The Role of the Interviewer
What are the qualities of a good interviewer? People interviewing mediators should have experience and training in mediation and in interviewing. The better they know mediation, the more likely they are to discover interesting aspects of the mediator's work. The key requisite for an interviewer is to be a good listener, someone who is ready to go on a "walk" with the mediator through her or his specific experience. Some basic knowledge of the mediation case is also necessary, so that the interviewer can fully appreciate what the mediator has to say and is better able to identify important aspects of the mediator's experience. The interviewer should always remember that he or she is playing the role of learner (on behalf of the organization), not the role of teacher or evaluator.
As Antje Herrberg from the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) notes, clarity about the role of the interviewer is one of the key success factors in a debriefing: "When I am interviewing a mediator, my role and my goals need to be very clearly defined and I also communicate this to the mediator in an explicit and transparent way. This clarity is an important first step in building an atmosphere of trust."
Get a Clear but Flexible Mandate
The interviewer should understand the nature and limits of the mandate he or she has been given by the organization that has commissioned the interview. If the interviewer has a long-term relationship of trust and is contractually bound to the organization, an oral mandate is often enough. If not, a written, more formalized mandate may be a good idea. Even so, a written mandate should not specify exactly what questions are to be posed or exactly how the interview should be run, because to do so would be to limit the room for creative interviewing and uncovering new insights and information.
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