What happens when two organizations from two different cultures find themselves in conflict? For the first time, the bi-annual World Mediation Conference last week heard a case study of mediation between non-profit organizations. Inda Kriksunov and professional mediator Dr. Miriam Hirschfeld, of SHATIL's Assistance to Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union project, made the presentation.

Says Hirschfeld: "This is the first time that mediation was conducted between a veteran, 'Western' organization with many resources and a young organization of Russian-speaking immigrants."

A latent conflict developed over the course of several years between the two cooperating organizations, but, says Kriksunov, "the smaller organization didn't want to deal with it. In Russian culture, it's not considered polite to talk about conflict. You're supposed to ignore it – until it explodes. And then, you just end the relationship. There is no word for mediation in Russian."

SHATIL helped each side to understand the cultural differences involved and the resultant disparity in basic assumptions. The most difficult task was to get each organization to accept the other's point of view as legitimate, says Kriksunov.  Although a solution was found for the dispute, which was primarily financial, the organizations made the difficult decision to part and did so on good terms.

“We used the material that came up in the mediation in organizational development consulting afterwards to help the organizations grow,” adds Kriksunov.