Mediator in Barcelona

SPECIALISTS IN MEDIATION AT CONESA LEGAL

Expertise in Mediation

At Conesa Legal, we specialise in mediation. The R.A.C. (Alternative Dispute Resolution) is a modern and innovative method for addressing conflicts within companies. However, in the field of labour law, mediation has been used for years to resolve collective conflicts. Our lawyer-mediators are part of the Labour Tribunal of Catalonia, where they mediate conflicts within companies, and they possess extensive experience in this field.

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The Importance of Mediation in Business

When there is a conflict, it is better to address it rather than hide it away. And for that reason, fewer and fewer companies consider only and primarily litigious solutions. Instead, a growing number of companies are turning to a professional expert to comprehensively manage the conflict. At Conesa Legal, we have professionals who offer this service with guaranteed effectiveness. We are trained in R.A.E. procedures and have experience in mastering communication skills and techniques, active listening, neurolinguistic programming, and even coaching.

Structured Negotiation Method

Through R.A.C. we use a structured negotiation method that helps those who are in the middle of a conflict to defuse it and find solutions that satisfy both parties. Mediation serves to find solutions in all cases because it offers a solution to the conflict through a strategy that enables, above all, the preservation of human and commercial relations, minimising the risk of damage to reputation and avoiding further harm in the future.

Mediation Models

This structured method of dealing with conflict is very useful because it allows for the use of multiple techniques to ensure that a solution can be reached, and it does not take away the freedom to use creativity within the range of possibilities available in each conflict. This orderly negotiation is, therefore, carried out by means of standards or standard models that, in practice, have been synthesised into three main models:

Transformative Model: We use this model by approaching the negotiation from the concept of "empowerment" of the parties in order to regain their capacity to take responsibility for the conflict.
Circular Narrative Model: We use this model by approaching the negotiation from the idea that the conflict is the story of two incompatible narratives, which we seek to re-construct to create a new narrative in which both stories become compatible.
Harvard Model: We approach the negotiation based on the interests of the parties, starting from their positions, in order to separate them from their interests and be able to reach their needs, creating options through objective criteria, following the Harvard School method.

Techniques Used by Our Mediators

By means of these methods or modes of mediation, our professionals help to structure the discourse needed by the parties in conflict, identifying emotions, fears, responsibilities, interests, and real needs. They can use all methods and models as necessary, depending on the negotiation stage and the parties' needs. Conesa Legal's professionals will make use of many techniques for this purpose:

Questions: A tool which allows the parties to listen and analyse the given response (open questions to obtain more information, closed questions, brief and concrete, clarifying, hypothetical, incisive, suggestive, or reflective questions, circular questions, or funnel questions).
Private Meeting or Caucus: To overcome impasses and allow the parties to use a space to explore options without the risk of appearing weak in front of the other party, to provide information in a more relaxed manner in the absence of the other party, to clarify misunderstandings, or to define positions. In the caucus, it is possible to analyse their best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA) and their worst alternative to a negotiated agreement (WATNA). The mediator asks the parties to move from their initial position and offer a figure to the other party.
Reality Check: The mediator tries to get the parties out of their initial position to frame the conflict more broadly and realistically, thus redefining their positions. This allows them to observe the conflict from a higher and broader perspective, "taking them to the balcony."
Empathy: This is a very important technique in which the mediator places themselves in the parties' position without judging them in order to foster trust and security, while remaining impartial and neutral. The mediator uses active listening; not just listening and agreeing, but actively intervening in order to help the parties differentiate facts from opinions and associated emotions. They help to reformulate the discourse, allowing undisclosed content to emerge and questioning assumed ideas.
Paraphrasing: This technique consists of recapping the facts in an orderly manner as objective data, differentiating them from subjective opinions, so that the parties can move away from their established positions and finally identify emotions, which are also subjective but undeniable. Paraphrasing aims to soften the negative charge of the parties' discourse, with a different voice that leaves emotional interferences behind.
Reformulation: The mediator tells the parties their story back to them, but from the point of view of their interests and needs, leaving behind the rigidity of their positions in order to construct new options. In this reformulation, the negative charge is also removed by neutralising the language and re-establishing a new form of communication between them.
Empowerment: The mediator seeks to give the parties an optimal position of power and self-esteem, allowing active and effective participation in the mediation, especially when balancing power between them. Brainstorming is used as an idea-generating technique, with the main goal of achieving free expression without critical judgment.

Managing Internal and External Conflicts in Business

It is a fact that conflicts arise both within and outside the company:

Within the company: Members of a workplace are part of an organisation, developing relational habits among themselves, with their superiors, with the company's internal regulations, and with the work they perform. This leads to the adoption of certain behaviors in the face of conflicts, and often professional roles, job circumstances, or even family ties in family businesses do not allow them to act or dialogue as they would in another context.
Outside the company: The company interacts with third parties through various commercial interactions and relationships. Some relationships become troubled and even entrenched.

Conflicts arise in all types of human relationships (within the family, between neighbours, between colleagues, etc.). Our mediators help obtain a conflict resolution result, allowing the parties themselves to decide the solution they want to adopt.

Conclusion

In conclusion, mediation is a path full of possibilities aimed at preserving and improving all kinds of human relationships and avoiding the perpetuation of any conflict.