The two most critical things you can learn, I think, are how to listen and how to shut up. I think there are probably a number of mediators who would say the same thing. You have to have a high tolerance for tension and uncertainty as things unfold. I think you have to have a great deal of patience. These kinds of conflicts and issues don't get resolved very quickly. So you have to be prepared to stick with something, especially if you are doing consensus building or collaborative processes around issues that appear to be intractable. I guess I haven't made a good distinction between that and mediation, and I guess I won't. You have to have a tolerance for being there over the long haul. It takes a lot of time, especially if you do the kind of work I do. It takes a lot of time to gain the trust of the community in which you work.