It's a question we get asked a lot - do we run our mediation training online?

I hope you like the photo above, which is one of our lovely mediator training cohorts. When we train groups of people in real life they have so much fun, they make new friendships and become a real community - we've even had people setting up businesses together!

We will never deliver this training online. Doing so would massively compromise the quality of our training, and therefore the quality of mediators.

This is not a sensible financial business decision, as by not paying for our expensive venues we would make much more money - but we will never put profit before quality.

We all learn better when we're having fun too - and we do have fun! Have a watch of the video below when the delegates were very unkind to me!

The best learnings come from the coaching sessions, the group discussions and the chats over lunch and break times.
 

Prior to the covid the CMC (our accrediting body) would not recognise online training for all these reasons, but gave a temporary recognition so training organisations could still get an income during the pandemic. We never took that offer - we chose to make no money from training, rather than reduce our standards.

I am personally disappointed that since the pandemic the CMC have not returned to pre-covid standards, which I assume is due to commercial pressures from other training providers. I do understand why, but I'm personally unwilling to reduce the quality of our training to that same level.

The picture below is one our WhatsApp groups where delegates were recently talking about joining delegates from other training providers who had attended online training...

Just the thought of spending several days on a screen too - how boring! Also, anybody who tells me that they consistently resisted the temptation to check emails or do other things - I'm not sure I believe them! 

If you do have any queries about our training just click the link - whether it's mediator training, or 'difficult' conversations for managers.

Let me also clarify - training as a mediator online is a lowering of standards, but actually conducting mediations virtually is fine - if you want to read more on this click here.