would enable me to continue to facilitate a difficult situation between partners who had been at loggerheads but who had a very exciting technological development to take to market.

Finally, after the important ritual of the signing of the final agreement, I was able to read from an article I had just come across in Time magazine. It was a summary of a year in space by American astronaut, Scott Kelly. I read these passages: “I’ve learned ….that small steps add up to a giant leap…. I’ve learned how important it is to sit and eat with other people” (as I often suggest to parties that we should do, we had had breakfast together that morning, breaking the ice). “I’ve learned a new empathy for other people, including people I don’t know, people I don’t like and people I disagree with. I’ve started letting people know I appreciate them, which can sometimes freak them out at first. It’s a bit out of character. But it’s something I’m glad to have learned to do and hope to keep doing.”

The key players laughed for the first time that day. They got the point.