What are business leaders actually hearing when we say ‘try mediation’?

Executives are not wrong to be sceptical about mediation. They are responding rationally to how it is presented. Those who have used mediation tend to trust it. Most others dismiss it without having tried it. To them, it sounds vague, soft, or like something meant for family disputes. That perception is not accidental. It is shaped by how mediation is introduced.

In much of continental Europe, mediation is presented as something you can try alongside legal proceedings. Not instead of them. It comes across as an open-ended invitation to sit down and try to talk it through. The posture is passive. Come over. Let’s talk. We’ll see where it goes. Yes, the fact that parties decide in mediation is usually well explained. But it is framed gently, almost therapeutically. Not as a management moment where something needs to be dealt with. The alternative stays close. If this does not work, the judge is already there (and most likely merely advised to 'just try it'). So there is little reason to actively commit just yet.

In jurisdictions like the UK, mediation enters the picture very differently. It is positioned as a business intervention. Sit down. Let’s manage this. Let’s get on with the business. In CEDR’s 2025 audit, 87 percent of cases settled, with around 70 percent settling on the same day. When mediation is designed to conclude, behaviour changes upstream. Parties prepare numbers, scenarios, risks, and mandates. They arrive ready to engage, not to explore. (More on that next week) That design choice matters.

In the Netherlands and much of continental Europe, mediations often unfold across multiple sessions. The success rate is more or less similar, yes, but the bandwidth is a lot smaller. Cases stretch over weeks, sometimes months, with additional caucuses and check-ins along the way.

For business leaders, that often feels like drift. They are not looking for a mediator. They are looking for an effective way to manage the conflict. Mediation is still too often framed as a service to business leaders. Not as a business tool they can use, to deal with a situation. When mediation is open-ended by design, preparation weakens. Momentum fades. Disputes drag on. Not because parties resist settlement. But because the system never asks them to actively manage the problem.