The skills, qualities and characteristics on which candidates are tested are the following:

Introduction

• Provides welcome and opening comments  Explains mediation process
• Clarifies role of participants
• Establishes ground rules
• Discusses the Agreement to Mediate
• Appears sensitive to clients’ physical and emotional comfort

Information Sharing

• Engages participation of clients
• Understands issues and empathized with feelings
• Accurately and briefly summarizes information and concerns
• Balances time and focus between clients

Issue Clarification

• Asks appropriate questions
• Identifies interests, intentions, differences
• Limitations and underlying problems
• Identifies common ground
• Reframes statements and issues

Generation of Options

• Organizes and prioritizes issues amenable to mediation
• Focuses on current and future needs rather than positions
• Elicits multiple options and explored settlement possibilities

Personal Qualities

• Appropriate dress and appearance
• Develops rapport and trust, and conveyed a positive outlook
• Appears confident and in control of emotions
• Ability to treat the parties equally and fairly

Resolution/Closure

• Facilitates negotiation and bargaining
• Assists parties to be realistic
• Drafts agreement that is sufficiently specific and addressed all issues
• Drafts agreement that is well organized, clearly stated, and easily readable
• Assists in developing an agreement that is balanced, fair, realistic, understood, and not coerced
• Discusses options for noncompliance or resolving future conflict
• Exerted sufficient effort to assist parties in reaching agreement.

Professional Qualities

• Allows adequate planning and preparation time
• Possesses adequate knowledge of issues
• Maintains neutrality, impartiality, and objectivity
• Avoids giving advice, pressure, and judgment
• Demonstrates respect for different values and lifestyles
• Provides appropriate information and referral.

Communication Qualities

• Posture, gestures, and eye contact
• Use of voice, tone, volume, and clarity
• Verbal content and timing
• Listening styles and other intuitive abilities
• Paraphrasing and reframing skills

Special Techniques and Skills

• Demonstrates appropriate use of caucus
• Overcomes impasses, resistance, or difficult behavior
• Deals with power imbalance or control issues
• Handles intense emotions or difficult agendas
• Displays flexibility and used creative strategies effectively Comments

Communication Qualities

• Posture, gestures, and eye contact
• Use of voice, tone, volume, and clarity
• Verbal content and timing
• Listening styles and other intuitive abilities
• Paraphrasing and reframing skills

Builds and maintains rapport with the parties

• Establishes rapport quickly
• Listens actively
• Is not argumentative
• Paraphrases and summarizes facts and feelings fully and accurately
• Acknowledges feelings
• Asks more open then closed questions
• Recognizes own and others’ perceptions and prejudices
• Deals appropriately with the impact of perceptions and stereotypes
• Uses reframing techniques to promote understanding and manage conflict -Uses language flexibly
• Facilitates communication between the parties
• Manages emotions of parties
• Manages own emotions
• Manages conflict between the parties in joint session

Creates and maintains a safe environment

• Establishes atmosphere in which anger and tension are expressed constructively
• Helps parties save face
• Sensitive to interpersonal and team dynamics
• Sensitive to power dynamics
• Balances assertiveness and cooperativeness
• Sensitive to impact of own behavior on parties
• Demonstrates impartiality
• Works in a non -discriminatory way
• Shows respect and empathy
• Realistic and frank with parties
• Displays positive energy
• Gives parties equal attention, body language and eye contact
• Appears relaxed and confident
• Attentive to parties comfort

Manages the process with confidence

• Demonstrates confidence as the process manager
• Able to be flexible in management of process
• Demonstrates sensitivity to the mandating dynamic
• Stays in control of the process while maintaining rapport
• Respects confidentiality at all stages
• Manages the process with fairness and dignity for all
• Confidently keeps parties to process roadmap
• Manages process without determining content
• Handles process challenges while maintaining rapport

Works through the phases of mediation

• Prepares for the mediation
• Makes good use of environment
• Opens the mediation well, covering key points
• Communicates core principles of mediation to the parties
• Manages opening statements well
• Takes notes appropriately
• Makes sound choices about the order of meetings
• Opens and closes side meetings meticulously
• Explores issues before moving to generating options
• Moves the parties from positional styles of negotiation to interest based styles
• Moves parties from a rights focus to an interests focus
• Effectively makes use of realty testing and explores BATNA at an appropriate stage in the process
• Facilitates the negotiation process
• Assists the parties manage the negotiator’s dilemma
• Manages reactive devaluation
• Facilitates the drafting of a settlement agreement
• If appropriate, uses the single text process
• Adopts an appropriate pace

Manages the content of disputes to maximize potential for settlement

• Allows the parties to manage the content and determine the outcome of the dispute without expressing a view
• Confidently works with parties, issues, needs and interests
• Demonstrates an understanding of the bigger picture
• Generates an atmosphere of creative problem -solving
• Contextualizes the problem
• Identifies and builds consensus
• Builds parties confidence in prospect of agreement
• Handles ethical challenges assertively

Explores content and options in a creative manner

• Accurately identifies the issues in dispute
• Explores positions, needs and interests
• Identifies common ground
• Assists the parties generate options to meet needs and interests as a basis for settlement
• Encourages the generation of mutual gains options
• Is able to work on a number of options simultaneously
• Assists parties assess options in relation to objective criteria, particularly needs
• Uses reality testing and BATNA to encourage parties to assess risk
• Encourages parties to source expertise and information Necessary
• Consolidates agreement and captures detail in agreement

The assessment requires:

1. An applicant, at a minimum, performing the role of A Professional mediator in a simulated Mediation of at least 3 hour;
2. An assessor observing a simulation using mediation observation sheet, without providing any coaching to the applicant during the simulated mediation;
3. Assessment criteria reflecting the knowledge, skills and ethical principles articulated in the Practice Standards;
4. An applicant being found competent by an assessor using an assessment observation sheet documenting the extent to which the applicant has met or has not met the assessment requirements; providing written feedback on the applicant’s Performance and indicating the assessment outcome;