get to a more agreeable future ™
“Avoid lawsuits beyond all things – they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property.”
-Jean de la Bruyere
What's New at Agreement House
New Sponsorship for Business Mediations on NPR --
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Here are The Wise Negotiator's secrets to aggressive but fair tactics to reaching agreement.
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A case study on how business communications break-down, and how to keep from ending up in court.
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Let us help you end conflicts and get you back to doing what you do best.
We help you get agreement
- Without going to court
- With or without lawyers
- In a casual, friendly mediation or arbitration session
- In just a few hours
- At your offices or a neutral site
- With Weekend and evenings available
Conflict Examples
Let Agreement House™ mediators contact the other party and let us bring them to the table to quickly resolve…
- Employee disagreements – harassment, wrongful termination, compensation
- Conflicts with customers, partners, suppliers and/or investors
- Neighbor or HOA issues
- Elder care and family disagreements
- Other money disputes.
Rather than being built on a law firm model, we developed Agreement House™ to make life easier for our customers. We focus on guided negotiation which yields a mediation resolution to solve business conflicts.
Mediation Resolution and Business Conflict Negotiation
What happens in an out-of-court settlement?
The Setting:
What if I can’t have a conversation with the other side to get them to come to mediation?
We can help. We’ll make the overture, then work to persuade the other party to come to the table to negotiate.
What if I don’t want to meet face-to-face with the other person?
No problem. Many mediations are NOT across-the-table negotiations -- rather, the sides will be in separate rooms while we provide “shuttle diplomacy,” going back and forth, working toward creative mediation resolution. You’ve had enough conflict; you’re at Agreement House for solutions, not conflict.
The Process:
Although each mediation is unique, it usually starts with the mediator offering guidelines for the conversations to follow, and offering descriptions of successful outcomes that could result.
The mediator then begins a series of separate conversations with each side – moving the two sides closer to agreement, and often coming up with creative solutions that allow for a new win-win outcome that you haven’t considered.
The Outcome:
You reach agreement – and the beauty of a mediation resolution is that you reach an agreement together. The mediator will then write up, on the spot, a summary of the agreement, a Memorandum of Understanding. This will then serve as a foundation for the documents prepared by one of your attorneys or one of ours.
What if we can’t agree?
You’ll be surprised at how a skilled mediator can create agreement, often by offering creative compromises. Still, there are times when the negotiation runs into a brick wall – an area upon which you and the other side digs in and you can find no compromise.
However, rather than go to court -- which could take many months and cost tens of thousands of dollars – one of our attorney-mediators is a veteran arbitrator and is a judge pro tem (which means that the Arizona courts have appointed him to serve in the capacity of a judge).
At the end of mediation, if there is an issue or two that is unresolved, the mediator and participants can review the disagreement for arbitration, providing a quick resolution, without going to court.
Agreement House™ mediations are…
Faster and less expensive, with more dignity, privacy and control, and with the possibility of win-win solutions never considered in court.
Call us for more information - 480-839-5537
More on Business Conflict Negotiation
Mediation Resolution – Developing Solutions through Mediation
At Agreement House, we strive to help people solve business conflict through conflict negotiation as facilitated by an experienced mediator. Every business conflict, regardless of personal animosities, politics or other factors, can be negotiated and mediated when both parties are reminded of their best interests, and are inclined to sort out issues where they know they have more control over issues than if they went to court or waited on collection agencies. Oftentimes, parties seeking compensation want a speedy solution, while the potentially offending party wants to get back to business. No one thrives in a conflict and both parties want closure.
Mediators provide a solution through guided negotiation, where the same negotiations take place to solve the business conflict, but through facilitation of the proceedings, bridging for both parties and presentation of new ideas, mediators can provide a mediation resolution to the conflict that not only creates an agreement that can be adhered to by both parties to their mutual benefit but also provides the potential for future business and better interaction in the future. This is the ultimate win-win scenario of conflict negotiation. Not just results, but future results.
Conflict Negotiation – Business Conflict and Compensation
Many business conflicts are about contracts, getting the deal you want with as little expense out as possible. Many others involve disputes where someone is looking for compensation for a variety of other reasons including partner disputes, contractor disagreements, damaged client/customer relationships, employee disputes, HOA/Neighborhood conflicts and other issues that require conflict negotiation.
These issues can involve damage to property, unsatisfactory completion of services, damages caused by poor products or services, lack of payment, discrimination or other unfair treatment in the workplace and a myriad other business conflicts. These are at the heart of business conflicts that demand compensation (at least the complainant thinks so).
Mediators are very useful in these situations as they will:
- Make contact with the complainant if they won't respond to conflict negotiation requests by the other party. Mediators can often bring these parties to the table, and help them understand that a mediation resolution is in their best interest.
- Not only guide the negotiations, but help suggest avenues that both parties might not have considered.
- Be skilled in communicating issues with many different kinds of parties, and can conduct private sessions with one party at a time to remove emotional considerations and help refocus goals and needs. This is especially true with parties who are not used to conflict negotiation, and mediators can help focus them towards important needs and goals, instead of preconceived notions brought about by the business conflict.
- Help inexperienced negotiators sort out the final agreement paperwork, and as one of Agreement House's strong points, we work with attorneys to make sure that legal issues are addressed and properly laid to contract by qualified personnel.
Business Conflict – Finding a Mediation Resolution with Contracts
Conflict negotiation often boils down to contract negotiation. Negotiating deals, salaries and terms are commonplace in the business world. Business conflict may arise from impasses that develop when trying to negotiate these terms, and in most cases, a mediator can make this process move much more smoothly towards its desired conclusion.
Bringing a mediator into these scenarios accomplishes several goals:
- Mediators can encourage sides that might otherwise be unwilling to come to/return to the table to reconsider terms.
- Once conflict negotiation continues, a mediator will help facilitate mediation resolution proceedings to ensure more efficient results and help both sides come to better terms.
- Mediators can help refocus both parties to target goals and needs, and reduce the chances for developing an impasse due to emotional or systemic reasons.
- Mediation resolution includes developing new strategies and discussing future benefits to help both sides see the potential of an agreement.
- An active mediator can keep the conflict negotiation process moving forward, even when sides are separated, by addressing concerns with one side, sharing potential avenues and then taking new terms to the other party.
- Mediators are flexible and can apply mediation resolution techniques both at the table and in private when both parties are separated (whether considering a new offer or even when preparing to declare an impasse). Mediators work hard in this aspect to bring every new idea and term to everyone involved, and by getting every member of both parties visible and involved, pitfalls like hidden tables can be removed.
All of this allows both parties to pursue active roles in the nuts and bolts of the negotiation, while the mediator can guide the negotiation towards a mediation resolution, ideally with less time, money and energy spent in the process.
Settling agreement conflicts via mediation is also a great way to maintain business relationships between partners. Oftentimes, partners forget why they teamed up in the first place. Once the conflicting issues are resolved, business can continue and the prior business relationship, critical to successfully continuing in business, can be patched, repaired and improved for the years to come.