Imagine this:
Michael loves pie, particularly apple pie. He loves it so much he decides to take a course in apple pie making. He locates a master baker and teacher and she teaches him how to make a truly fabulous apple pie. She’s precise in what she teaches: He needs specific ingredients and he needs to apply them in a certain sequence to bake pie the best.
Michael’s completely smitten and decides to open an apple pie shop. He knows that if people taste what he tastes in his pies, they will flock to his doorstep.
Potential pie buyers stop in. A few buy apple pies. Some ask if Michael makes cherry pie, or pecan. Others are interested in apple turnovers and other apple pastries. Michael replies that if they taste his apple pie, their desire for the other products will wane fast. He could, of course, make these other pastries and pies by adding a new ingredient or changing the amounts and sequencing of the ingredients he already uses, but he took an apple pie class and damn it, he knows this the best choice for everyone.
There is another little problem: Several other apple pie shops are open in Michael’s town as well. He knows the competition will be a challenge but is convinced that he’s good and there are enough potential apple pie lovers out there to succeed.
Of course, Michael doesn’t succeed. After all, how many apple pie shops does one town (or city) really need? How many buyers want or need only apple pie?
You would never open an apple-pie-only shop like Michael did, in a town of other apple pie shops. It’s crazy to use such limiting fixed-pie thinking, right?
So why do so many mediation business owners do the equivalent with “Big M” Mediation? Why do so few mediators expand the pie of their services, remixing their ingredients to serve the needs and demands of their markets?
For mediators: Not just for disputes: Expanded-pie thinking for your mediation business http://goo.gl/fb/wtCNZ
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Not just for disputes: Expanded-pie thinking for your mediation business http://t.co/ABj6r2V (via @tammylenski )
This comment was originally posted onTwitter
Not just for disputes: Expanded-pie thinking for your mediation business http://bit.ly/e3XfIl
This comment was originally posted onTwitter
Great advice RT @TammyLenski For mediators: Not just 4 disputes: Expanded-pie thinking for your mediation business http://goo.gl/fb/wtCNZ
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Once again I have found your thoughts very timely – tomorrow morning I am "launching" my private practice by attending a networking breakfast for local professionals. I am concious that having just one tool – Mediation – in my toolbox is not enough so, with a business coach, I have been working on concretizing how I can package my "mediative influence". for people who don't know yet if they want the Mediation process and may just want some support in tackling a dispute in the best possible way.
I have found "Make Mediation Your Day Job" very helpful and I would welcome your ideas on ways to help people access your (our) more diffuse mediative skills. What I have come up with is a "package" drawing on Harvard Negotiating Project principles, which I am calling a Wise Negotiator Programme comprising, say, three half-hour phone appointments. What will the contents of the package be? Well, that's what I'm going to the networking meeting to ask!
When I was invited, I panicked, thinking "but I haven't done enough target market research yet! I haven't defined my target market narrowly enough! How will I know who to talk to?" So I've decided to talk to whoever I am drawn to and who wants to talk to me about what they need, and make that the starting point for finding my target market.
Wish me luck!
Glad my timing was good! You know, I think we mediators are very good analyzers and can lean a bit too much toward analysis paralysis. As you know from my book, I value forethought and deep thought about what we offer and what people really want, but I also value getting out there and talking to people and leaning into the unknown.
It sounds like you've done a great deal of good thinking and planning so far and tomorrow's the time to start conversing and seeing what resonates. You're doing exactly what I would say in response to your question about ways to "help people access our more diffuse mediative skills" — you're talking to them about what help they most want when they're in conflict and you'll be able to shape your work as you begin to get lots of helpful answers!
Good luck tomorrow, Karen — and have fun with it.
RT @jasondyk: Not just for disputes: Expanded-pie thinking for your mediation business http://t.co/ABj6r2V (via @tammylenski )
This comment was originally posted onTwitter