Mediation is a formal process with specialist roles. A crisp formal structure for discussing volatile issues provides a context of security and stability as well as channeling toward constructive goals and ends. Direct confrontation and communication are desirable to both mediator and participants. Mediator is presented as a technical specialist, with professional, anonymous, and impersonal relationship to the disputants. A written contract is facilitated and the mediator is out of their lives.
Mediation is a communal process with involvement of trusted leadership.
The pathways familiar to participants, the time frame preferred, and the settings of familiar social interaction will be utilized. Tasks and schedules are secondary to relationships, so self-disclosure follows social rituals, personal agendas, and communal concerns. Process is dynamic, rationally oriented, and directed toward resolving tension in network and community. The responsibility of the disputants to their wider context and the reconciliation of injured parties are central. Mediators are recognized communal leaders or trusted go-betweens from the social context.