The mediator also usually proposes a process and an agenda, but gets the participants involved in a cooperate enterprise right away as they negotiate the details of the process and agenda. This gives the participants a sense of control of the process. It also is a relatively easy way to give the disputants the sense that they can cooperate and effectively work together. This starts to build trust between the disputants and the mediator, between the disputants themselves, and with the overall process. Facilitators or mediators usually try to get the disputants to reframe the issues in terms of interests, which are usually negotiable, rather than positions, values, or needs, which usually are not.
Facilitators then get the parties to brainstorm alternative approaches to the problem.
An effort is made to develop new, mutually advantageous approaches, rather than going over the same win-lose approaches that have usually been on the table before. Eventually, the choice is narrowed down to one approach which is fine-tuned, often through a single negotiating text, until all the parties at the table agree. The negotiators then take the agreement back to their constituencies and try to get it approved. This is one of the most difficult steps, as the constituencies have not been involved in the ongoing process, and often have not developed the level of understanding or trust necessary to understand why this is the best possible agreement they can get. Negotiators need to be able to explain exactly why the settlement was drafted as it was, and why it is to the constituencies' benefit to agree to it.