You are the 'Me' in Mediation

As you know, I love when the mainstream media stumbles wide-eyed upon this wondrous peacemaking process called mediation. The Ventura County Star's Cynthia Overweg did an excellent job of reporting on the Ventura Center for Dispute Settlement, a nonprofit, countywide organization based in Camarillo, run by my former SCMA colleague, Sandra Rubio.

Go read her colorful accounts of successful mediations yourself. I think my favorite quote is from a mediator, describing how -- in contrast to a courtroom, where decisions are made for you by a total stranger, and you are forced to live with the outcome even if you hate it -- the voluntary, self-determined mediation process puts participants in the driver's seat:

"You are the 'me' in mediation," he tells prospective participants . "You can control the ride. So how many want to take a test drive?"

You'd be a fool to say no.