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Allow disputing parties to air grievances and come to their own solution.
Mediation is a familiar dispute resolution alternative with different approaches: facilitative, directive and, more recently, transformative. The first two techniques focus on resolution, while the transformative method centers on empowerment and understanding and the belief that conflict is a breakdown of interaction. Authors and mediation experts Robert A. Baruch Bush and Joseph P. Folger have said that the transformative method:
* Advances the concept that disagreeing parties can resolve their dispute better than a third individual issuing a decision can.
* Addresses the underlying causes of disagreement.
* Heals damage to relationships.
Transformative mediators pay careful attention to assisting and encouraging the disputants without providing direction or offering solutions.
Transformative mediation techniques used in court settings and other venues can be adapted by line managers for staff disputes. Disagreeing individuals in an organizational setting often continue interaction after the dispute, and underlying feelings or perspectives not revealed or addressed may fester and erupt in a subsequent event, resulting in fractured cooperation, deeper discord or, worse, termination and litigation.