
Our Conference is happening NOW! Join us! Click HERE for Conference Webpage
Our Conference has concluded but it's not too late! Click Here for Conference Recordings
Saved!

ICC Certification Case Reporting
Make every effort to submit your case reports within 30 days of services ending. Case reports are carefully reviewed by a Candidate Review Team prior to graduation so a detailed report is the best way to communicate the dynamics of the peacemaking skills used. Copies are automatically sent to you and your Advisor.
Advisor Approvals
Your candidate has been notified
This was an advanced/high difficulty case that required a lot of different skills. The scripture and coaching no doubt made a difference in the willingness of the parties to try and work it out as brothers and sisters in Christ. This was an excellent learning on the job case, and required a great deal of patience and perseverance by the conciliator. I agree to keep the parties together as much as possible, and plan more time for mediation, as you never know what item may cause a snag and delay in working towards an agreement. It's also apparent that the attorneys did little or nothing to harm the Christian concilation process, and hopefully learned from it themselves.
Your changes are saved automatically as you enter each field,
but you can force a save using this button:
Your advisor has been notified
Are you sure? This is not reversible.
Deleting: One Moment Please
Privacy Policy: Do not use the actual names of the parties. But be consistent in the names that you do use for this report and your uploaded report summary. Any private case documents and files must be kept secure or destroyed after follow-up is complete. Please consult with your advisor or the ICC office if you have any questions.
Case Management Questions
Case management is everything that precedes actual conciliation and is often a significant preparation for both conciliator and the parties.
Tom Ebel contacted me as ICC administrator
Tom Ebel handled the case admin
See above. Over the course of coaching it became apparent that all four parties had a high level of spiritual maturity in that each of them genuinely and earnestly applied themselves to the hw and were open to teaching and prayerful consideration of God;s perspective. This case arose out of a business partnership with a very successful women’s clothing boutique and the presenting issues included ownership and control of the business going forward as well as relational healing related to unmet and/or mismanaged expectations, communication breakdowns, and violations of trust.
We had a discussion about whether to include the staff at the business and whether to include a business advisor / mentor the parties had used previously. Buyers requested that I consider permitting each of these non-parties to participate as witnesses. I prayerfully considered and also sought the advice of Gary my advisor. Gary stated that he had seldom ever permitted a non-party witness to participate and supported my instinct to require mutual agreement from both parties as well as a strong belief that their participation would contribute to and not hinder the process. Ultimately, in both cases the sellers felt the inclusion of non-parties would lead to an imbalance and/or unnecessary concern. In order to protect the integrity of the process, I made the decisions to exclude the proposed non-parties from participating.
Tom Ebel handled the case admin
We did discuss informal pastoral involvement and I encouraged each of the parties to seek wise counsel and spiritual guidance
During the intake call I went over the process including my role as a reconciler
My advisor Gary, my wife Stephanie, My parents and my discipleship group.
Pre-mediation / Coaching Questions
Conflict Coaching cases do not apply toward Supervised case requirements. However, Pre-Mediation coaching is essential and counts toward your total mediation case hours.
See above. The Company was started by JM and JEM as a dream working together as H and W to create a boutique women’s clothing brand, the M’s took risk and put themselves fully into the business. After some initial success on their own. They realized they would be limited by their own capacity and began thinking about bringing on a partner.
The M’s and the B’s had been very close friends along with their families for several years. The B’s had several other ventures going and were experienced entrepreneurs who could leverage their experiences and online presence / marketing / business experience as catalysts for the business. The M’s and B’s entered into a 50/50 partnership and signed an LOI to that effect with the B’s making a modest $20K investment. The lack of in depth discussion and expectation setting at this stage created problems down the line.
The partnership was a huge initial success and the business grew exponentially. Unfortunately, the relationship began to feel strained almost from the outset. The B’s felt the M’s were not open to many of their ideas and seemed to hold onto control of the business very closely. With the business going well and many other ventures going on at the same time, the B’s made the decision to withdraw from proactive involvement in favor of a sort of consultant / as needed type role. The M’s grew increasingly confused by the B’s lack of day to day involvement and felt overwhelmed at doing the legwork on their own for what was now an exponentially growing business. Both sides initially gave grace to their friends trying to give the benefit of the doubt but eventually this dynamic led to hurt and frustration on both sides
The M’s approached the B’s about relocating the business from HI to TN and did so. Shortly thereafter, the B’s also decided to relocate. This transition proved a critical time in the partnership with the relationship deteriorating rapidly upon arrival in TN. THe M’s initially felt resurgent hope that the B’s were moving too and thought this would be the time when the dream team would truly come alive and they would work hand in hand together. When the B’s arrived though and continued the hands off / passive approach the M’s began to discuss buying the B’s out. The JM spoke to JF about it and after some initially positive feedback the families got together for an in person meeting where the M’s shared with the B’s some of their grievances underlying their request to buyout the B’s
The B’s initially felt somewhat put off by the M’s decision to relocate which seemed to have been made without their input (from their perspective). When they did arrive in TN and the M’s approached them about a buyout as well as their grievances, the B’s felt ambushed.
What followed was a 1 yr period leading up to conciliation wherein the parties tried repeatedly to negotiate a buyout but failed. The negotiations grew contentious due to differences of vision / opinion on valuation, communication breakdowns, perceived breaches of trust, etc. Ultimately, the B’s filed a legal action against the M’s for equal control of the Company and/or dissolution. By the time I got involved, the B’s had reached the point where they no longer wanted to sell and wanted to be actively involved in the business, in particular with leading the staff well and seeing. Meanwhile the M’s reached a breaking point where they no longer believed it was honoring to GOd to remain in business with the B’s
CH 2 of CRvR
Name the last testimony of how God showed up?
When was the last time you were abiding
What stood out to you?
JB: Bitterness, anger (Even hatred); High value on justice / fairness / truth at times at the expense of loving kindness, mercy, and grace; unmet expectations about rules of engagement (going through biblical conflict resolution); attack/pursue tendency; idol of control and certainty got poked in this process - i was being reactive (when someone pulls away I feel the need to clasp harder)
AB - flight/withdrawal tendency; unmet expectations
JEM - Control; holding on too tightly to the business
JM - flight/withdrawal tendency; fear of lack / losing the business they put so much into
1 Peter 3 8-17 - Goal of harmony and blessing enemies
Psalm 112
Colossians 3 -forgive as you have been forgiven (I am at my best when I remember that)
Lazarus’ Tomb → God did not prevent the pain and God did not jump to the solution
Psalm 1
John 15 The Vine and the Branches
Romans 8 - He is going to turn it for our good
1 John → if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us
Yes, see above. The parties displayed a remarkable softheartedness to what God was saying when ongoing through the CRvR workbook and during coaching. I do not recall a specific moment of declaring Christ’s forgiveness
CRVR
Empowered Heartwork and Empowered Conversations pdfs
Prayerful consideration of what God is doing and What he wants to accomplish in and through each party
Confession prep for joint session going through the attributes of confession in the Empowered Conversations resource
Prepare opening statements re what are your hopes and expectations for out rime together?
Prayerfully consider Philippians 4 attributes of the other parties
Both parties demonstrated responsiveness to the coaching and the HW. There was willingness to take ownership and responsibility as well as an honest desire for reconciliation to occur.
I recommended proceeding to the joint session as scheduled.
Mediation Case Questions
Continue completing this case form for all mediation cases, independent or supervised. You need to be the lead conciliator on two (2) cases submitted and you need to complete the intake for two (2) cases submitted.
N/A
Yes, see above discussion around the involvement of non-parties
We met in person in Franklin at the lawyer for the B’s due to proximity for a nursing mother/baby to accommodate. The office included a conference room with a rectangular conference table as well as breakout rooms. I sat at the head of the table and asked the parties to sit on either side of me with their lawyers at either side on the far end of the table. The parties seemed somewhat tense (understandably) but also eager and ready for the long awaited mediation date
On day # 2 only JM was physically present (JEM was unavailable) The state reason was due to pregnancy complications. This was addressed right at the outset because one of the hardships between the parties was the use and lack of respect for JB speaking on behalf of both himself and AB throughout negotiations as well as because AB had specifically prepared some things to share directly with JEM. Fortunately, JB and AB displayed wisdom, maturity, and grace in accepting the M’s where they were at and not allowing the unexpected turn of events derail the meeting. I personally followed up with JM about this later on in a private meeting because JEM was participating via phone and I began to suspect the motive for her not attending in person was actually to avoid being face to face with JB. As it happens, JM acknowledged that JEM was not there both because of pregnancy complications AND because they were worried the stress of further face to face interactions with JB could jeopardize the health of the baby given the at risk pregnancy and history of miscarriage
I used the GOSPEL agenda and ground rules set forth in the what to expect at mediation work sheet.
Day #1 - Pray that God will draw your heart towards what is good and away from evil
Psalm 34 - taste and see the Lord is good. Seek peace and pursue it
1 Samuel 18 - betrayal, murder attempts
Matthew 5:21-26 - anger; leave your gift at the altar, settle quickly while on your way to court
Psalm 141 - set a guard in my mouth, do not let my heart be drawn towards evil, let the righteous strike me
Day #2 - Childlike faith, humility, trust the Lord, bear with one another in love (especially those who try your patience); and FORGIVENESS
Psalms 8 - Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them. You have made them a little lower than the angels, and crowned the with glory and Honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands and put everything under their feet
Psalms 19:12-14 TPT [12] How would I discern the waywardness of my heart? Lord, forgive my hidden flaws whenever you find them. [13] Keep cleansing me, God, and keep me from my secret, selfish sins; may they never rule over me! For only then will I be free from fault and remain innocent of rebellion. [14] So may the words of my mouth, my meditation-thoughts, and every movement of my heart be always pure and pleasing, acceptable before your eyes, Yahweh, my only Redeemer, my Protector..
Psalms 43:3-5 TPT [3] Pour into me the brightness of your daybreak! Pour into me your rays of revelation-truth! Let them comfort and gently lead me onto the shining path, showing the way into your burning presence, into your many sanctuaries of holiness. [4] Then I will come closer to your very altar until I come before you, the God of my ecstatic joy! I will praise you with the harp that plays in my heart to you, my God, my magnificent God! [5] Then I will say to my soul, “Don’t be discouraged; don’t be disturbed, for I fully expect my Savior-God to break through for me. Then I’ll have plenty of reasons to praise him all over again.” Yes, he is my saving grace!
Ephesians 4:2-3 NASB1995
[2] With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience. [3] Be faithful to guard the sweet harmony of the Holy Spirit among you in the bonds of peace,
Ephesians 4:2-3 TPT
[2] With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience. [3] Be faithful to guard the sweet harmony of the Holy Spirit among you in the bonds of peace,
I told a personal story of a relational break in a business context where I allowed unforgiveness to take hold to the point where I gave the other family the cold shoulder in public at a restaurant. Telling how God redeemed that situation was impactful because both sides stated in day #1 a key goal was to be able to see each other in public and be cordial
JB
Glorify god in how we engage in the process biblically
At peace biblically find places we need to repair and broken, confess and repent
Find solutions that work for everyone
AB
Thank you for being here
Biggest hope is for repair and healing
Hope this table is a safe place for transparency
Way to go forward that blesses both families
JM
Thank you for what you shared its alot of what we want also
Hope for true peace and a resolution of some kind
Hope to end this with us agreeing on something
JEM
We want the same things
I want to go forward into this season at peace with you guys
We want to honor the Lord and we all want to do the right thing
See above.
See above. Additional issues of integrity and compassion arose during exchanges between JB and JEM. JEM attempted to offer a confession which touched on a part of what was hurtful to JB but was unprepared to fully own the entire thing. JB interrupted to push back on her and JEM withdrew. Later AB asked JEM about calling BJ a narcissist and she again withdrew. We discussed the slippery slope as well as amygdala hijacking.
Generosity / pride was another heart issue that arose particularly during day#2. At one point JB asked AB to speak frankly her thoughts and she told him she thought he was being a bit of a Jack A** (she said it not me). Later in the evening the M’s came up with a generous proposal concerning a difficult problem of how to transition the business. Thereafter, JB responded with marked generosity and compassion on several items he had drawn a line in the sand on. JB privately reflected with me afterward that he realizes his generosity is too often trapped by his pride in that in order for his generosity to be unlocked he has to feel like he is first being honored and respected.
We made use of private meeting a number of times in day #1 for cooling off and for processing. For example, after the above referenced interactions between the B’s and JEM. Sometimes I used these meetings to ask questions that I did not believe the party would feel safe to answer in front of the other side.
Unfortunately, toward the end of day #1 I ended up slipping into a bit of shuttle diplomacy going back and forth on some negotiation items before we called it a day and had to schedule a follow-up. THis proved problematic because several things either were miscommunicated orl ost in translation. Moreover, the feel at the end of the day was less conciliatory as a result.
JB gave me good feedback about this during our coaching session in between day#1 and day #2 and I took ownership of it both then and there as well as in private coaching with the M’s and publicly on Day #2 setting the expectation that we would use private meetings to process but then comeback together for the actual discussion/negotiations. We followed this procedure to great success on Day #2
See above.
See above. Both sides were able to offer confessions. JB owned his direct and abrasive communication style and acknowledged he can lack gentleness, the B’s and M’s each owned their respective unmet expectations and AB owned failing to speak up sooner to try to bridge the gap. The M’s owned taking detrimental actions on social media and further acknowledged their failure to articulate their expectations on the front end.
The end of day #1 and day #2 shifted towards PEL. I had asked the pirates to prepare briefs which disclosed the B’s wanted to stay in business together and the M’s wanted to buy or sell.
We went through philippians 2 exercise of pulling out the legitimate interests that had been voiced by the other side
B’s
M’s
Staff
Staff
Public Witness
End Business Partnership to honor God
Family
Family
Further clarity & Healing
Healthy interactions in the Community
+ Healthcare
Family
$
$
The core of the problem from a PEL standpoint was the M’s decision that ending the business relationship was necessary and the most God honoring option. While the B’s wanted to stay in business and work it out, the M’s had reached a point where that was no longer on the table for them. The B’s had decided they did not want to sell so that essentially left only the option of the M’s selling to the B’s
Once we got there, the issues that presented involved:
Price & payment terms
Non-competed scope and duration
Transition period for M’s to stay on and help train their replacements
External communications to staff and the community / public about the buyout
Price was less than a stumbling block than I thought primarily because the M’s really were that desperate to find a way out I believe. WE did go back and forth on price and payment terms but the tougher issues were the non-compete and transition period. Late in the evening, we nearly reached an impasse on the transition period issue due to JEM’s physical (and mental) limitations on her ability to continue working in the business going forward. The creative solution was to change from a time based expectation quantified by (hrs) to a product based quota quantified by number of pieces designed working alongside a new designer who could train with JEM. The M’s made a generous offer that in turn led to generosity from JB on length of the non-compete and compensation (the golden result!)
This step was tricky here because the parties had a precedent of agreeing to a term sheet which did not come to fruition in a ratified definitive agreement yet there remained too many details to work out a comprehensive definitive agreement at mediation. I tried to get out in front of this some by asking the parties to exchange terms ahead of time. This helped and we also had a discussion about turn around time and expectations during the definitive agreement and then during the due diligence period prior to closing. We captured the key terms in a term sheet and flagged areas that still needed some further negotiating. I also offered to be part of the solution by providing ongoing assistance on an as needed basis in case the parties hit a snag down the line.
See above.
See above.
Personal Reflection
This section is one of the most important and helps your advisor and the Review Team understand your perspective and growth as a conciliator.
I truly enjoyed working with the parties and the attorneys. One lesson was to error on the side of scheduling more time, particularly where I am traveling on site to be there as I ended up having to make arrangements to go back for day #2
One thing I would do differently is at the end of day#1 I would have guarded against the tendency to slip into shuttle diplomacy (See above)
Gratification at getting a front row seat to see God show up again and gratitude at completing case #10!!!!
N/A

