That is message from Andrew Taylor, a full time commercial mediator who is dedicated to increasing knowledge and understanding of mediation in business. He goes on, "Compared to litigation, mediation is faster, cheaper and more civilized. It avoids risk of damaging publicity and it offers scope for imaginative solutions."

In fact, Andrew Taylor is so enthusiastic, he has even written a book about it!

Everyone knows what mediation is, yet few people are really confident about how much they know, how it works, and whether they can use it.

Mediation is a process in which a third person, "the mediator", helps parties in dispute to find a mutually satisfactory outcome. You could say there is nothing exciting there. Mediation must have been used long before any court system was invented. Despite that, we tend to overlook mediation as a possibility for settling disputes between employer and employee, business and business.

These are characteristic advantages of mediation over litigation:

Speed - A dispute can be resolved by mediation in a matter of weeks rather than years it might take in court. If case is particularly urgent and parties are prepared to pay for priority and premium time, there is no reason why a commercial case could not be concluded in a fortnight. The usual time scale for a small commercial case is around six weeks, and for a more complicated commercial case, around six months. The same case might take five years to go through court system.

In bottom, right-hand corner of television, name of speaker was displayed as "Jesse Jackson, Jr., Rep. Illinois." I quickly realized I was listening to 36 year-old son of civil rights activist, Reverend Jesse Jackson. It caught my attention because I didn't even know Rev. Jackson had a son, let alone that his son was a U.S. Congressman for state of Illinois.

The young Congressman Jackson spoke eloquently, authoritatively and passionately. With television camera focused only on him, I couldn't see his audience, but I imagined him to be speaking to hundreds or maybe thousands of people.

He spoke without notes, and his words flowed smoothly. His thoughts were clear, concise and respectful. He confidently addressed questions from press as passionately as he delivered his speech.

As Congressman Jackson completed his remarks, and host thanked him for his time, C-SPAN camera began to "pan out" and take in a wider view of room in which Mr. Jackson gave his speech.

Within seconds, camera showed entire room. As it turned out, audience I imagined to number in hundreds or thousands was actually about 4 people, as well as about a half dozen members of press.

A total of only 10 people sat before Congressman Jackson as he passionately poured out his heart and soul to them!

At first, I was amazed that Congressman Jackson could get himself so "in zone" for such a small audience. It made me think how discouraged I might feel if I were to give a speech and only 10 people showed up to hear me.

Then it hit me . . .

I was guilty . . .

Caught red-handed . . .

I caught myself playing "all or nothing" game. Maybe you know this game. It's when I tell myself there are only certain times I can put myself "out there" completely, passionately and authentically.