Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
where parties cannot, and venture where mediators in ordinary dispute
resolution dare not. How exciting!
10.2
Project mediation
In the late 1980s the Hong Kong airport project adopted an innovatory
approach to dispute resolution. It was a massive project and predicted
to have many disputes. So the parties arranged for a team of mediators
to be trained. The mediators were then based on site throughout the
project so that they were on hand to resolve any conflicts before they
escalated into disputes. This experience gave mediation a high interna-
tional profile but it was not until 2000 that project mediation, sometimes
called contracted mediation, was introduced into the construction and
IT industries in the UK. ResoLex
3
originally formalised the process, and
more recently CEDR
4
launched their own scheme. Project mediation
puts the mediation process into construction projects from the start. Its
focus is more on dispute avoidance than on resolution but one of its
great advantages is that it creates an atmosphere of cooperation and
partnering. Wise business people know that when the relationships are
right people work together to resolve problems. Spending time on the
relationships is an investment in the success of a project. Project media-
tion does that through having a mediation pairing appointed from the
very start. They then do the following:
Attend (some) team meetings as the project develops.
Run a partnering workshop for all the project team.
Develop a dispute resolution plan so that everyone has an agreed
procedure to follow when difficulties arise. This breeds confidence
which in turn encourages the team members to resolve issues them-
selves.
Attend site on a regular basis.
Are available to chair difficult meetings. The project leader is not
always the best person to chair meetings.
Are called in to resolve problems that the team have not been able to
sort out for themselves.
Mediate unresolved disputes during the currency of the project or, at
worst, at the end of the project.
3
ResoLex www.resolex.com.
4
Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution www.cedr.co.uk.
126
