Mediation: Positive Conflict Management

Foreword. The Mediator Prepares: The Practice of Theory

Few who had the opportunity to observe John Haynes mediate disputes would deny his artistry. His elegant presence, accented by bow tie and the British accent, and supported by subtle hand motions, were suggestive of a shaman drawing out evil spirits. For many people in the throes of conflict, his reassuring demeanor elicited a calming effect. There was a well-developed sense of theater about John Haynes as he drew from the lead actors—the parties—their best performances . He knew how to reach behind a person’s defensive posturing and constructively release the closeted fears that held them in check. He would be the first to admit that he was playing a role, yet there was nothing disingenuous; the compassion he displayed for people mired in disputes was authentic. His professional background and intellectual focus as a professor of social work concerned with social policy and labor-management issues and before that as a political speechwriter, prepared the way for the mediation work for which he would become known. That “calling” came about by chance in 1976 when friends entangled in a divorce at the literal and proverbial courtroom door, requested his moderating assistance. They apparently saw in him what many others would see in the years to follow, his innate ability to foster a balanced and thoughtful atmosphere in which to negotiate a workable settlement. Haynes, and a small handful of others around the country, recognized the need and value of mediation and was prepared to seize the opportunity to mold it into a functional and marketable form. With his characteristic discipline and ix Foreword The Mediator Prepares The Practice of Theory ROBERT D. BENJAMIN energy, mediation became the topic of his doctoral dissertation and his first book, Divorce Mediation, in 1981. Like many artists and scientists who have forged different trails before him, he did not set out to discover a new paradigm of managing disputes, but was ready to be a midwife of sorts to the changes that were occurring in our culture and recognize the need for a shift. The timing was right and he capitalized on one of those rare opportunities to ride the natural energy of that force. Without risk of overstatement, Haynes’s work can be compared with that of Jackson Pollock, the now recognized brilliant abstract artist of the mid-twentieth century. Pollock’s seemingly haphazard drip paintings were initially castigated and the artist dismissed with the abrupt moniker of “Jack the Dripper.” But Pollock persisted and countered that, “[m]y rhythms are concerned with nature.” Most compellingly, some fifty years later, scientific analysis by some physicists have concluded that “Pollock’s drip paintings are full of nature’s fractals—irregular geometric patterns that turn up in clouds, waves, lightning, coastlines, trees and even the human body.” Pollock, of course, had no inkling that he was engaging fractal patterns that would foreshadow quantum chaos theory (Richard P. Taylor, The Oregonian, “Science and Spontaneity,” Richard L. Hill, p. B1, March 7, 2001). Similarly, Haynes’s method taps into and moderates the natural rhythm of conflict . And he, too, without knowing a lot about the whys and the wherefores, offers a pure form of practice that anticipates the formulation of important theory in the field of conflict management. While he was not subjected to ridicule, it is too easily forgotten that when Haynes began to formally practice and teach mediation in the mid-1970s, the field was seen as little more than a passing fad. John Haynes was not a theorist. While he did describe techniques and suggested strategies in his many books, his work did not delve into abstract theory. He was, however, the epitome of an intuitive practitioner; he did what he did by “tacit knowing,” sensing how and when to intervene as opposed to acting by rote prescription. Ironically, he may have contributed more to theory than many theorists . Few practitioners display the natural ability to offer a model of practice from which good theory can be effectively extrapolated. Just as artists study human models to grasp human form, musculature and expression, mediation theorists should study Haynes’s approach. His style reveals one of the most welldeveloped and purest sampling of mediation practice and principles to be found. He combined a highly developed intuitive sense with a clear analytical structure, wrapped in a passionate commitment to the belief that people in conflict must be respected and given every opportunity to make their own decisions. With the strong moral groundings of...