Arbitration & Mediation

Highlights from the World Directory of ADR Blogs

By Diane Levin

Fellow mediator and blogger Geoff Sharp and I issued a challenge today to our fellow ADR bloggers: pick your best post from 2008 and submit it, then readers will choose the top three from all the submissions.  This friendly competition is open to any blog listed on the World Directory of ADR Blogs at ADRblogs.com.

ADRBlogs.com is the online project I launched over two years ago to track and catalog ADR, negotiation, and conflict resolution blogs around the globe. Today it covers 176 blogs from 27 countries.

I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the most recent additions — the ones that stand out from the rest of the crowd by virtue of the quality of their writing and their embrace of blogging as a medium for connecting people and ideas. Here are my picks:

• Settlement Perspectives by attorney John DeGroote. DeGroote shares wisdom and smart advice for negotiators, lawyers and others from eight years as the Chief Litigation Counsel of a global company. Some fine examples of his craft include, “Why Mediate at All? Can?t We Just Work It Out?” and “Why We Can?t Just ?Cut to the Chase?: Acceptance Time in Negotiation“.
• DIALOGIC Mediation Services by Arnold Zeman, a multi-lingual mediator and conflict coach based in Ottawa.  The motto of this new arrival on the ADR blogging scene is “turning conflict into conversation“. It could also be “turning visitors to loyal subscribers”, since the quality of the writing and the diversity of ideas have turned me into a regular reader.  Zeman provides a fresh view on topics relevant to the resolution of disputes, exploring issues ranging from “Genuine Apologies” to a humorous look at “Re-focusing Anger“.
• Real Divorce Mediation. One of my favorite bloggers, Nancy Hudgins, has teamed up with mediator and lawyer Debra Synovec to produce a blog designed to help couples face divorce with civility and dignity, inviting them to “open the door to a better future“. As mediator and marketing coach Tammy Lenski recently pointed out, it’s a fine example of a client-centered blog.
• Practical Dispute Resolution. Published by the Center for Legal Solutions, Inc., in Marietta, Georgia, this blog, which makes tbe most effective use of graphs I’ve yet seen on any ADR blog, focuses on the practical aspects of mediation and ADR and provides empirical analyses.  Recent posts include “Correlation of Mediator Gender to Settlement Rate”, “What is the Best Time to Mediate a Case?“, and “Some Types of Cases May Be Better Suited to Mediation than Others“.

Do you have a blog you’d like to submit for inclusion in ADRblogs.com? Read the submission guidelines and then get in touch.

Full post as published by Online Guide to Mediation on November 21, 2008 (boomark / email).