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1
2
3
4
5
Making Mediators Better 6
7
Performers- Use of Neuro-Linguistic 8
9
Programming & Improvisation 10
Theatre for Creative Results 11
12
By Rumani Kaushal Sheth* 13
14
15
16
17
I. Introduction 18
19
Often, with conceptual learning of a subject, one adopts one frame/
20
structure to organize information. This is true for mediators too. Seven
21
elements and Neuro-Linguistic Programming models for conflict
22
­resolution are some examples of structures that work as guiding tools for
23
mediating practitioners. A more recent addition to these structures has
24
been the use of improv theatre to advance certain behavioural good prac-
25
tices. My inquiry on the subject has led me to explore use of improvisation
26
in theatre, Jazz music, creative pedagogical methods, to creatively
27
­motivated mediators.
28
It is well recognized that improv can be used to enrich the dispute
29
resolution process where spontaneity can be used by mediators to turn
30
chaos into an advantage in mediation.1 However its academic discourse
31
remains largely unmapped on one particular aspect of dispute resolution
32
33
* I would like to mention special thanks to my dear friends Mr. Ayush Sinha, Mr. Basant 34
Kumar and Mr. Nikhilesh Joshi for their wounderful support in crisis mitigation relating 35
to this submission. 36

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1 processes, making its mainstream use a matter of scattered practice. Which

2 is why, in this essay I want to propose a case for merging understandings
3 of one conflict resolution tool that mediators already use i.e. Neuro
4 Linguistic Programming (NLP) with practices of improv theatre. I will
5 argue that ideas from both these fields advance certain attitudinal orienta-
6 tions and can cultivate specific skills or aptitudes in practitioners. Reducing
7 the disconsonance in their study can make for their efficient practical use.
8 Part II will trace the origins of both these fields and their basic tenets.
9 Part III will understand mediation as a hybrid art form, where practices
10 and rituals in mediation and improv theatre overlap with one another. This
11 part will also propose that use of NLP practices for training mediators be
12 understood as a framework to channel more creative improvisation. Part IV
13 will focus on the cognitive processes that are activated when improv is
14 used by performers and explore their use in cultivating favourable media-
15 tor orientations. Part V concludes.
16
17
II.  Improv, NLP & Jazz — The ideas & the origins
18
19 Jazz music is popular for its improvisational origins. In a visually evoca-
20 tive passage in his article on Mediation, Improvisation and Jazz,2 John
21 Cooley describes the birth of Jazz in New Orleans. He describes Jazz as
22 product of a century-long blending of the African and European musical
23 cultures, where musical traditions of European colonists were mixed with
24 those of African slaves. About the city and about Jazz, the author notes
25 “In the 1800s, the City served as a melting pot for diverse musical styles”3
26 “where styles bumped into each other, with characteristics of one rubbing
27 off on another. Opera coexisted with sailors’ hornpipes. Music for the
28 formal European dances of the minuet and quadrille coexisted with
29 African music used in voodoo ceremonies”.4
30 Improvisational theatre as an art form was first reportedly seen from
31 the 1500s to the 1700s when Commedia dell’Arte performers improvised
32 on the streets of Italy. Losing relevance for almost two centuries it
33 reemerged in the 20th Century when Keith Johnstone, in an attempt to
34 bring theatre back to the average man on the street, conceived the idea of
35 theatre sports where trappings of team sports were adapted to theatre
36 ­context.5

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O’Connor and Seymour refer to NLP as, “… a way of studying how 1

people excel in any field and teaching these patterns to others”.6 Developed 2
in early the 1970s, NLP is concerned with modelling effective abilities 3
(behaviour patterns and language) and transferring these abilities to others.7 4
An interesting commonality between origins of Jazz, improvisation 5
and NLP is their active absorption of influences outside of one specialized 6
domain and the fluid acknowledgment of allowing the external environ- 7
ment to influence practitioners in their performances as Jazz musicians, 8
improvisational artists or NLP practitioners. 9
10
III.  Mediation as a hybrid art form 11
12
To improvise means to compose and to perform simultaneously.8 It is 13
essentially a hybrid process of performance and creativity. In his excellent 14
article, Cooley draws parallels between mediation practice and improvisa- 15
tion using Jazz as a metaphor for improv. He develops a thesis that where 16
performance artists like actors, symphony musicians and reproduction 17
painters follow the instructions of creative artists, creative art forms like 18
playwrights or poets ply their separate art forms in part by designing or 19
constructing conflict and then either resolve the conflict themselves or 20
permit the audiences to resolve it cerebrally.9 Mediation — a process of 21
creative problem solving — not only requires spontaneous creativity but 22
much like Jazz, mediation employs a complex functioning of creative and 23
performance techniques making it a hybrid art form. 24
The next subsection highlights this hybrid nature of mediation also 25
revealing in this process characteristics that it shares with other improv art 26
forms. This sub-section will also weave into it the use of NLP in mediation 27
as a practical tool to help mediators generate improvisational results. 28
29
A.  Improv in mediation: Set structures, patterns & creativity 30
31
(1)  Creating, developing and perfecting underlying structures 32
Despite the lack of a set script, both improvisational performance and 33
mediation practice are built upon structures. The improvisation must 34
­follow this structure in order to make sense to the audience. In fact, the 35
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1 stronger the structure, the more free the performers actually become
2 because they need not worry about where the plot line is going — they are
3 free to quickly respond and adjust according to the structure, as events
4 unfold on stage.10 Similarly, mediators are assisted by structures such as
5 stages of mediation, classification of elements of negotiation, representa-
6 tion systems, etc.
7 The stronger their grasp is upon these structures, the more room it
8 creates for improvisation.
9
10
(2)  Developing repertoires & pattern recognition in NLP
11
12 Mediators draw on their own experiences and the observations of other
13 practitioners to develop a repertoire of responses or reactions. Effective
14 improvisers including mediators are always expanding their repertoire,
15 sometimes picking up on earlier moments in a current case, while also
16 reaching further back to experiences from previous mediations.11 This
17 effectiveness is as much a matter of attitudinal orientation as that of apti-
18 tude strength. The NLP communication model, for instance, invites users
19 to understand the principle that “the map is not the territory” i.e. how
20 perceptions of the people may not accurately represent reality or truth,
21 requiring the user’s heightened sense of awareness to separate one from
22 the other.12
23 A mediator might also remember using some techniques that suc-
24 ceeded in encouraging a person with a similar temperament or outlook to
25 be more constructive. Cognitive psychologists refer to this behavior as
26 pattern recognition.13 A number of techniques taught as part of Neuro-
27 linguistic Programming use pattern recognition, laying out set-structures
28 or patterns to construct and deconstruct situations in conflicts. The NLP
29 communication model provides techniques to understand deletions, dis-
30 tortions and generalizations, and mediators use this understanding often to
31 question party assumptions or reality-test them. An improvisers’ stored
32 library of moves is not static and, while instinctive, should not be reflexive
33 or automatic.14 Mediation students are taught important improvisational
34 tools which train them to deliberate and reflect upon their actions as
35 against automatic responses.
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(3)  Transformational attitudes & creative use of set-structures 1

A learning and transformational orientation that thrives on the 2
­paradoxes, enigmas, riddles and contradictions that are at the core of 3
most of our problems is far more successful in discovering fresh 4
options.15 Core rules of the NLP communication model invite media- 5
tors to understand the dynamic nature of the conflict resolution process 6
and emphasize the notion of developing flexibility in communication 7
and the importance of seeing every potential failure as feedback. For a 8
mediator this means increasing potential to make creative use of 9
instructions and techniques that form his set-structures. In Part IV we 10
will follow how improv theatre practices enhance such a transforma- 11
tional orientation. 12
13
14
B.  Improv in mediation: Developing a vocabulary 15
Novice mediators must develop extensive vocabularies on many levels. 16
Mediators need to know the meaning of different types of mediation — 17
facilitative, evaluative, transformative and their combinations. English- 18
speaking mediators practicing cross-culturally must use special care in 19
using the correct vocabulary words in their discussions with parties who 20
speak English only marginally.16 Mediators are taught that misunder- 21
standings happen easily. NLP in mediation also recognizes that language 22
can be a source of misunderstanding. Even if the words are clearly heard, 23
the listener may have a different internal representation from the speaker 24
for the words that are used. And to bypass this problem NLP invites 25
mediators to adopt the premise that the meaning of their communication 26
is only conveyed in as much as is perceived by the listener. This enables 27
barriers to be deconstructed and creates room for clarification of the lis- 28
tener’s perception and eventual correction if required.17 In this way, by 29
being context-specific and listener-oriented, NLP allows original improv- 30
isation and context-specific response by mediators. Just as with other 31
techniques, effective use of NLP vocabulary requires mindfulness and 32
presence from the mediator which can be difficult to achieve in conflict 33
situations. 34
35
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1 C.  Improv in mediation: Composing in the moment

2
(1)  Mediator composition and playfulness
3
4 The fundamental difference between improvisation and composition is the
5 room for perfection. Whereas, in time-unlimited compositions the com-
6 poser rejects possible solutions until he finds one which seems to be the
7 best for his purposes, an extemporaneous improvisor does not have that
8 luxury. The improviser must accept the first solution that comes to hand.
9 For a better improvisation, fluency often times takes precedence to perfect
10 composition. In both cases the originator must have a repertoire of pat-
11 terns and things to do with them that he can call up at will; but in case of
12 improvisation the crucial factor is the speed at which the stream of inven-
13 tion can be sustained, and the availability of things to do which do not
14 overtax the available resources.18
15 Michelle LeBaron, an expert on cross-cultural conflict resolutions,
16 writes “making transitions… in our personal and interpersonal stories
17 asks lightness of us. We take ourselves so seriously, doubly so in conflict,
18 earnestly maintaining our perspectives even as we tenaciously try to
19 unwind our differences.”19 Carl Jung wrote that the creation of something
20 new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the willingness to play
21 with inner and outer experience “borne on the stream of time.”20 This
22 funky notion of playfulness has an important function for a mediator and
23 can be understood as the rule of taking everything as feedback and nothing
24 as failure, in the NLP framework. However, the idea of playfulness in
25 conflict resolution research is not extensively developed and principles
26 of improv theatre like ‘Yes and’ can be used to create useful models for
27 practitioners.
28
29
(2)  Mediator’s storytelling and catching stories
30
31 NLP rapport building model asserts that people tend to trust people who
32 are similar in behaviour or language.21 While it does not explicitly talk
33 about mediator storytelling it does train practitioners to project a certain
34 likeness in the use of identical representation systems to make parties
35 comfortable or to project non-threatening posturing or visual cues. More
36 explicit mapping is observable in the astute listening that NLP asserts.

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Listening to metaphors used by parties and their use of representation 1

systems for pacing or mirroring are useful techniques to build rapport and 2
to understand their values or cultural dynamics.22 Here too, rapport build- 3
ing in NLP can be made richer by using narrative principles employed in 4
improv theatre. 5
6
7
D.  Improv in mediation: Changing forms
8
(1)  Changing party assumptions & frames23 9
10
The NLP conflict resolution model is based on the understanding that
11
language, concepts and ideas fall within a continuum of communication
12
that range from specific details to big picture abstractions. It proceeds by
13
assuming that what people say they want is often what they perceive as
14
the way to satisfy a higher need. In other words, what people say they
15
want is often the means to the end and usually not the end in itself.
16
Starting from this assumption, one can then assist the other person in
17
chunking up and identifying the higher need or end. The purpose of this
18
is to “widen the space” and create more flexibility for resolving the dis-
19
pute. This occurs because there will usually be more than one way to
20
satisfy the higher need or end and the mediator is expected to employ an
21
effective inquiry process to deconstruct which context is at work behind
22
party statements. Use of Cartesian coordinates to change the context in
23
which the statement is made offers the mediator the opportunity to
24
engage the parties in an enquiry of negative-positive consequences of
25
their distortions or generalizations.24 Reframing is one of the most fun-
26
damental techniques used by mediators to transform the context of a
27
dispute. The mediator … takes the communication of a party and, with-
28
out abrogating his or her meaning entirely, alters and redirects that
29
meaning to allow more constructive use in the settlement process.25 NLP
30
prescribes finding out the evidence for the statement by the party in the
31
process of reframing, e.g. “How do you know he doesn’t care?”
32
Achieving data retrieval in the process and also surfacing the speaker’s
33
attention to the likelihood of attribution bias. This process requires not
34
only consistent feedback orientation but also self-awareness from the
35
mediator.
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1 (2)  Difficult conversations & shock value26

2
Experienced mediators may make improvisational moves purely for
3
shock value. This technique seems to be highly effective in difficult
4
mediations. The shock value of a move is designed to have a stimulating
5
and provocative effect. It can move parties to a slightly different place.
6
Jazz musicians aspire to break free of conditioned patterns and shake up
7
the status quo to produce more creative performances and mediators
8
may similarly change his or her attitude from that of a civil ally to a
9
frustrated, disappointed foe by announcing something like, “I thought
10
I could help you but we are not getting anywhere, so perhaps it is time
11
to go home.” Riding on this shock value the mediator by his actions
12
encourages parties themselves to improvise and set-aside their own
13
scripts.
14
15
16 E. Improv in mediation: Interplay between
17 pre-composition & improvisation
18
Michelle LeBaron describes the interplay between improvisation and
19
­pre-compositions in mediation in terms of the practice of “catching and
20
releasing” — that is, engaging in creative activity interspersed with
21
­periods of changed activity, familiar movements or even stillness.27 The
22
practice of catching and releasing is related to somatic intelligence
23
because the answers we seek arise from our bodies and these answers are
24
often related to movement.28
25
This state of mindfulness is emphasized in NLP as “uptime” which
26
describes a state whereby the mind is in the moment but externally
27
focused which can potentially reduce stress levels, allow gathering of
28
quality information and activation of peripheral vision and can attune the
29
mediator to nonverbal cues and introduce movement that can shift party
30
orientations as well.29
31
32
33 IV.
34
The fields of Jazz, theater, and psychotherapy have given much more
35
explicit attention to the skills, habits of the mind and social context that
36

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foster effective improvisation. Although mediation and negotiation are 1

different from each of those domains in certain respects, they offer valu- 2
able lessons for theory and practice. While there is much academic litera- 3
ture on understanding mediation as a performance art there is a lack of 4
frameworks in mediation that enhance creativity in its practice. 5
As to the cognitive processes, artists have asserted that “one cannot 6
use one’s analytical and creative mind at the same time.”30 As Pressing31 & 7
Sawyer32 find, preplanned phrases are shared parts of scripts that we use 8
in order to encourage conversation. This combined with the large con- 9
straints that are applied to everyday conversations makes the use of crea- 10
tivity limited by that much. In contrast, without the constraints of 11
conversation, improvisation has the option to take various different routes. 12
Therefore, while formulaic speech is utilized in both everyday and impro- 13
vised speech, improvised speech adds more choice in turn making the 14
speech more creative.33 15
Improvisation is thought to involve the process of divergent thinking 16
and involves coming up with a range of possible solutions for a particular 17
task or problem and thought to be key in creative problem solving.34 In an 18
experiment that measured the Alternative Uses Task (“AUT”) scores for 19
Fluency, Originality, Elaboration and Flexibility it was found that 20
improvisation helps people to break away from set patterns of thinking 21
such that they are either able to switch between schemas (set patterns of 22
thinking) more efficiently or they are able to update slot information more 23
efficiently, or both. This in turn improves scores on tasks of divergent 24
thinking which is responsible for creative problem solving. Moreover, 25
people who took the AUT scored high on fluency, originality and flexibil- 26
ity and showed more use of alternative solutions.35 27
Moreover improv theatre practices such as “And stance” have high 28
reflective advantages36 and as discussed above create mindfulness which 29
enhances spontaneity and creativity in performers. 30
From the scrutiny of NLP techniques undertaken in Part III it was 31
possible to see that each technique provides a framework for mediators to 32
generate responses and improvise contextually. On the other hand, survey 33
results from Part IV show that improv practices increase users’ ability to 34
generate these improvisational responses. It is thus clear that just as NLP 35
training in mediators seeks to give them a toolbox of skills to mediate 36

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1 creatively, use of improv theatre practices can sharpen mediators’

2 ­cognitive abilities to use these skills.
3
4
V. Conclusion
5
6 A discussion of improv in mediation cannot happen devoid of the notion
7 of creativity. The fields of NLP in conflict resolution and improv princi-
8 ples in theatre can together form a framework for experiential creativity
9 generation amongst mediators. As seen in Part III, NLP techniques in
10 many areas can be seen to provide a creativity generating framework for
11 better improvisation in mediation.
12 On the other hand, improv theatre principles can be introduced to
13 mediators as a creativity enhancing process that strengthen the effective
14 use of NLP as a framework.
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