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Arbitration & Mediation

Online Guide to Mediation

News, information, and commentary on mediation and the conflict resolution field.

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Last Entry: July 09, 2010 at 16:53:53

Meet ADR bloggers at ABA Section on Dispute Resolution Annual Spring Conference

Posted on April 13, 2009
The 11th Annual Spring Conference of the American Bar Association Section on Dispute Resolution gets underway this Thursday, April 16, in New York City. ADR professionals and scholars from throughout the US and elsewhere around the globe will gather to explore this year’s theme, “ADR: Building Bridges to a Better Society“...

10 ways to botch a mediation

Posted on April 13, 2009
One of the latest arrivals on the mediation blogging scene is The Strategic Mediator, published by Florida-based ADR firm Upchurch Watson White & Max. A recent post that caught my eye was this one: “Top 10 Ways to Botch a Mediation“, a comprehensive list of surefire ways to sink any assisted negotiation that includes one surprise [...

Getting out of neutral: a fresh look at mediator impartiality

Posted on April 06, 2009
Efforts here in Massachusetts to enact the Uniform Mediation Act have run aground. Deadlocked over one vexing question - how to define a mediator - the MassUMA Working Group (as those of us involved most directly in those efforts call ourselves) is poised to take some time off to regroup and rethink...

Another round-up of articles for negotiators, ADR professionals

Posted on April 06, 2009
Since February I’ve been microblogging at Twitter, a social media tool ( and recently sharing my experiences and lessons learned). As I’ve come to appreciate, Twitter can be a great way to keep your ear to the ground and gain access to the latest news and ideas that the world is discussing...

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Interviews with ADR giants: Mediate.com opens video archive for month of April

Posted on April 02, 2009
Mediate.com, the world’s premier source for news, information, and articles about mediation, has opened its video archive to the public during the month of April. Available at no cost are over 100 fully searchable video interviews with leaders in the field of dispute resolution - notable names like Roger Fisher, Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Len Riskin, Margaret Shaw, [...

Defending the caucus: the benefits for parties in facilitative mediation

Posted on April 01, 2009
Recently the mediation caucus - meetings in private between the mediator and one side to a dispute - has come in for some harsh criticism. Dismissed as “shuttle diplomacy” that keeps parties in the dark about each other’s interests and places full control over the flow of information in the hands of the mediator, [...

30 countries now represented at ADRblogs.com with addition of Swedish blog

Posted on March 26, 2009
Since 2006 I’ve been cataloging blogs around that world that discuss ADR, negotiation, consensus building, and conflict resolution, at the site I created to track them, World Directory of ADR Blogs @ ADRblogs.com. With the addition of Hantera Konflikter - a blog covering conflict resolution with a special focus on workplace issues - and also the [...

Thinking outside the pie: using mediation is no compromise

Posted on March 23, 2009
Yesterday I discussed an article on mediation that appeared in USA Today, dismayed by its depiction of mediation as a free service provided by volunteers. But that was not the only problem that caught my attention. The article also quoted a critic of mediation who mistakenly charges that mediation “is a ‘terrible idea’ because it presumes [...

Negotiating Twitter: a mediator test drives the hot social media craze

Posted on March 23, 2009
Since February, I’ve been test-driving Twitter, the social media tool that everyone these days seems to be talking about. It’s a social and business networking, instant messaging, and microblogging service, all rolled into one. Twitter invites users to respond to the question “What are you doing?” Every day, thousands of users log in, eager to [...

In mediation we trust: time to stop devaluing our services as mediators

Posted on March 22, 2009
I recently stumbled across “Mediators help in neighborly dog disputes“, an article in USA Today extolling the virtues of mediation to resolve tricky neighborhood conflicts. Although I suppose we should welcome the publicity, the article did our profession no favors, creating the impression that mediation is largely a free service, one that non-profit mediation programs and [...

Recommended books for mediators, ADR professionals: a brief bibliography

Posted on March 20, 2009
The latest issue of the weekly Mediate.com newsletter links to an article by mediator Barbara Brown which provides a “A Practical Bibliography of Books for the Mediation Practitioner“. It is a comprehensive list of influential texts for ADR professionals, and I salute Brown for taking the time and thought to compile what is plainly a labor [...

Outwitting the leopard: deception at the negotiating table

Posted on March 17, 2009
The other day a friend emailed me the following joke, which has circulated widely on the internet: A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her faithful aged poodle, Cuddles, along for company. One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that he’s lost...

Time for mediation certification in the U.S.? Not this way, thanks

Posted on March 17, 2009
The Association for Conflict Resolution’s Family Section released the latest edition of its quarterly newsletter, Family Mediation News. A front page article insists in large typeface that “Certification of Mediators Needed Now More than Ever” (PDF)...

Is it time for a No Asshole Rule for Blawg Review?

Posted on March 17, 2009
In 2007 management science expert Bob Sutton wrote The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn?t, a book that dared name the toxic problem that bedevils the modern workplace. His book described ways to identify and neutralize assholes and ultimately immunize your business against them...

Negotiating disability

Posted on March 09, 2009
Last summer an online magazine for entrepreneurial women elevated form over substance when it advised its audience to accessorize for that big negotiation and mimic the “look” of the person on the other side of the table. I responded with a post criticizing the undue focus on physical appearance: Behind it lurks a whole array of [...

Round-up of noteworthy articles for mediators, negotiators

Posted on March 09, 2009
For the past month, I’ve been test-driving Twitter, a Web 2.0 microblogging, messaging, and social media tool. I’ll be discussing those experiences later this week, but in the meantime, I thought I’d pull together a sampling of articles I’ve been sharing with my followers on Twitter...

Voodoo economics: seeking psychic advice for financial decision making

Posted on March 09, 2009
Pick up a newspaper these days or tune in to your local TV news station, and there it is — another story about the consequences of bad decision making. Meanwhile, publishers fill bookstore shelves with texts prescribing remedies for poor judgment, warning us that we are predictably irrational or nudging readers toward wiser choices, while excellent [...

What old-school trial lawyers really think about mediators

Posted on March 04, 2009

Is this the end of blogging?

Posted on February 24, 2009
If you’re a member of either the legal or ADR blogging community (or both, like me, who stands with one foot in each of those worlds), maybe you’ve noticed it. Something feels different. It’s like a funeral in here. Last week, Robert Ambrogi marked the passing of two popular blogs...

Articles, videos, and exercises online for the mediation trainer

Posted on February 24, 2009
This Thursday and Friday in Boston I’m teaching a program on the essentials of mediation training with Charles Doran, executive director of Mediation Works Incorporated. In preparation for the program, I’ve been pulling together materials on mediation and negotiation training, including the following articles, videos, web sites, and exercises available online...

Mediating between law and mediation: time for both sides to declare a cease-fire

Posted on February 22, 2009
Last week I got a phone call from a third-year law student interested in learning more about mediation. Toward the end of our conversation, she told me that her fellow students mocked her interest in mediation practice, dismissing it as “touchy-feely, Kumbaya-singing crap”...

Mediating on YouTube

Posted on February 18, 2009
It didn’t take long for mediators to leverage the power of YouTube. A search on YouTube for “mediation” today yields almost 4,000 results, impressive even when you take into account the fact that some of those search results include “meditation” misspelled and “Mediate“, an INXS song from 1987...

More negotiation lessons from humor

Posted on February 18, 2009
Last fall, in “A negotiator walks into a bar“, I passed along a humorous story offering lessons in problem solving that a friend happened to email me. Over the weekend, this same friend emailed me another joke, which likewise serves double-duty as a cautionary tale for negotiators...

Blue for creativity, red for attention to detail: study shows effect of colors on brain

Posted on February 06, 2009
According to a study conducted by Juliet Zhu, professor of marketing at the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business, colors can affect the brain, influencing our ability to attend to details or generate ideas. The study indicates that red increases attentiveness, and blue promotes creativity and brainstorming...

Twittering from the mediation table: social media come to ADR

Posted on February 05, 2009
I recently joined Twitter. Twitter, for those of you not yet familiar with this social media tool, is a social and business networking, microblogging, and instant messaging service. Messages sent via Twitter are short, limited to 140 characters, demanding an economy of expression of its users...

Remembering wartime: photos of present-day city evoke violent past

Posted on January 29, 2009
To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the end of the Siege of Leningrad, photographer Sergei Larenkov overlay photos of present-day St. Petersburg with ghostly images of Leningrad during the blockade. In these grim images, the dead trudge silently along city streets, while modern-day passersby rush past, blind to their presence...

The Complete Lawyer: a new look, a new issue

Posted on January 29, 2009
The latest edition of The Complete Lawyer, a web-based magazine focusing on quality of life and career satisfaction for attorneys but with relevance for dispute resolution professionals as well, is now available. This month’s issue asks, “What Do Savvy Lawyers Do In An Uncertain Economy?”...

Girl Scouts get to yes with lessons in negotiating

Posted on January 28, 2009
Recognizing how important the acquisition of negotiation skills is for women for educational and career advancement, Carnegie Mellon University’s Program for Research and Outreach on Gender Equity in Society (PROGRESS) has developed a negotiation badge to be awarded to Girl Scouts in fourth through sixth grade who have participated in a curriculum that teaches them [...

A round-up of must-read articles for professional mediators

Posted on January 28, 2009
The following articles linked to below make essential reading for the professional mediator, addressing as they do three important topics in mediation practice — reaching settlement, making decisions, and what to do with those notes. Reaching settlement...

Mediation Channel, other ADR blogs make list of top legal blogs

Posted on January 27, 2009
Avvo Blog has pulled together an automatically updating list of the top 300 law blogs, ordered by their traffic ranking on Alexa, a web traffic information site. Mediation Channel made the cut, along with these outstanding ADR blogs: Settle It Now, Victoria Pynchon Idealawg, Stephanie West Allen Conflict Zen, Tammy Lenski Mediator Blah…Blah…, Geoff Sharp Civil Negotiation and Mediation, Nancy Hudgins Florida [...

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