Imagine for one moment that time travel were possible. Imagine further that a colleague recently returned from the year 2020 with a full account of the changes the future holds. Setting aside the exciting possibility of knowing in advance tonight’s winning Powerball number, consider for one moment the import of the following information your colleague offers you:

The practice of law in the U.S. changed in a number of ways… Justice now is done much more by the people as most solve their own legal problems themselves.

Most disputes now never reach the formal legal system. Having ready access to the law, legal analytical tools and vast factual data, people resolve many disputes themselves. For example, a recent boundary dispute between neighbors was resolved by fixing the location of a wall by 1-inch resolution GPS transponders, downloading property title records and surveys from the country records office, analyzing the problem and possible solutions with Quicken Home Lawyer and arriving at an economic settlement to which both neighbors agreed without ever consulting lawyers.

Mediators and arbitrators resolve most other disputes. The Online Yellow Pages are filled with ads for such service providers who draw upon psychological and sociological skills as well as legal skills in helping the parties themselves arrive at their own solution…

(Emphasis added.)

Intrigued? This scenario comes from The Legal Futurist, the web site of Stuart A. Forsyth, a forward-looking consultant to the legal field.

To ensure its ongoing success and viability, every profession must look to the future. The dispute resolution field is no different. And we must be proactive in defining that future or the future will define us.

That is the premise behind the work of legal futurists like Stuart Forsyth, Charlie Robinson, and Dennis Kennedy, who are encouraging the legal profession to think in revolutionary and strategic ways about the practice of the law and the future of the field. Based on what these future-looking visionaries have to say, the evolution of the legal profession and the dispute resolution field will demand a large measure of (if you will forgive the expression) intelligent design.

To learn more about futurism and the future of the legal profession, please visit the following web sites:

American Bar Association Committee on Research About the Future of the Legal Profession

Future Law Resources, compiled by Dennis Kennedy

Association of Professional Futurists

For a glimpse into the future of ADR—from the Australian perspective—you can download here at the web site of La Trobe University’s e-library “A Vision for the Future of ADR in Australia and Our Region”, an article by Professor Tania Sourdin.

For additional food for thought, see “The Many Costs of Conflict,” an article by Stewart Levine with an interesting quote from well-known futurist Alvin Toffler about the need for farsighted approaches to conflict resolution.

Finally, for thoughts about strategic lawyering, ADR, and new directions in the legal profession, you may want to read this post of mine from a few months back.

As Gandhi once observed, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” And, let’s face it, there’s no time like the present.

Frequent visitors to this blog know of my continuing interest in (okay, an admitted obsession with) depictions of attorneys and the law in contemporary Western culture.

Just in time for the holiday shopping season (for those of you who may not be familiar with American consumer spending habits, the holiday shopping season here in the U.S. constitutes that period between the Friday immediately succeeding our annual late-November celebration of Thanksgiving and mall closing time on Christmas Eve) comes So Sue Me, a new board game

where you can have hours of fun suing your friends and taking their stuff. A spin of the wheel or roll of the die and some clever negotiating help you acquire businesses, file outrageous lawsuits, and bluff your way to big bucks.

(Negotiators, check it out: take a look at the advice regarding settlement and the evaluation of your BATNA as a player in the FAQ section for the game’s web site.)

For a practitioner like myself who admittedly has an interest-based, non-zero-sum, “Getting to Yes” orientation to conflict, this is all a little amusing. No surprise that this game reduces the complexities of real-life disputes in the judicial arena to a zero-sum, winner-take-all, adversarial battle to the death. It’s what boosts sales, after all, during a holiday period which purportedly celebrates the birth of a guy who once observed that “blessed are the peacemakers”.

(Mediators should know that the same company which created So $ue Me (no, that dollar sign is no typo–it’s how the title of the game appears on its packaging) has created Controversy!, a game which, based upon its description, is probably not about the constructive airing of diverse viewpoints—especially since its trademarked phrase is “Who knew being right could be so much fun?”)

Observers of human behavior are intrigued by the ways in which people respond to interpersonal challenges or moral dilemmas—those times when we are in conflict with others or with ourselves. The choices we make reveal much about who we are.

Researchers have developed instruments to help us survey our inner landscapes and to make sense of the contours and borders of the moral and social self. Let us consider two such instruments—one that illuminates conflict styles and another that measures moral intuition.

Many basic mediation trainings begin with a discussion of the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)—a self-administered test used to assess and make sense of the different styles that each of us has in handling conflict. Participants score their test responses to identify their dominant conflict style among five different modes—competing, avoiding, compromising, accommodating, and collaborating—to gain understanding of the impact those styles may have on personal and group interactions.

Although the test is available online for anyone who’d like insight into their own conflict style, it is, alas, not free (although affordable). There is, however, a conflict style test which can be completed online for no cost. Test yourself with the Adult Personal Conflict Style Inventory at the web site for the Peace and Justice Support Network of Mennonite Church USA (a great web site for those interested in learning more about faith-based peacemaking initiatives).

A very different test—one that gauges our moral intuition—is the Moral Sense Test, part of a research study sponsored by the Primate Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Harvard University which seeks to achieve the following purpose:

Nothing captures human attention more than a moral dilemma. Whether we are soap opera fanatics or not, we can’t help sticking our noses in other people’s affairs, pronouncing our views on right and wrong, permissible and impermissible, justified or not. For hundreds of years, scholars have argued that our moral judgments arise from rational, conscious, voluntary, reflective deliberations about what ought to be. This perspective has generated the further belief that our moral psychology is a slowly developing capacity, founded entirely on experience and education, and subject to considerable variation across cultures. With the exception of a few trivial examples, one culture’s right is another’s wrong. We believe this hyper rational, culturally-specific view is no longer tenable. The MST has been designed to show why and offer an alternative…The MST has been designed for all humans who are curious about that puzzling little word “ought” — about the principles that make one action right and another wrong, and why we feel elated about the former and guilty about the latter.

Click here to participate in the test and to see how well calibrated your own moral compass may be.

Lord of the Rings fans may recall a post from last April about my discovery of a playful but provocative essay on mediation entitled “Gollum, Meet Sméagol: A Schizophrenic Rumination on Mediator Values Beyond Self-Determination and Neutrality”, by Professor James Coben, Director of the Dispute Resolution Institute at Hamline University School of Law.

Devotees of Harry Potter, who perhaps may have been feeling neglected by legal scholars, will rejoice to know that Aaron Schwabach, Associate Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, has recently published “Harry Potter and the Unforgivable Curses: Norm-formation, Inconsistency, and the Rule of Law in the Wizarding World,” an exhaustively researched article examining the anomalies and inconsistencies in law and justice in the world inhabited by Harry Potter and his kind.

Professor Schwabach, in his own words, is neither “snobbish academic” nor “intolerant prude” “who [hasn’t] actually read any of the books, bashing Harry Potter”. He tells his readers, “If you like Harry Potter, I hope you’ll like the article. If you don’t like Harry Potter, go away and read something else.”

As I have observed before—here and, more recently, here—optical illusions are of interest to mediators, particularly because of the way in which optical illusions, like mediation, challenge us to see things differently.

Optical illusions also pointedly remind us of the unreliability of our own senses and the degree to which human perception can be manipulated or altered.

For those of you who can’t get enough of optical illusions, Matthew Homann, president and founder of LexThink, an innovative law practice consultancy, and the author of the excellent the [non]billable hour, has a link on his blog to an especially mesmerizing one.

One of the primary reasons I enjoy events like yesterday’s annual conference of the New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution is the opportunity to schmooze—connecting with old friends, making new ones, and meeting conflict resolution professionals and supporters from places well beyond my usual stomping grounds.

Yesterday Bob Ambrogi, Dina Beach Lynch, and I led a panel discussion on blogging in an effort to spread the blog gospel to the ADR community.

We were delighted to discover two bloggers in our audience: Tammy Lenski (featured in an ADR All-Stars interview in September), publisher of Strategic Conversations, and Chris Bailey, the Director of Membership for the Association for Conflict Resolution in Washington, D.C., and the publisher of the insightful (and imaginatively titled) Alchemy of Soulful Work. (Although I was familiar with his blog, this was the first time I’d had the pleasure of meeting Chris.)

Alchemy of Soulful Work explores the connection and integration of work, home, community, life, and spirit, and offers much to stimulate, inspire, and challenge readers. Be sure to pay Chris a visit at http://imaginactive.typepad.com.

Speaking of blogs and conferences, one of the points we emphasized at yesterday’s workshop was the opportunity conferences and blogs alike afford for networking and meeting others in our field. Blogging, however, because of its capacity for transcending geography and time zones, allows you to network with the entire world.

Case in point: I often hear from folks in the conflict resolution field from countries around the world. The other day I got a friendly e-mail from Geoff Sharp, a commercial mediator and barrister in Wellington, New Zealand, who dropped me a line about this blog. You should stop by Geoff’s web site for two main reasons.

First of all, Geoff has published some terrific articles on mediation, including my personal favorite, “Desert Island Questions for Mediators”. (Given his flair for writing, Geoff should definitely be blogging.)

Secondly, because of its client-friendliness, Geoff’s site could serve as a blueprint for any ADR professional in the process of planning or redesigning a web site. Well organized and informative, the site allows visitors, among other things, to complete an intake form, download Geoff’s agreement to mediate, and even gain some negotiating tips to prepare for mediation.

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By the way, some good news about my fellow bloggers Bob and Dina. Bob’s LawSites earned a coveted place as one of the featured blogs on Law.com’s prestigious Legal Blog Watch. And Dina, who took a short break from blogging this fall to deal with a family emergency, is now back in the saddle at Mediation Mensch, a blog with marketing tips and techniques for the ADR entrepreneur. Dina, a specialist in workplace disputes, was also featured in an article on office conflict appearing in this month’s issue of Inc. magazine. Nice job, Dina.

(Small business owners, take note: read Dina’s recent post to find out how you, too, can be interviewed for a major publication.)

Yesterday I posted about the benefits of blogging for ADR professionals. What’s not to like about a marketing and communication tool that’s absolutely free and rewards you generously for your efforts?

That’s the message that Robert Ambrogi, Dina Beach Lynch, and I are hoping to get across at tomorrow’s Annual Regional Conference for the New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution as part of the workshop we’re leading on blogging.

However, while basically anyone with an Internet connection and a computer can publish a blog, maintaining a blog is serious business. It requires a commitment of time and a willingness to blog regularly. It demands a high level of personal integrity (actually no different from what our own ethical rules demand of us as practitioners), since honesty and credibility count just as much on the Internet as they do in face-to-face interactions.

Creating an authentic and compelling voice is critical to any blogger’s success. As blogger T.L. Pakii Pierce observed on his blog “Blogging for Fun and Profit”, blogging’s effectiveness depends upon the blogger’s ability to build relationship with his or her readers:

Blogs will amplify your message and your reach in a powerful way and at near zero cost when compared to other means of reaching a market with your message. But the price of relationship is the need to continually connect with your market and develop your social network in order to build an authentic and authoritative voice that can be trusted.

Those are wise words indeed.

Staying authentic and real is important. But there are other concerns bloggers should pay attention to. Blogging can land you in all kinds of trouble, and bloggers have been known to lose their jobs because of something they posted, incurred the wrath of other bloggers by failing to observe proper webiquette, or risked violating copyright laws.

To help you stay on the right side of the law (and on the good side of your fellow bloggers) as you begin your adventures in blogging, I offer the following suggestions to my friends in the ADR community (and when in doubt, consult an attorney—this is not intended to be legal advice—I’m speaking as a blogger, not a lawyer):

ETHICAL ISSUES

As practitioners know, model standards abound which define for us the boundaries of appropriate conduct. Be aware that blogging may be considered a form of commercial speech or advertising, so rules for ADR practitioners regarding advertising and solicitation could well apply.

If you are a member of another profession as well, such as the law, you should consult with the standards of conduct for that profession, too, since those codes of conduct may come into play for you as well.

In addition, although there is (yet) no formal blogger code of ethics, some people have made the case that as citizen journalists, responsible bloggers should conduct themselves within an ethical framework. CyberJournalist.net has proposed a “Bloggers’ Code of Ethics” which emphasizes honesty and accountability.

You should definitely read what Rebecca Blood has to say on the subject of blogger ethics. Click here for her insights. (For those of you who haven’t yet heard of her, if blogging had a Mount Rushmore, Rebecca Blood’s face would be carved into it. An influential figure in the blogosphere, Rebecca was an early pioneer of blogging.)

SHOW ME THE MONEY

A few months ago my local paper, the Boston Globe, reported on a practice among bloggers who hawk products or services for businesses without disclosing to their readers that they’re getting paid for doing so. Bloggers need to understand the risks they run when they do this—including the possibility of losing the trust of readers if the compensation comes to light.

My advice to you? Don’t do this.

STAYING OUT OF COURT

Generally speaking, blogging is a safe activity but not without its risks. Blogging could conceivably get you fired from your job, sued for violating defamation or copyright laws, or even subpoenaed to reveal your news sources. To keep you out of trouble, there’s help available online for bloggers.

One of the best resources for bloggers and other citizen journalists is the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). EFF publishes a Legal Guide for Bloggers.

Another great resource can be found at the excellent Reporters Without Borders web site, which offers for downloading in PDF format its Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents.

DON’T STEAL THIS BLOG

In addition to staying out of legal trouble, you also want to stay on the good side of your fellow bloggers and your readers, too. There are some basic etiquette rules that responsible bloggers should observe.

Based on my own experience, I would say that at the top on your list of things to avoid is taking credit for someone else’s ideas. The same rules apply to blogging as they did to your college term papers: don’t plagiarize. Someone did this to me, and, boy, did it make me mad. Bloggers work hard to research and write their posts, and they don’t appreciate it when someone else tries to take the credit for their efforts.

In addition, I can’t overemphasize how important it is to do the following before posting: 1) check your facts; 2) correct any grammar and spelling mistakes; and, most importantly, 3) make sure all the links in your post work–please don’t frustrate your readers by including expired or malfunctioning links.

Finally, if another blogger says something nice about your blog, send them an e-mail personally thanking them. Better yet, if you can, return the favor, and blog about them.

Your mother will be proud.

KEEP IT CLEAN

One of the scourges of the blogging world is the rise of the “splog”, a spam blog created to promote the author’s other web sites and draw visitors.

As this article from the Wall Street Journal explains,

Spammers have created millions of Web logs to promote everything from gambling Web sites to pornography. The spam blogs — known as “splogs” — often contain gibberish, and are full of links to other Web sites spammers are trying to promote. Because search engines like those of Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. base their rankings of Web sites, in part, on how many other Web sites link to them, the splogs can help artificially inflate a site’s popularity. Some of the phony blogs also carry advertisements, which generate a few cents for the splog’s owner each time they are clicked on.

(Thanks to the blog beSpacific for the links on splogging.)

I am embarrassed to say that I have actually encountered some mediation splogs out there. All I can say is: don’t. Do your part to keep the Internet litter-free.

SPREAD THE NEWS

Finally, if you do decide to launch a blog, don’t keep it under your hat. Tell the world. Me, included. I’ve been maintaining a kind of informal census of ADR-related blogs, so let me know so I can add you to my list. And join the ADR Web Ring, maintained by myself and my pal and fellow blogger Dina Beach Lynch, to increase your blog’s visibility on the web.

Anyway, best of luck–hope to see you around the bloggerhood!

Tomorrow is the official start of the Annual Regional Conference of the New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution, a three-day, action-packed event featuring Interviews with the Masters; a Master Class taught by Doug Stone, co-author of conflict resolution classic Difficult Conversations; one full day devoted to workshops and schmoozing; and an Advanced Training led by guerrilla negotiator and ADR bad-boy Robert Benjamin.

Fellow blogonauts Robert Ambrogi and Dina Beach Lynch will be joining me at the Annual Conference to present “Blogging for Fun and Profit”, a workshop aimed at evangelizing ADR professionals to join the exciting world of blogging.

This promises to be a great workshop, given the caliber of my co-presenters. As part of our program, we’re even going to walk our audience through the steps of creating a real, live blog, just to reassure the technophobes that blog publishing is indeed something which can safely be attempted at home. (Since we’re planning on using the sometimes ill-fated Blogger for our demonstration, my fingers are crossed that we won’t run into any technical glitches or unscheduled Blogger outages.)

In the past I’ve urged ADR practitioners to start blogging. Those who aren’t are definitely missing out on a good thing. Why? Five reasons immediately spring to mind:

• It costs nothing to set up and launch a blog–what’s not to like about free?
• Search engines rank blogs highly, which boosts your web presence
• Blogging will increase your name recognition
• All of which make blogs an ideal marketing tool
• And, as an extra bonus blogging connects you with others in your field

If you think blogging is something you’d like to explore, buy yourself a couple of books to introduce yourself to basic concepts, tools, and blog publishing platforms. Start with the obnoxiously titled Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content by Biz Stone. Don’t let the title turn you off–despite the fact it’s starting to show its age, the book provides a solid introduction to blog beginners.

Then follow up with Susannah Gardner’s Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies, designed with the entrepreneur and business professional in mind.

Once you’ve gotten your head around the basics, and you’re ready to become a better blogger, peruse the following three online resources:

ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Building a Better Blog
Rebecca’s Pocket: “Ten Tips for a Better Weblog”
Real Lawyers Have Blogs (great advice for novice and experienced bloggers whether or not you’re a lawyer)

Imitation, as they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. I would encourage you to explore other blogs as well to gain ideas and inspiration for creating your own blog. Take a look at my blogroll over there on the right in my sidebar (under the heading “The Blogs I’m Reading”). There are some top-shelf blogs listed there.

That’s it for now on blogging. Coming up soon: Faux pas and pitfalls: What ADR bloggers should watch out for.

By the way, if you haven’t registered yet for the Conference, there’s still time and space left (although registration is now closed for the Advanced Training with Robert Benjamin). Click here for details and scheduling.