There are 5 main stages to mediation

Stage 1: Opening Statements 

Each party will be asked to  make an opening statement. This should describe their side of the story.. The key rule during this part of the process is that no one party gets to interrupt any other part.

Stage 2: Joint Discussions

After opening statements are read, each party is asked for their response to the others opening statement

Both parties can asked open-ended questions to build a dialogue about what happened and the issues that must be dealt with to bring a resolution to the situation. 

Personally I do skip this stage, but it can work well for employment or family mediation

Stage 3: Private Discussions

Each party then meets privately with the mediator. Both sides should get their own space at this point, and the mediator will move between the parties to discuss the positions of each side. 

Ask the necessary questions at this point, but also summarize both the strengths and the weaknesses of each side’s position so they understand what’s at stake and how their case looks to an unbiased individual. This is also a great space to develop the ideas necessary to make a settlement work. 

Stage 4: Negotiation

The mediator will know the exact time to start stage 4 and to, bring the two parties to now work towards the agreement.

 The goal here is to present all of the ideas and agree on those that might work. 

The mediator won’t  start this stage until they know  both parties are actually ready to come to an agreement, doing this when the parties aren’t quite ready can lead to losing  everything at this stage. 

Stage 5: Settlement

This is the final step in the process. If you cannot reach a settlement, you’ll simply help both sides decide whether to try again or to take the case to trial. If the parties have reached an agreement, though, the mediator will draw this up in a legally binding mediation agreement, this will be signed by both parties and will have consequences if either party fail to do what they have agreed.

More people stuck to mediation agreements because they have been part of the process to reach an agreement that they were happy with.