Make sure that the people involved feel comfortable. Be sure that you remain neutral and listen. In order to remain neutral it is important to pay close attention to your reactions. Try to keep facial expressions to a minimum and try to keep an equal amount of eye contact with the two of them. It will help you if you keep your responses short and be confident. Using words like create, explore, clarify, and share will help encourage positive responses while words like must, require, impose, and expect may do the opposite. Jot down questions in shorthand when they come into your head so that you do not interrupt one the participants and save your questions until the end.
 Some ground rules you may want to consider would be courteous treatment and openness to new ideas. Direct the flow of discussion and stress uninterrupted time., Decide who speaks first and listen to both equally. None of the parties are allowed to interrupt the opposite party when there is their turn to talk. They might like to take notes to remember the ideas that they need to refer to but they can't interrupt no matter how important it is what they need to say., Re-frame their statements into more neutralizing statements. Reflect their emotions and neutralize their perspectives.

Ex 1. Statement: "I can't believe she fluffed another presentation." Reflected: "You're concerned about the quality of the presentation."
Ex 2. Statement: "The presentation was a total wreck." Neutralized: "The presentation didn't go as well as you had hoped."

, In this agenda your ultimate goal is to transition from the past situations to future situations. You want to separate their topics and label and define the issues. Consider common agenda topics and use the agenda for negotiations. Have the participants choose one topic at a time to discuss and be thorough on the topic before you move on. If the participants get stuck, its okay to come back to that topic later and move to the next one. Be sure to talk about every concern and idea on the list., In order to avoid conflict between the parties, as part of the ground rules the best idea is to request that all the conversations will take place through the chair. The parties are not allowed to address each other at any moment of the mediation. In this way there is a less chance that the negative feelings will come to the surface during the discussion.
Work effectively.
Make sure that everyone knows the ground rules for discussion.
Make sure each participant gets the chance to present their perspective.
Summarize and reflect.
Create an agenda.
Speak through the chairperson.
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