Centre-Set Mediation

Written By Jared Miller

Designing Conflict Processes Under Pressure

Overview

Most conflict systems don’t fail because people are irrational or unwilling to compromise. They fail because the structure attempting to hold the conflict is too fragile, too positional, or too poorly designed to withstand pressure. Traditional, position-based approaches force people into corners — producing more heat, less clarity, and a cycle of escalation.

Centre-Set Mediation introduces an alternative design philosophy: one that organizes conflict around shared purpose instead of competing demands. Rooted in both mediation best-practice and your kenotic leadership framework, this approach helps organizations build conflict processes that don’t fracture under emotional, organizational, or political strain.

This session reframes mediation not as a tool for the desperate but as a strategic design discipline that strengthens trust, supports decision-making, and allows groups to navigate conflict with greater stability.

Core Idea: Gather Around the Centre, Not the Sides

Position-based conflict pushes people outward — further from one another, and further from resolution. Centre-set mediation draws people back toward the centre, where clarity, purpose, and shared values provide orientation.

Participants learn how to:

  • Identify the centre in any conflict (shared goals, mutual interests, essential commitments)

  • Recognize when a conflict has become overly positional or adversarial

  • Redesign conversations to lower defensiveness and increase collaboration

  • Build a process that can hold tension without collapsing

This shift—from a boundary-based model to a centre-set model—creates the conditions for sustainable agreement.

Key Teaching Elements

1. The Architecture of a Centre-Set System

Jared explains the structural differences between positional, interest-based, and centre-set approaches — and why centre-set systems are more durable in high-pressure environments.
Participants learn to build conflict frameworks that hold people in productive tension rather than push them into corners.

2. The Four Failure Points of Traditional Mediation

This segment explores the most common reasons conflict processes collapse:

  • Overreliance on positions

  • Lack of a shared centre

  • Systems that reward escalation

  • Procedural rigidity that breaks under emotion
    Jared shows how to diagnose these failure points and design alternatives.

3. How to Map Shared Purpose in Real Time

Using live examples and case studies, Jared teaches teams how to find or re-establish the true centre of a conflict. This includes uncovering tacit values, shared risks, core commitments, and “non-negotiable goods.”

4. Designing Pathways, Not Endpoints

Centre-set mediation isn’t about forcing agreement — it’s about designing movement.
Participants learn how to:

  • Create steps toward clarity

  • Introduce structure without rigidity

  • Keep dialogue open while still moving forward

  • Build exit-ramps for escalation

5. Holding Tension Without Hostility

Teams learn how to reduce the emotional load of conflict by focusing on shared purpose. This includes posture, language, process design, and strategies for maintaining psychological safety.

What Participants Take Away

Practical Skills

  • How to design conflict processes that survive emotional and operational pressure

  • Tools for lowering defensiveness and reducing positional entrenchment

  • Methods for diagnosing where a conflict system has “fractured”

  • Practical scripts and structures for re-centering conversations

Mindset Shifts

  • Conflict systems fail because of design, not because of difficult people

  • Shared purpose is stronger than competing positions

  • Good process reduces heat

  • Movement is more important than “winning”

Frameworks & Tools

  • The Centre-Set Mediation Design Model

  • A conflict-mapping template for identifying the centre

  • A posture guide for reducing defensive patterns

  • A step-by-step blueprint for designing adaptive, flexible mediation processes

Why This Talk Matters

Boards, teams, and organizations increasingly face complex disputes involving:

  • Governance breakdown

  • Condominium and housing tension

  • HR and performance conflict

  • Cross-departmental misalignment

  • Community-level disputes

  • Policy and procedural gridlock

Most of these conflicts aren’t “fixable” through willpower or better communication — they require better systems.
Centre-set mediation gives leaders the design tools needed to create those systems.

This talk strengthens organizational resilience, improves decision-making, and builds public trust.

Ideal For

  • Boards & governance bodies

  • Condo boards & housing organizations

  • HR professionals & workplace leaders

  • Municipal / regional staff teams

  • Nonprofits & community organizations

  • Mediators, ADR practitioners, and conflict coaches

Jared Miller https://jaredmiller.ca
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