Mediation: Turning " Win/Lose" Battles into "Win/Win" Solutions
by John Settle, Chair, Departmental Appeals Board, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC
Scenario: A Head Start grantee agency is at odds with the Policy Council, which refuses to approve the grantee's refunding application. The Head Start director, stuck in the middle and viewed with suspicion by the parents, feels isolated and close to burnout.
Sound familiar? At the Departmental Appeals Board (DAB), we see dozens of Head Start cases in this very situation. These cases can be nightmares for the parties involved, with highly adversarial hearings lasting weeks, stacks of evidence, huge costs (in money and personal time expended), and escalating bitterness. The well-being of the program's children often seems an after thought.
There is a better way. In addition to providing a court-style process, which is DAB's primary job, we also offer professional mediation and facilitate services to assist parties in engaging each other in a different way. Mediation uses a trained outside party to help parties in a dispute communicate better- openly, respectfully, and confidentially- and to identify mutually acceptable solutions. The process is voluntary and the participants lose no rights to continue with litigation if the case cannot be resolved.
Consider two real cases which were similar to the above scenario:
Case #1: In 1994, in a Southwestern city, a dispute festered for months until ACF notified the grantee of ACF's decision to deny refunding. This initiated an appeal with much hearing lasting over two weeks, including testimony and cross-examination of more than a dozen witnesses. DAB issued the decision that one side had "won" and one side had "lost" - although the time, expense, and hard feelings were probably shared equally by both parties.
Case #2: In a large Eastern city, the Regional Office offered the grantee, the director, and the Policy Council mediation, which was accepted. Over the course of a day, and during subsequent telephone calls over several days, the parties worked out a resolution to the dispute with the help of mediators, solving the matter in a way that both found acceptable. Among the solutions was a plan for specific communication enhancing steps for both parties.
Mediation worked in the second case for a tiny fraction of the pain and cost of the first case. The parties achieved a resolution of the case that was their solution, not one imposed upon them by an outside decision, maker; the focus of the mediation was on the future, not the past; and, most importantly, the mediation helped keep the focus on the well-being of the children.
To use mediation, Head Start programs do not need to wait for a formal case to be filed at the DAB. It can be used any time for disputes at any stage. DAB can provide mediators or help parties to connect with a mediation service in local communities. To contact he DAB, call (202) 690-7006 for the names of mediators or mediation services in your community or for information on DAB conflict resolution training.
-Departmental Appeals Board, DHHS, 370 Independence Avenue, SW, Room 637D, Washington , DC 22207. (202) 690-7006.
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