WMMTS Mediators

• To assist in communication - where people do not know how to communicate; find communication difficult; cannot be seen to seek communication or, indeed, are forbidden to communicate directly with the 'Other.'
   

• To improve understandings - Note the plural here, because in contentious situations there is more than one understanding of the problem and when people are enabled to absorb the other side s perspective their thinking becomes more inclusive.
   

• To support creative thinking - When people are close to the heat of conflict it can be very difficult for them to think clearly. They can become emotive or, even, preoccupied with their own survival. It is useful, then to have someone among them who is less emotionally involved and who has a critical distance from the situation.
   

• To explore accommodations - An accommodation is a way of describing an agreement which is more implicit than explicit, especially between people who may need to remain enemies and where the idea of harmony would simply be too much to ask. In an accommodation, the parties emerge with something they can live with, though perhaps unhappily.
   

• To facilitate agreement - Agreement is the De Luxe version of mediated outcomes. Agreements suggest a degree of harmony and a meeting of minds. If outcomes were cars an agreement would be a cabriolet; the type that turns heads and attracts wolf whistles of approval. But, like a lot of fancy sport cars, agreements can be very inappropriate in a harsh climate and even attract unwanted attention from mischievous types.