How to prepare for your first facilitation session
The first facilitation session in a consortium dispute usually lasts exactly 3 hours and 20 minutes. Most of this time is wasted searching for emails on phones or arguing about what exactly was written in the annex from July last year. Chodkiewicz & Partners focuses on facts, which is why we have prepared a summary that will allow you to enter the meeting with ready-made arguments backed by paper.
1. Consortium agreement with all annexes
This is the foundation of any project involving at least three entities. In our practice in Poznań, we often see that partners remember the main assumptions from 2021, but forget about a small annex number 4 that changed the rules of joint and several liability. Please bring a complete folder, not just extracts from the most important pages. We will pay special attention to provisions regarding contractual penalties, which in infrastructure disputes usually range from 0.5% to 2.3% of the contract value for each week of delay.
During the session at the Chodkiewicz & Partners office at Roosevelta 22 St., we will analyze the division of tasks between the leader and partners. It often turns out that one side performed 64% of the work, although according to the original plan, it was to be responsible for only 48%. This 16% difference is usually the main reason for financial tensions. Having a paper version of the document with paragraphs highlighted in marker shortens our work by at least 45 minutes right at the start. Honestly, without this document, it's hard to even start talking about money.
It is also worth checking whether the contract contains provisions on the method of dispute resolution. In 83% of the cases we conducted last year, the parties had a mediation clause written in, but no one remembered it before the conflict escalated. If your contract is over 150 pages long, please prepare a table of contents with sections regarding payments and partial acceptances highlighted. This will allow us to avoid flipping pages in silence, which always generates unnecessary stress for all meeting participants.
Paper has no emotions, which is why we always start every session in our office with it.
2. Material and financial schedule and progress reports
We build the architecture of compromise based on dates. We need a current Gantt chart or a simple Excel summary showing where the project got stuck. If the delay is 47 days, we need to know exactly when it started. For example, in a dispute over the modernization of a railway line near Poznań in March 2024, it turned out to be crucial to establish that the delivery of aggregate was 12 business days late due to the subcontractor's fault, not the consortium leader's. Such details change the balance of power at the table.
Work progress reports, especially those signed by the supervisory inspector, are more important to us than oral assurances. Please prepare the last three monthly protocols. We are interested in specific numbers: progress at 72% instead of the planned 84.1% is a clear signal that we need facilitation in the area of human resources. Often a mediator notices patterns that the parties do not see — e.g., regular productivity drops every second Tuesday of the month, which is often related to the circulation of financial documents.
From our experience, a 14-page site report can resolve a dispute faster than an hour of shouting. If your partner claims they didn't get the work front on time, we must have confirmation in the construction log or daily report. At Chodkiewicz & Partners, we believe that facts win over emotions, and the schedule is the best map of facts we have. Please do not bring 'illustrative' versions — we need the one that applies on the construction site on the day of the session.
3. Risk register and discrepancy protocols
Most consortiums keep a risk register, but few look at it when problems start. If someone wrote in October 2023 that a shortage of labor at Partner B could threaten deadlines, then today it is a powerful argument in negotiations. We look for touchpoints between what you predicted and what actually happened. Such a document allows taking the blame off specific people and shifting the burden to external factors, which is key to maintaining business relationships.
Discrepancy protocols are another important thing. If during a technical meeting in May 2024 it was recorded that the parties do not agree on the quality of the welds performed, we must see this. Often these disputes 'hang' in a void for 5-6 months, blocking payments in the range of 124,000 PLN. A facilitator will help you go through these points one by one. We don't promise that all will disappear in an hour, but we will certainly set a specific date for their re-verification by an independent expert.
Being prepared also means awareness of your own mistakes. If your signature on a negligence appears in the risk register, it's better to mention it at the beginning of the session. Honesty in mediation drastically shortens the path to agreement. At Chodkiewicz & Partners, we have already conducted 47 sessions where admitting a mistake at an early stage saved a contract worth several million PLN. A mediator is not a judge, so they are not looking for someone to blame, but for a way out of the financial impasse.
4. Email correspondence and official letters
We don't need a printout of all 1,247 emails from the last two years. Please select the 5-10 key messages where decisions were made to change the scope of work or approve additional costs. It's best to arrange them chronologically. Often a dispute arises because the finance director didn't get a copy of an email sent to the site manager on June 14 at 15:30. We catch and fix these communication gaps during the joint session.
Official accounting notes and payment demands are a last resort, but if they are already in circulation, they must be on the table. I remember a case from July 2024 where partners were arguing over 15,600 PLN for machine rental because invoices were stuck in the leader's approval system for 23 days. Showing the circulation path of this letter allowed us to establish a new, faster standard for approving costs. This is exactly that 'architecture of compromise' — we fix processes, not just put out the current fire.
Heads-up: Please check your spam folders before coming to the meeting. It sounds trivial, but in 7% of our cases, it turns out that key approval for a transfer was sent but never read. Bringing a screenshot confirming receipt of the message can end a three-month conflict in exactly 2 minutes. At the Chodkiewicz & Partners office, we value specifics, so the fewer generalities, the better results we will achieve during facilitation.
One chronological file of emails can replace three hours of fruitless discussion about who said what.
5. Powers of attorney to make decisions
This is the most important technical point. Facilitation makes no sense if those at the table must call the boss for every approval of a 5,000 PLN concession. The person representing the company must have a written power of attorney to conclude a settlement or at least to bindingly set new payment dates. At Chodkiewicz & Partners, we respect the time of all 12-15 people involved in the process, which is why we require clear decision-making powers from every participant.
It often happens that lawyers come to the first session without the board. This is a good step to establish the legal framework, but it rarely leads to a financial breakthrough. We achieve the best results when a technical person who knows why the concrete on the site in Poznań is cracking and a decision-maker who can sign a check sit next to the lawyer. Such a three-person team from each side of the consortium is a guarantee that the meeting will not end with just 'analyzing the proposal next week'.
If you cannot obtain a power of attorney in writing, please ensure constant telephone connectivity with a decision-maker during the hours 9:00–12:30. Nothing ruins the atmosphere of cooperation like a 20-minute break in the middle of an important thread because someone has to ask the board for consent. Our 8 years of experience in mediation shows that the dynamics of conversation are key — momentum once lost is hard to recover even during the next session in two weeks.
6. List of flashpoints and exit proposals
Before the session, please write down 3 points that matter most to you and 2 things you can give up. This is not a zero-sum game. Maybe Partner A will agree to extend the payment deadline by 14 days in exchange for speeding up acceptances on another section? We look for touchpoints that are not always obvious at first glance. Preparing such a list of 'concessions' in the comfort of your home helps avoid making decisions on impulse.
At Chodkiewicz & Partners, we use the strategic facilitation method, which means we look at the project as a whole, not just a single invoice. If the consortium has another 18 months of cooperation ahead of it, it is worth letting go of a 10,000 PLN penalty now to avoid a work blockage worth 500,000 PLN next year. A profit and loss analysis should be ready before entering our office. We will only help frame it in legal and settlement frameworks that will be safe for all parties.
Finally, please bring a large dose of pragmatism with you. Mediation is not a court — it's not the one with the better lawyer who wins here, but the one who quickly understands that further dispute costs more than a compromise. In 2023, we helped 156 projects get back on track just because the parties decided to stop counting old grievances and started counting future profits from the completed investment. The first step is that folder of documents we write about above.
