This is every mediator’s favorite story. We all tell it a little differently.
Here’s my version:

A mother hears her children fighting over the last orange, and – being a good mother, she reminds them to “compromise” and starts to cut the orange in half. But the kids continue yelling and refuse to listen.

Their positions are: “I must have the whole orange” because Jane is desperately thirsty and Kate’s cake recipe calls for “the peel of one orange.”

If mom had been a good mediator, - and not just a good mother – she would have steered them to focus on their interests, and they could have come up with a win/win.

This “Orange Story” is the classic illustration of how “interest-based” negotiation works, how collaboration can be more satisfying than compromise, and how coaches and mediators can help make it happen.