Mediation is a decision-making process in which the parties are assisted by a third person, the mediator, who attempts to improve the process of decision-making and to assist the parties to reach an outcome to which each of them can assent.
That single sentence carries the three core features of the process. First, it is the parties’ decision — the mediator decides nothing for them, and no outcome can be imposed. Second, the mediator’s contribution is to the process rather than the substance: structuring the discussion, testing assumptions, and keeping the negotiation moving when it would otherwise stall. Third, the measure of success is assent — an outcome each party can genuinely accept, rather than one handed down from above.
Everything else about mediation — where it happens, how formal it is, whether the parties sit together or apart, how directive the mediator is — is variable, and can be shaped to fit the dispute. The core does not change; the variables are chosen. That is precisely what makes the process so adaptable, and so effective.
