IS SECTIONAL TITLE MEDIATION A CRUTCH?
Mediation is a valuable resource when you have a dispute in a Sectional Title Scheme, with a Body Corp, Managing Agent, Trustee, or even tenants, but Mediation is in fact a Band-Aid.
You’ve got a problem, you fix the problem. Everybody’s happy and next time there’s a dispute, you do it again.
So the players in this field need to keep that in mind.
Mediators recognising the Band-Aid effect should help resolve the dispute at hand, and then discuss this possibly short-sighted approach – that is on the opposite end of the spectrum from modern Conflict Management.
Conflict Management certainly includes Mediation but Mediation is only one facet of Conflict Management.
Sectional Title Scheme has to manage conflict. You can’t call in consultants every time that there’s a dispute. Bringing in a Mediator is not necessarily a bad thing, but it really is treatment of a symptom instead of dealing holistically with the cause.
Consultants in the field of Conflict Management deal with the big picture.
It’s a matter of permanently improving the way is managed, and having it embedded in the culture and collective core competencies.
When it’s embedded, the consultant’s job is done.
Her/ his staying longer indicates that money is being wasted.
Organize around business functions, not people. Build systems within each business function. Let systems run the business and people run the systems. People come and go but the systems remain constant
~ Michael Gerber