Blog Archives
Finally, A Mediation TV Program That Tells It Like It Is (Not)
March 13, 2021
Have you heard? After all the lousy movies and TV shows that provide ghastly depictions of mediation, Fox TV has produced a series, The Mediator with Ice-T that shows the public exactly how mediation works. What Judge Judy et al. do for courts, Ice-T does for mediation. Disputants tell their stories. Ice-T consults experts. Then he makes a take-it-or-leave-it recommendation.
March 13, 2021
Have you heard? After all the lousy movies and TV shows that provide ghastly depictions of mediation, Fox TV has produced a series, The Mediator with Ice-T that shows the public exactly how mediation works. What Judge Judy et al. do for courts, Ice-T does for mediation. Disputants tell their stories. Ice-T consults experts. Then he makes a take-it-or-leave-it recommendation.
Hiding in Plain Sight: Mediation, Client-Centered Practice, And the Value of Human Agency
March 12, 2021
Students and practitioners of transformative mediation still underemphasize the importance of client “empowerment” – the opportunity for clients to recapture the sense of agency that conflict has compromised. That is, those learning the skills of a client-centered process like transformative mediation tend to overlook and ignore the achievement of client empowerment, compared to other goals. Why does the achievement of client empowerment go unseen in this way, even when its value has been...
March 12, 2021
Students and practitioners of transformative mediation still underemphasize the importance of client “empowerment” – the opportunity for clients to recapture the sense of agency that conflict has compromised. That is, those learning the skills of a client-centered process like transformative mediation tend to overlook and ignore the achievement of client empowerment, compared to other goals. Why does the achievement of client empowerment go unseen in this way, even when its value has been...
Artificial Intelligence and Technology in Teaching Negotiation
March 11, 2021
Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), affective computing, and big‐data techniques are improving the ways that humans negotiate and learn to negotiate. These technologies, long deployed in industry and academic research, are now being adopted for educational use. We describe several systems that help human negotiators evaluate and learn from role‐play simulations as well as applications that help human instructors teach negotiators at the individual, team, and organizational levels....
March 11, 2021
Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), affective computing, and big‐data techniques are improving the ways that humans negotiate and learn to negotiate. These technologies, long deployed in industry and academic research, are now being adopted for educational use. We describe several systems that help human negotiators evaluate and learn from role‐play simulations as well as applications that help human instructors teach negotiators at the individual, team, and organizational levels....
Categories of Litigants
March 10, 2021
Recently I needed to research how to better mediate with those who are unusually persistent in the pursuit of a grievance – often labelled querulants or persistent litigants. In my travels, I came across Emeritus Professor Paul Mullen of Psychiatry Monash Health, who usefully categorises claimants into three groups; THE NORMALAggrievedSeeking legitimate redressAble to negotiate and accept reasonable arbitration THE DIFFICULTAggrievedSense of being victimisedOver-optimistic expectations...
March 10, 2021
Recently I needed to research how to better mediate with those who are unusually persistent in the pursuit of a grievance – often labelled querulants or persistent litigants. In my travels, I came across Emeritus Professor Paul Mullen of Psychiatry Monash Health, who usefully categorises claimants into three groups; THE NORMALAggrievedSeeking legitimate redressAble to negotiate and accept reasonable arbitration THE DIFFICULTAggrievedSense of being victimisedOver-optimistic expectations...
One Year Later: Zoom Fatigue
March 9, 2021
This year long pandemic has allowed Jeremy N. Bailenson in the Department of Communications at Stanford University to conduct research on Zoom fatigue and how to combat it. In his article, “Nonverbal Overload: A Theoretical Argument for the Causes of Zoom Fatigue” published February 23, 2021 in Technology, Mind and Behavior (volume 1, Issue 3), discusses the causes of Zoom fatigue and how to deal with it. He notes that his discussion, while based on theory and research,...
March 9, 2021
This year long pandemic has allowed Jeremy N. Bailenson in the Department of Communications at Stanford University to conduct research on Zoom fatigue and how to combat it. In his article, “Nonverbal Overload: A Theoretical Argument for the Causes of Zoom Fatigue” published February 23, 2021 in Technology, Mind and Behavior (volume 1, Issue 3), discusses the causes of Zoom fatigue and how to deal with it. He notes that his discussion, while based on theory and research,...
Face to Face Online? Reframing the Language We Use for Digital Formats?
March 8, 2021
To make online communication work well we need to see its potential. This includes online mediation and online training. Both are about more than just being able to connect people technically from distant physical locations. We need the relationship work that so much of our communication requires to also be successful online. It is certainly a basic human need to be with other people in a physical space, and I am not championing a world where this is not possible, nor am I trying to whitewash over...
March 8, 2021
To make online communication work well we need to see its potential. This includes online mediation and online training. Both are about more than just being able to connect people technically from distant physical locations. We need the relationship work that so much of our communication requires to also be successful online. It is certainly a basic human need to be with other people in a physical space, and I am not championing a world where this is not possible, nor am I trying to whitewash over...
How to Laugh at Work
March 7, 2021
Ms. Aaker and Ms. Bagdonas now teach a course together at Stanford called “Humor: Serious Business,” which shows aspiring executives and entrepreneurs how to leverage laughter for better relationships and business results. They’ve also distilled their findings into a new book, “Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is A Secret Weapon in Business and Life.” But can people really be taught to be funny at work? Should people be taught to be funny at work? Humor at work is much less about...
March 7, 2021
Ms. Aaker and Ms. Bagdonas now teach a course together at Stanford called “Humor: Serious Business,” which shows aspiring executives and entrepreneurs how to leverage laughter for better relationships and business results. They’ve also distilled their findings into a new book, “Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is A Secret Weapon in Business and Life.” But can people really be taught to be funny at work? Should people be taught to be funny at work? Humor at work is much less about...
Changing the Frame: Some Challenging Issues for Promoting Mediation
March 6, 2021
For me, this book provided several light bulb moments. I suspect that, for many of us, it may suggest that we may have been approaching the promotion of mediation in quite the wrong way. The main thrust is that the EU, in its attempts to promote its mediation Directive, has framed mediation as an alternative to litigation. However, having carried out research among those who are actually responsible for choosing whether or not to use mediation as a means to help resolve cross border commercial disputes,...
March 6, 2021
For me, this book provided several light bulb moments. I suspect that, for many of us, it may suggest that we may have been approaching the promotion of mediation in quite the wrong way. The main thrust is that the EU, in its attempts to promote its mediation Directive, has framed mediation as an alternative to litigation. However, having carried out research among those who are actually responsible for choosing whether or not to use mediation as a means to help resolve cross border commercial disputes,...
When Should I Be in the Middle? I’ve Looked at Life from Both Sides Now
March 5, 2021
This autobiographical essay outlines both a personal origin story of entrance into the field of conflict resolution and mediation and some of the origin issues of the field itself. From political commitments to social justice, to individual, commercial, familial, national, political and international conflict, when is mediation appropriate and when not? What issues in conflict resolution should be handled in authoritative public fora and when does it make more sense to allow creative party tailoring...
March 5, 2021
This autobiographical essay outlines both a personal origin story of entrance into the field of conflict resolution and mediation and some of the origin issues of the field itself. From political commitments to social justice, to individual, commercial, familial, national, political and international conflict, when is mediation appropriate and when not? What issues in conflict resolution should be handled in authoritative public fora and when does it make more sense to allow creative party tailoring...
Why Do Basketball Teams Have a Home-Court Advantage? Travel?
March 4, 2021
When the US National Basketball Association (NBA) was forced to pause the season due to Covid-19 on March 11 last year, the fans were naturally devastated. When the season resumed five months later, with the top 22 teams bubbled together and playing every game in Orlando, Florida, this was great news for the sport, and the fans — and a pair of US researchers. Andrew McHill at Oregon Health and Science University and Evan Chinoy at Leidos Inc, in San Diego, realised that the restart provided a perfect...
March 4, 2021
When the US National Basketball Association (NBA) was forced to pause the season due to Covid-19 on March 11 last year, the fans were naturally devastated. When the season resumed five months later, with the top 22 teams bubbled together and playing every game in Orlando, Florida, this was great news for the sport, and the fans — and a pair of US researchers. Andrew McHill at Oregon Health and Science University and Evan Chinoy at Leidos Inc, in San Diego, realised that the restart provided a perfect...
