The UpLevel Vortex: Seeing Where Your Clients are Meant to Go

Holding the 

Promise for my Students

During one part of the three day UpLevel Your Business conference presentation in Atlanta, one of Christine Kane’s statements really struck a chord with me.  She said: “You must see your students as more successful than they can see themselves.  You can see where they are meant to go.”

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I launched my new business – Mediation with Heart: Web-Based Training for Change Agents the same week as the conference in Atlanta.  It offers the first web-based training for mediators in the U.S. and perhaps in the world. 

With respect to all my students, I know where they will be at the end of the 40-hours of training.  They will be empowered, reflective, highly-motivated, and anxious to begin using the skills they have learned to change the world. 

Two of the students are Presbyterian ministers who plan to use the skills to intervene in intra-congregational conflict -- primarily in disputes involving gay clergy.  I have already suggested to them that they will also want to learn group facilitation skills, which I teach.  Then, they may want to organize a group of mediators who could be first responders on the East Coast when these disputes threaten the unity of a congregation.  They could start the difficult conversation and help churches assess the values they want to dominate in their decision-making on the controversial issues they face now and in the future.

Do I see “where they are meant to go”?  I certainly see one path these new peacemakers can choose.    

And, to hold that promise for them is thrilling.  To hold the space that they will grow into reflects my own growth as a dispute resolution expert, and my vision, patience, and expectation.