Team
Introducing the people who’ll help you get back on track.
Lisa PETERLECHNER, MSc.
Senior Partner
Our Philosophy
We are often asked about our name Trialogis. Well, we see ourselves as the third party who can help the people involved in a conflict to develop a constructive dialogue.
The special competence we contribute is the large toolkit of methods we can offer for working towards resolution of conflicts. We not only apply these methods ourselves, we also offer training for other people so that they can use these techniques for themselves and others.
At every stage of the way, our clients retain the control over the contents and results of the processes we lead, because only they have the specific expertise in their own field of work. Trialogis designs structured processes that meet the needs of the specific situation, which are designed to enable the participants to achieve new clarity and perspectives. We support the development of constructive dialogue, in order to facilitate mutual understanding. Once clients understand each other better on both the substantive and emotional levels, they are in a position to work out their own creative solutions.
All of this has to be done taking account of the clients’ resources: their expertise, time, finances and personal capacity. Client autonomy, empathy and respect are pillars of our work. They make it possible to learn and develop. The quality of our work is underpinned by our many years of professional experience, and also by our practice of regularly taking time to confer among ourselves about our work.
History
Trialogis was registered as a consulting firm in 2007 by Gerhart Conrad Fürst, Gudrun Janach-Wolf, Stephan Proksch and Barbara Wurz after a preparation period of a year. The partners already knew each other and had worked together successfully in various constellations on different projects over the years – for example in the organizations ‘Arge Wirtschaftsmediation’ and ‘Optionenraum’. At the end of 2008, Gudrun Janach-Wolf gave up her position as managing partner and continued for a time as a member of our partnership. At the beginning of 2015, following several years of working together, Nina Schiestl took on the role of managing partner.
For the tenth anniversary of the company, we simplified the name from ‘Trialogis Organisationberatung Mediation to ‘Trialogis’, with the byline ‘Resolving Conflicts Together with a Systemic Approach’.
We pioneered business mediation in Austria
Gerhart Fürst did a lot of groundwork to establish the field of business mediation:
| 1997 – 1998 | Founding member and head of the working group on business mediation |
| 1998 – 2004 | Founding member and founding chairman of the ‘business mediation forum’ |
| 2003 – 2005 | Founding member and member of the first committee of the Austrian Mediation Network |
| 2005 | Chair of the working group to develop the ethical guidelines of the Austrian Mediation Network (with Barbara Wurz) |
| 2008 – 2016 | Founding participant and head of the mediation project at Vienna Commercial Court |
| 2011 – 2014 | Founding member and chairman of the Association for Mediation of Pending Court Cases |
Barbara Wurz was a committee member of the Austrian Mediation Network for seven years, and six of them as chairwoman.
Stephan Proksch worked for mediation in the following roles:
| 2002 – 2004 | Founding member and coordinator of the working group on mediation in companies |
| 2004 – 2012 | Initiator and then speaker of the Expert Group on Business Mediation of the UBIT Fachverband of the Chamber of Economy (Austria-wide section for business consultants, accountants and IT). |
| 2008 – 2016 | Founding participant in the mediation project at Vienna Commercial Court |
| 2008 – 2016 | Founding member and committee member of the Association for Mediation of Pending Court Cases |
Highlights
because the stories have already been published
In 2012, we mediated in an employment law case involving DDSG Blue Danube GmbH (the Danube passenger shipping company) with 18 parallel court actions. Five meetings were held in the space of 2 months, resulting in the out-of-court settlement of all actions.
In 2013, we mediated in an international case involving the German AWD and investors represented by the consumer protection organization ‘Verein für Konsumenteninformation’. There were a total of 2500 parties; the amount in dispute was 25 million euros. A settlement was reached within three months.
From 2011 to 2015 we assisted the Medical University of Vienna in setting up an in-house conflict management system.
Since 2008 we have been handling a growing number of disputes between partners within companies (e.g. issues around growth and separation of partners in start-up companies).
In multiple cases we have been called to mediate in large group processes. For example, Gerhart Fürst worked as one of the mediators in the mediation process from 2000 to 2003 about the third runway at Vienna airport; we also carried out a mediation between over 100 people on the topic of gender-sensitive language for the Austrian Standards Institute (ASI). You can read more about the dialogue forum moderated by Trialogis for the ASI here: https://www.austrian-standards.at/newsroom/meldung/austrian-standards-dialogforum-im-zeichen-von-offenheit-und-respekt/