In an interview with Government Computer News, Daniel Rainey, Director of the Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution Services for the U.S. National Mediation Board, makes the case for online dispute resolution (ODR).

Rainey, an internationally recognized authority on ODR, explains how collaborative technology can be used to resolve disputes successfully while saving time and money, as well as to promote online brainstorming and negotiation, streamline the intake process, and facilitate the drafting of agreements once resolution has been reached.

Rainey also discusses the work and upcoming projects of the Interagency Alternative Dispute Resolution Working Group, created to coordinate, promote, and facilitate the effective use of ADR throughout the federal government.

“Daniel Rainey | Online system takes a quick route to resolving disputes” is available at the Government Computer News site.

Rush Nigut at Rush on Business hosts Blawg Review #147. This week’s edition of Blawg Review celebrates RAGBRAI, the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, a seven-day ride across the Hawkeye State. Now in its 36th year, RAGBRAI is the longest, largest and oldest touring bicycle ride in the world — and also includes a hugely popular pork chop grill, conducted by Mr. Pork Chop himself who tours Iowa in a pig-shaped bus.

Blawg Review of course is the weekly review of the best in legal blogging, hosted each week by a different legal blogger. Like RAGBRAI, it’s a tasty treat you won’t want to miss.

(Photo credits: pig by Anka Draganski; bicycle by Michael Zacharzewski.)

Throughout this election season here in the US, there’s been a lot of talk about the candidates and their skills in, or positions on, negotiating.

Barack Obama took heat for saying he’d talk with Iran, as Republican contenders insisted they wouldn’t negotiate with terrorists, while Hillary kept changing her mind whether she would or not.

Meanwhile from the mediation community we’ve heard Robert Benjamin’s views as a hard core negotiator on one of the candidates, countered by a deft parry from conflict management professor Darrell Puls.

With so much at stake here in the U.S. presidential elections — jobs, the economy, health care, foreign relations, national security, the war in Iraq, civil liberties, education, the environment, you name it — it’s surprising that no one’s talking about the negotiation skills of the one person who matters most here: the American voter. That’s the person we should be most concerned with, since it is this person who will ultimately determine (dodgy electronic voting machines and Florida recounts aside) who will occupy the White House in 2009.

What kind of negotiator is this person? How prepared are they for the negotiation in the voting booth? That’s what I want to know.

I therefore propose three negotiation tips for voters to aid them as they decide which political candidate to pull the lever for come November.

Negotiation Tip No. 1: Be prepared.

Many negotiators agree on the importance of preparation. The more you ask questions, the more you listen, the more you learn, the more you’ve taken time to understand the interests at stake and evaluate the options available, the better the position you’re in to negotiate. An election’s no different. Knowledge is power, both at the negotiation table and in the voting booth.

In fact, you owe it to yourself to seek your information from sources that are as reliable and as objective as possible. Forget what the candidates, your favorite radio station, or your Uncle Dave tell you. Visit sites like The Fact Checker, FactCheck.org, or PolitiFact.com to learn what the spin-doctors don’t want you to know. As The Who once said, “Won’t get fooled again.” Let that be your anthem.

Negotiation Tip No. 2: Watch out for cognitive biases.

As humans, we all fall prey to cognitive errors — the mistakes our minds commit as we make decisions or form judgments. In fact, here’s a whole list of them to guard against. In particular, watch out for confirmation bias — the tendency to seek out information that supports your position.

Negotiation Tip No. 3: Arm yourself against the weapons of influence.

In his classic work, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini details our susceptibility to the manipulations of others. He warns of how easily we succumb to influence, what he calls the click, whirr of human behavior. Click, the behavioral trigger is activated. Whirr, we irresistibly respond. For example, researchers have documented how effective authority can be for influencing everything from consumer purchasing decisions (consider the controversy over Dr. Robert Jarvik’s endorsement of Lipitor) to support for a political candidate (think Chuck Norris or Oprah Winfrey).

For a description of the strategies of influence at work, Victoria Pynchon writing at Settle It Now Negotiation Blog lists six basic principles of persuasion that you may already be at the mercy of.

* * * * * * * * * *

With these three tips, you’ll be ready for anything that the pundits and the pols dish out. Just remember, even if you don’t believe in negotiating with terrorists, at least be willing to negotiate with yourself before you vote.

You read that headline right.

No, we’re not talking about dispute resolution professionals mediating naked.

It’s actually dispute resolution for fantasy sports disputes. From the SportsJudge.com site:

In today’s high paced, intensely competitive world, the constant strive for professionalism in fantasy sports is hardly uncommon. Despite this, no one is perfect, and problems do occur. With that in mind, SportsJudge prides itself on providing the most avid and intense fantasy gamers with a dispute resolution method to make sure each and every problem eventually ends with a proper solution.

There’s even a SportsJudge blog.

Hat tip to odr.info for the link.

On Valentine’s Day, romance is in the air.

But not for Charleston, West Virginia radio station WKLC. It’s holding a Valentine’s Day contest to give away a free divorce to one lucky couple.

There’s just a couple of problems. That free divorce — surprise, surprise — doesn’t include the services of a divorce mediator. And it may not be so free — the winner of the contest instead will only get 10 free hours of an attorney’s time.

Ten hours may only be enough to just get you started — especially if you consider the study the Boston Law Collaborative conducted of 199 divorce cases. It found that for divorcing couples, “[m]ediation was by far the least expensive option, with a median cost of $6,600, compared to $19,723 for a collaborative divorce, $26,830 for settlements negotiated by rival lawyers, and $77,746 for full-scale litigation.”

Anyone who has raised kids knows that there is no tougher negotiator than the average nine year old. Help has at last arrived for parents eager to negotiate more effectively with their own children.

The February issue of Negotiation offers tips to “Negotiate Better Relationships with Your Children” (PDF). Negotiation is a monthly newsletter produced by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Learning to negotiate with your kids produces real benefits, including more cooperative children and more trust between parents and children:

Just as smart business negotiators avoid bullying tactics and undue concessions, relationship-centered parents engage in a problem-solving process that enhances cooperation and satisfaction for the entire family. Rather than pretending that conflict always can be avoided or behaving as though kids must be dominated, these parents teach their children to deal with conflict in productive ways.

Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman, professors at Harvard Business School and recognized negotiation experts, have published a paper available to the public for downloading that ponders the “Psychological Influence in Negotiation: An Introduction Long Overdue“. (Direct link to PDF download here.)

For anyone who studies or teaches negotiation, or negotiates frequently (and that, my friends, includes every single one of you — any time you’re trying to talk things through with someone else, you’re negotiating), this paper provides important information presented in an accessible and highly readable format.

This paper discusses the causes and consequences of the (surprisingly) limited extent towhich social influence research has penetrated the field of negotiation, and then presents a framework for bridging the gap between these two literatures. The paper notes that one of the reasons for its limited impact on negotiation research is that extant research on social influence focuses almost exclusively on economic or structural levers of influence. With this in mind, the aper seeks to achieve five objectives:

(1) Define the domain of psychological influence as consisting of those tactics which do not require the influencer to change the economic or structural aspects of the bargaining situation in order to persuade the target;

(2) Review prior research on behavioral decision making to identify ideas that may be relevant to the domain of psychological influence;

(3) Provide a series of examples of how behavioral decision research can be leveraged to create psychological influence tactics for use in negotiation;

(4) Consider the other side of influence, i.e., how targets of influence might defend against the tactics herein considered; and

(5) Consider some of the ethical issues surrounding the use of psychological influence in negotiation.

To consider how best to influence your counterpart at the negotiation table and counter in turn the influence they themselves wield, you’ll want to read more.

For learning more about mastering negotiation, in particular the power of influence and persuasion, Malhotra and Bazerman’s recent book, Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond, serves as an excellent resource.

It’s official — successful professional mediator and ADR marketing coach Tammy Lenski has announced that her book, Making Mediation Your Day Job, is at last on online store bookshelves.

I’ve had a chance to read the book for myself. Here’s what I think:

Shakespeare once wrote, “This above all: to thine own self be true.” These words, written 400 years ago, resonate today. They do so especially for the many professional mediators who cringe at the very thought of marketing — with its associations with shameless self-promotion, glad-handing, and cold-calling. For many mediators, marketing just feels wrong.

Now, at long last, there’s a guidebook that achieves something no other mediation marketing resource has done. It helps mediators do the impossible: become more effective marketers and remain true to themselves and their work. Dr. Tammy Lenski, a mediator and mediation marketing coach who has run her own successful practice since 1997, has created Making Mediation Your Day Job, the definitive resource for mediators who want a realistic, practical blueprint for marketing their practice.

The clue to Dr. Lenski’s formula for success is in the second half of the title of the book: How to Market Your ADR Business Using Mediation Principles You Already Know. She asks readers, “Would you enjoy marketing more if your primary aim isn’t selling and self-promotion? I’m betting most of you would say yes.” Like the skilled practitioner she is, she reframes, inviting readers to see marketing anew, “as dialogue or as a learning conversation”, something mediators already know how to do, and do well.

Using humor, anecdotes, and real-life examples drawn from her clients, her students, and her own experience, Dr. Lenski encourages her readers to step outside their comfort zone and draw upon the professional skills they already have to build opportunities. She also offers sensible productivity tips, business planning advice, and useful exercises that help mediators master marketing.

What also distinguishes this work from the numerous resources available now on mediation marketing is its emphasis on professional integrity — on honoring the profession through a commitment to mediation excellence. Dr. Lenski reminds readers that it’s not just good marketing that matters; mediators also have a duty to uphold standards of excellence and develop their professional skills. She wisely observes, “In the end, it’s the quality of the work you deliver that’s going to help keep the clients coming.”

More than a book, Making Mediation Your Day Job functions like an honest conversation with a wise and caring friend. Dr. Lenski writes as someone who has been there and understands where and why any of us get stuck when it comes to marketing. She’s there to nudge us forward, with encouragement and straight talk. Making Mediation Your Day Job offers authentic, real-world advice for mediators who want to use marketing to take their practice to the next level — and all the while stay true to themselves and their work.

Congratulations, Tammy!

The Invent Blog plays host for this week’s edition of Blawg Review, the weekly review of the best in legal blogging. 

Blawg Review #146 celebrates National Inventors’ Day, which honors the birthday of well known inventor, Thomas Alva Edison.

In June 2006, I launched The World Directory of ADR Blogs at www.adrblogs.com as part of my ongoing effort to track and catalog the slowly growing number of blogs discussing dispute resolution, negotiation, and innovations in law and justice.

It’s a project that has put me in touch with dispute resolution professionals, scholars, and students around the globe and has shown me the many faces of negotiation and ADR across time zones and cultures.

Despite the fact that I created the World Directory to showcase ADR blogs and podcasts, oddly enough ADRblogs.com was not a blog itself but a regular web site. That was a shortcoming that I have at last remedied.

The World Directory of ADR Blogs is now at last a blog all its own, which has made for some much-needed improvements. It’s made it easier for me to update the site and manage all the categories that the listings are organized around. It also means that you can subscribe to its RSS feed or receive email notifications whenever a new site gets added.

The site now includes a search feature on all pages so that visitors can easily locate a listing, as well as a Google Translate My Page tool to make the site friendlier for visitors who speak languages other than English. In the left sidebar you’ll find a list of categories and countries, while in the right sidebar is a list of the 8 most recent additions.

Among those new additions are three blogs well worth reading — the memorably titled mediation meditations by New York attorney and commercial mediator Christian Herzeca, Civil Negotiation and Mediation (a blog that puts the “civil” back in “civil litigation), published by attorney and mediator Nancy Hudgins of California, and the excellent Negotiation Guru, by Jens Thang.

If you publish or know of a blog that should be added to the World Directory, please let me know. It’s a commercial-free site, and there is no cost to be listed. The Directory has information on submitting your blog and some simple submission guidelines.

I hope you’ll stop by the World Directory of ADR Blogs and take a look for yourself. You’ll find a popular feature I kept from the old site — the Reading Room where you can scan the headlines or read the content of the blogs listed at ADRblogs.com.

Enjoy!

The latest edition of the International Dispute Negotiation (IDN) podcast, a series of discussions on hot topics in cross-border commercial conflict resolution, is now available for listening or downloading.

In this episode Michael McIlwrath, Senior Counsel, Litigation for GE Infrastructure - Oil & Gas, and Kathleen Bryan, President of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR), interview Lord Harry Woolf of Barnes, the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Royal Courts of Justice, U.K.

Lord Woolf spearheaded judicial reform in England’s civil justice system, his goal to make justice more accessible to all. His report, Access to Justice (1996), laid the groundwork for the widespread acceptance of mediation and other forms of ADR in England. In the interview, Lord Woolf describes the principles that informed the judicial reform movement and also discusses his views on mediation (”I wanted the litigants to be in control, not the lawyers”).

From the interview:

[We] tried to identify what was it that the litigation system should do. And the first one was to resolve disputes. And the second one was to do so justly.

If you seek intelligent discussion and thoughtful analysis of the issues most relevant to lawyers in international practice and in particular to dispute resolution professionals everywhere, look no further than the International Dispute Resolution podcast series.

The Mediator Magazine, published monthly, delivers news, profiles, columns, and polls dedicated to the art and practice of mediation. Although many of the articles focus on the work of mediators in the U.K., it holds a universal appeal, covering issues of concern to mediators regardless of where in the world they practice.

This month’s issue includes “Global Standards ‘Impossibly Cumbersome’”, a critical look at the efforts of the International Mediation Institute to establish a global mediator competency certification system; “Law-Law better than War-War?”, a discussion of the results of a Mediator Magazine poll that asked readers whether lawyers always make the best mediators; and “Craving Collapse”, which considers whether an economic downturn could be good news for mediators.

The Mediator Magazine is a flash-based site, so I’m not able to link directly to the articles cited here. You’ll need to visit the site yourself to access these and other articles. It’s just too bad this great online resource relies on flash and lacks an RSS feed or an email subscription service so that readers could be notified when new issues are published.

Nonetheless, The Mediator Magazine is worth a look and even a bookmark in your browser.

(With thanks to my friend across the Atlantic, Justin Patten, for alerting me and his other readers to this online publication.)

PART27.com, a web site dedicated to providing resources that help organizations, companies, and agencies create safer workplaces, also publishes Workplace Violence, a blog that delivers news and links to resources for employers and others seeking ways to address and prevent violence at work.

Among the stories covered recently are:

• “Bullying bad for business“
• “Bullied at work: practice costs productivity, health” and
• New European report highlights emerging psychosocial risks in the workplace

Tonight ABC news anchor Charles Gibson eulogized a colleague and friend, retired journalist John McWethy, who died yesterday in a ski accident.

Gibson spoke movingly of McWethy’s commitment to objective reporting and to uncovering the facts: “Jack believed that the most important word, the most powerful word, in the English language is why.”

Those words queued up a film clip of McWethy speaking at a DePauw University graduation ceremony:

All institutions, all endeavors, all relationships, are improved by a good scrubbing, using the word “why”. In democracy it is the question we must all constantly be asking our government and our leaders. It is not unpatriotic to question the government. It is unpatriotic not to.

Here’s a video with negotiation advice for Yahoo in the face of Microsoft’s takeover offer.

(Hat tip to my pal Colin Rule.)