Pre-mediation

Pre-mediation (preventive mediation) is an open, honest conversation aimed at preventing conflict and engaging with each other when the relationship is good. Fixing the roof when the sun is shining.

Getting around the table early can prevent a lot of misery later on.

We were one of the first in the Netherlands to start with business pre-mediation in 2012. We have since spoken to hundreds of companies. Our talks are about experiences and expectations of people who (are going to) work together. Whether they are shareholders, (management) teams, franchisees, or startups: in pre-mediation we help to put interests on the table. This creates room for understanding and better agreements.

Contrary to popular wisdom and behaviour, conflict is not a bad thing for a team. In fact, the fear of conflict is almost always a sign of problems.

Pre-mediation can be applied for:

Making agreements at the start of a partnership.
Think of partners who start a partnership together.
Evaluating a partnership. Such as founders of start-ups or scale-ups having a quarterly “MOT discussion” about their collaboration.
The start of a change in an organization. For example, when a department is reorganized or a change process begins.
The entry or exit of a partner in an existing cooperation. For example, to reach good agreements about joining a family business.

A pre-mediation process has more freedom of form than a mediation process. Together we look at whether and how we document agreements from a pre-mediation conversation. For example in a Partner Pact, a shareholder or cooperation agreement or in a report.

The unique aspect of our approach is that we are mediators with different backgrounds (law, (organizational) psychology, business administration, tax, etc.). This means that we conduct our discussions from multiple perspectives.

Essential to a pre-mediation conversation is that it is conducted voluntarily: only then you can come closer to each other. Naturally, the conversations are confidential.