23/6/2022 True Cultural Disconnect“A thug might think twice about kicking in your gate, throwing traffic cones around your street or hurling abuse into the night sky if they thought they might get picked up by the police, taken to a cashpoint and asked to pay on the spot fine of, for example, £100 “ So said Tony Blair in 2000 when he announced a new big idea for dealing with anti-social behaviour Embodied in his words, and his proposed policy, is a prime example of Cultural Disconnect. The assumptions are legion. The police will be present at the time of the offence.
They will be able to identify and take into custody the culprit, and then walk or manhandle them to a cashpoint. The miscreant would have a bank account, a debit card and sufficient funds available. Tony Blair and his aides clearly assumed that everyone else’s life was like their own; a stake in society that meant they would obey the law, respect the police and have money in the bank. Cultural disconnect has been described as being a phenomenon that occurs when people begin to talk past each other because their views have been formed, and informed, by different experiences, and are not fully aware that other experiences may exist. It’s almost like an Unknown Unknown; the party is so isolated from the ‘other’ experience that they do not even know it might be a possibility. Cultural disconnect can arise in disputes, and therefore in mediation. A common example when trying to settle a dispute is where a party who is due money from the other party cannot comprehend that the other party does not have immediate access to the money required to pay the debt. But it's not just about money. It’s anything where one party cannot readily, from their own experience, comprehend how the other side may be approaching the dispute, or able to deal with settlement. The first thing that I need to do is recognise where there is a disconnect between the parties, then work at showing each party the picture that exists for the other, usually by asking questions rather than making statements. In many cases, in mediation I apply blinkers; get the party to think about how a possible settlement will benefit their own interests, rather than seeing what the other side will get from it. But here I try to get them to see as widely as possible, to how the other side sees. To have full empathy. Then, at that point, the parties can be really creative with their settlement proposals, that take into account the boundaries and limitations that exist. Then we move towards a settlement that they both ‘own’, can live with, and allows them to move forward. Comments are closed.
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AuthorRichard Marshall is an Accredited Civil and Commercial Mediator with over 25 years experience as a Litigation Solicitor, as well as being a qualified Solicitor-Advocate. He is the founder of Striving to Settle, through which he works as a mediator and provides negotiation training. www.strivingtosettle.co.uk Archives
August 2022
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