“Certainty is a cruel mindset. It hardens our mindset against possibility.” ~ Ellen J. Langer Decision making is a process. Taking a decision is an act. In mediation, parties’ right of self-determination is to be respected. By no stretch of…
Learning from Every Mediation I have been mediating for over twenty-five years. During this time, I have had many different experiences with clients, including the good and the bad. I have also had experiences that exceed good — mediation can…
Because there is so much power in our words, we can use them to do a whole lot of good particularly when we are working as professional mediators. Here are six practices to harness the power of the words we…
The common attribution to the word ‘Mediator’ is one who is neutral, one helps to resolve or one who helps to balance the power to create a space for negotiation and navigate through barriers created by perspectives. A mediator, like…
It is common to hear people observe, reflecting on the pandemic, that things will never go back to the way they were. There is certainly good reason to believe that virtual meetings are now a fact of life. If you…
“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.” Arthur Schopenhauer “To be aware of limitations is already to be beyond them.” Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel “The only way of discovering the…
This article was first published in the Oakland County Legal News on January 26, 2021. “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.” The Rolling Stones, Let It Bleed, 1969 The…
In this article, I describe the mediation of a human rights dispute alleging abusive work conditions and labor practices in a global supply chain. This situation involved several commercial disputes between purchasers, contractors, sub-contractors, and workers from the “informal economy.”…
Multi-Jurisdictional Issues in Mediation See Entire Multi-Jurisdictional Report as PDF Document With an increase in remote mediation, many mediators are managing caseloads that have a multi-jurisdictional element (at times, unintentionally). In the past, a mediator and the parties could physically…
Introduction A funny thing happened on April 1, 2020. After over 30 years and 7,500 cases as an in person, high-touch mediator, I grudgingly became, out of necessity born by COVID-19, a virtual, online mediator. The first month was admittedly…