Monthly Archives: June 2009

Please contact me…but kindly read this first if you need advice

Posted on June 30, 2009 | Leave a comment

please contact Mediation ChannelI’ve been blogging for over four years now. During that time I have gotten more emails than I could begin to count from readers asking for advice, looking for help, offering criticism or praise, passing along stuff they knew I’d enjoy, or just getting in touch to say hello. With only a few rare exceptions, I’ve enjoyed hearing from every one of them and have been happy to help when I can.

Your emails continue to come in, more so now than ever. So, to help us both, here are some things for you to know before you contact me.

If you have a conflict you’d like to resolve or you need help preparing for a negotiation or tough conversation…

Please get in touch. I’d be glad to take time to understand what you need and where you want to get to, and answer your questions about how you and I might work together. You can phone me, too, or Skype me.

If you are looking for legal advice…

I’m so sorry, but I can’t help you. Please contact and retain the services of a competent, licensed attorney admitted to practice in your jurisdiction who can give you the advice you need to help you with the decisions you’re facing. I wish you all the best.

If you are a blogger…

It’s always great to hear from a fellow blogger, particularly someone who’s new to blogging. Your fellow bloggers are here to help. If you haven’t done so yet, please read this post, “Just launched a dispute resolution blog? Here are 6 things effective bloggers do“. It contains advice that other bloggers gave me early on when I began blogging. If you have further questions, just give a shout.

If you want advice on becoming a mediator…

Before you contact me with any questions about becoming a mediator, I ask that you carefully read the following posts first, which address issues in mediation training, education, and career opportunities in the United States. They may answer your questions and save us both time:

I’d also suggest that you visit Making Mediation Your Day Job, a superb online resource on career and marketing for mediators by successful conflict resolution professional and educator Dr. Tammy Lenski. I highly recommend to you her book, Making Mediation Your Day Job: How to Market Your ADR Business Using Mediation Principles You Already Know.

If you have specific questions about becoming a mediator in your geographic location…

I practice in the U.S. If you want information on how to become a mediator elsewhere in the world, the best place to find it is to contact mediators in that country to learn about requirements for practice, as well as information about the market there for ADR services.

I practice in Massachusetts. If you want specific, detailed advice about practicing in some other state, I strongly urge you to get in touch with mediators in your area to find out what training, education, or other requirements would be necessary for you to succeed as a mediator there. Find professional membership organizations for mediators; they can be a good resource. Alternatively, visit the web site for the Association for Conflict Resolution where you can locate the regional chapter for your area.

If you’re having trouble finding someone to help you, let me know. I have contacts all over the U.S. and throughout the world. I’d be happy to help however I can.

If you are a recent graduate seeking mediation career advice or have just completed a mediation training…

Have you sought the advice and help of the career services office of your graduating institution? What about your professors? They should all be your starting point. If you haven’t done so already, get in touch with them and ask them for their advice. They’re there to help you.

Ditto for the organization that just trained you, if you have just completed a mediation training program. IMHO, any program worth its salt should be ready to answer your questions, be knowledgeable about issues involving careers in mediation, be prepared to help you take the next steps to continue your training and education as a mediator, and connect you with experienced mentors who can help you develop the capacity to mediate competently. (This is why I cannot emphasize enough the importance of thoroughly vetting any mediation training program before you invest your time and money. Too many training programs are happy to take your money and then send you on your way.)

If you are contemplating a degree program in dispute resolution and have questions about careers in that field…

Contact the career services office of that degree-granting institution. Ask them what their alumni are currently doing and what percentage have full-time employment in the field. Find out what kind of placement support will be available. Contact the faculty as well to ask for their views. If possible, request informational interviews with alumni to ask what they think and what advice they might give.  I can’t tell you whether getting a degree in dispute resolution or some other field makes sense for you; you might want to work with a career coach who can help you with those kinds of choices.

No matter what…

I take the time to personally respond to emails. If you contact me, I would appreciate it if you would be so kind as to acknowledge my reply and let me know that you received it. Sadly, people seem to forget that these days. Please remember that it’s a very small world and little things like that can make a difference. Build relationships wherever you can: it’s what mediation is about after all.

Thank you for taking the time to visit this blog. I appreciate all of my readers and look forward to hearing from you.

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Posted in Blogs and Bloggers, Careers in Mediation, How to Become a Mediator

Mediation credentialing: what about mediation trainers?

Posted on June 24, 2009 | 6 Comments

questions for the mediation fieldMuch discussion has taken place of late about credentialing or certifying mediators or what it means to prepare mediators for competent practice. All too often, number of hours of mediation training serves as proxy for proficiency and skill.  That is certainly the case in Massachusetts, which has a law protecting mediation communications from disclosure in court only if the mediation is conducted by a mediator who has, among other things, completed at least 30 hours of training. Recently mediators in Massachusetts considered increasing those hours from 30 to 40, although discussions stalled out and are now on hold.

Time and again I have heard Massachusetts mediators defend this provision, arguing that it protects the public.  In reality, it does not. Why? Two reasons. One, the 30 hours were pulled from thin air – an arbitrary number made up by the drafters of the Massachusetts law. And two, mediation trainers and training programs that prepare mediators for private practice are unregulated. Just as anyone can hold themselves out as a mediator in private practice, so, too, can anyone hold themselves out as a trainer of mediators. Quality of programs vary widely; some programs are good and some are not. Even if a mediator has 30 or 40 or 400 hours of training, where’s the assurance that any of that training was conducted by competent, knowledgeable instructors?

As we discuss what it takes to prepare individuals to become effective mediators, we must also be willing to look at what it takes to prepare individuals to teach or train mediators.

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Posted in Mediation, Mediation Ethics, Mediation Training, Mediator Certification and Credentialing

ADR practitioners to follow on Twitter

Posted on June 22, 2009 | 24 Comments

Mediators on TwitterYesterday I offered some tips on using Twitter for ADR practitioners. I promised to follow it up with a post pointing you to members of the dispute resolution community you might like to follow on Twitter.

The following are names no doubt familiar to Mediation Channel readers. All bloggers, these are folks I associate with friendly conversation and links to interesting articles and web sites. In each case the name links directly to the corresponding Twitter profile:

Other nice folks from the ADR community on Twitter that you might enjoy connecting with include these:

This is by no means a complete list of all the ADR practitioners, scholars, supporters, and students on Twitter, and I intend no slight to anyone whose name I didn’t include. If you’re a dispute resolution practitioner on Twitter, please post a comment to this post and provide your name and Twitter handle. Or, recommend an ADR professional, scholar, or student that you know on Twitter.

Of course if you’d like to follow me on Twitter, you can find me at @dianelevin.

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Posted in Networking and Social Media for Mediators, Tech and Business Tips for Mediators

Remembering Morad: thoughts on Iran and US relations

Posted on June 21, 2009 | Leave a comment

Iran and US relationsHour by hour, print, TV, and web sources bring news, narratives and dramatic images from Iran of protests and violence as Iranians take to the streets to voice opposition to the results of the recent presidential election.

The news from Tehran has brought back memories from a summer long ago. In 1976, a 17-year-old just a year away from high school graduation, I spent the summer studying Russian language in the Norwich University Summer Russian School, a full-immersion Russian language and cultural program. Norwich, a private military college in Northfield, Vermont, was also the site of another kind of cultural exchange program. Enrolled at Norwich at that time were about 30 members of the Iranian Imperial Navy, young men given the opportunity to study in the U.S.

One of them, Morad, became my friend. When I wasn’t studying myself or involved in Russian School activities, I would hang out with him, taking long walks or gamely learning tennis under his patient tutelage. He was 20 years old, far from home for the first time in his life. He missed his family, particularly his sister, and his friends in Tehran, and would describe his life with them back home. We constituted our own small cultural exchange program as we asked each other questions and eagerly swapped stories about life in our respective countries.  He spoke English flawlessly, enjoyed language study, and appreciated my own curiosity about foreign languages. He was pleased when I asked him to teach me some words of Persian, and he happily did so, pointing out the similarities between his native language and mine, both Indo-European tongues.

As I recall, he phoned me once or twice after I’d returned home when my program ended, and then we soon lost touch as kids do. In 1979 the Shah fell from power, toppled in the Islamic Revolution, and months later the U.S. severed all diplomatic ties. At that time I thought of him and the other young men from the Iranian Navy and feared for their fate on their return.

The news from Iran resurrects these half-forgotten memories of a long-ago friendship. I wonder where Morad is now and whether he is safe. I think how fortunate I was to meet him, to learn something of his country and language with their ancient cultural roots, and to spend a little time with him — two kids, just talking and hanging out.

If only diplomacy were so simple. If only our shared humanity and mutual curiosity were enough.

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Posted in Conflict Resolution, Global and Cultural Awareness, Random Musings

Twitter tips for mediators: how ADR professionals can get the most from this social media tool

Posted on June 21, 2009 | 11 Comments

TwitterIt’s almost impossible these days to pick up a newspaper or turn on the nightly TV news or your favorite radio station without reading or hearing something about Twitter.

Twitter is a free (at least for now) communication and social networking utility that allows you to post brief messages, known as “tweets” to others. Twitter invites users to respond to the question “What are you doing?”, using either their computers or cellphones to answer. Brevity is among Twitter’s virtues (and also its drawbacks – it is not the medium for carrying on nuanced conversation) — messages on Twitter are limited to 140 characters.

After long resisting Twitter’s allure, I finally set aside my suspicions and tried it out. I remain today a regular Twitter user. So what have I gotten out of Twitter? There are two chief reasons I have stuck with it — 1)  it’s a fun way to connect with smart, interesting people you might not meet otherwise; and 2) it’s a great source of news and information or a good place to spot trends that affect one’s work. (I’ve got two main reasons, but mediator and blogger Steve Mehta has identified 22 reasons that he uses Twitter.) In sum, Twitter serves as my digital town square. To amplify:

Connecting with others. Twitter is part of the web of phenomena known as “social media” – tools that enable people to communicate directly with each other. It has introduced me to people right in my own backyard, as well as those located elsewhere around the globe. It’s also provided another communication channel with folks I already know, since Twitter permits both public and private messaging (use care when you post that you are not telegraphing sensitive information to the whole world). I enjoy these brief how-are-you’s as we pass each other, on our way to work for the day or home at the end of an evening. There’s a distinct pleasure, too, in experiencing the rhythms of the waking or dreaming world, as a colleague in New Zealand winds down with late-night TV while I drink my morning coffee.

Information, news, and trends. My favorite Twitter users do much more than answer the question “What are you doing?” They are also telling followers what they are reading or watching or thinking about. They share links to articles on topics that interest me. They pose questions in turn, asking for advice, recommendations on products or service providers, or solutions for problems at home or at work. Twitter can be a good place to go to get help – or offer it.

I use Tweetdeck, a tool that runs from my desktop, to sort and manage the flood of information Twitter produces, and also to monitor certain keywords or key phrases relevant to my work. This lets me use Twitter to track public attitudes or perceptions about ADR, or to understand how and why people use or choose not to use mediation, or why mediation or other processes for resolving disputes succeed or fail. Twitter can also help me tune in to the problems that people face as they grapple with their own disputes or upcoming negotiations to help me rethink the way I offer or describe services. Twitter gives me an additional source of data as I listen in on the flow of conversation; many people post messages as they wait in the hallway during mediations.

So how can an ADR professional use Twitter well?

Numerous social media experts have already written countless blog posts and print articles dispensing advice, good and bad, about Twitter. Conscientious Twitter citizen Amy Derby, who writes about blogging for lawyers at Law Firm Blogger, recently rounded up the best with a trio of posts with tips and how-to’s on Twitter. While ostensibly for lawyers, the advice in these posts apply equally to ADR professionals. I particularly recommend “Lawyer Twitter Practices: 29 Do’s and Don’ts” and “Figuring out Twitter“.

My own best advice includes these:

Be helpful. When I began using Twitter, a number of good Samaritans introduced me to their followers, offered me tips to make the most of my Twitter experience, and patiently answered my questions or pointed me in the direction of helpful resources to orient me to Twitter. Even those new to Twitter (and that includes you!) can be helpful.  If someone asks a question and you have the answer or the know-how, respond. Someone will appreciate hearing from you.

Provide good content. Twitter is about sharing, not self-promotion. That’s advice I’ve heard others offer, and it’s true. Rather than linking repeatedly to your own site, share links to articles you’ve found stimulating, online content that makes you think, or to online tools that simplify tasks for work or home. Share stuff you’ve learned, ideas you’re mulling over, or something that made you laugh out loud. (By the way, before you link, be careful that the site you’re pointing followers to is legitimate and not a spam blog.) Or recommend another Twitter user you admire to your followers.

Tell followers who you are. When you set up a Twitter account, you create a profile that includes your name, location, your web site, and your bio, and you have the ability to customize your Twitter profile image and background. If you’re planning to use Twitter for business, then when you set up your Twitter account, take time to personalize your Twitter profile. Use your real name and not a pseudonym. Prepare a bio that says something about you in 140 characters – who you are, what you do, perhaps your interests or hobbies. Add a link to your web site or, if you don’t have one yet, your LinkedIn profile. Swap out the default Twitter profile image for one of your own and customize your Twitter background. Before you make your official Twitter debut and let people know you’re on Twitter, take time to post several “tweets” as well to give prospective followers a sense of who you are and what you have to say. Also, if you’re planning to use Twitter for business networking, it can be helpful to provide your location so that others in your geographic area can find you. (I’ve temporarily listed my location as “Tehran” in support of Iranian citizens protesting the recent election results, but otherwise mine lists Greater Boston as my geographic base.) Giving your location can serve as a conversation starter, since prospective followers may have visited your town, grown up or studied there, or have family or friends nearby. (One caveat: be careful about “tweeting” that you’re going out of town on vacation; the criminally minded may be monitoring Twitter.)

Monitor and respond to replies and direct messages. Twitter is a form of social media, so use Twitter to be sociable. If someone mentions you in a “tweet”, reply to them and say thanks. If someone sends you a direct message, be courteous and reply. And don’t stand around waiting for someone to “talk” to you – by all means strike up conversation with people you’d like to get to know better, as well as colleagues or friends you’ve been fortunate to find on Twitter.

Be genuine. Avoid Twitter tools that generate automatic messages to people who follow you. I can spot these canned messages instantly, and they provide me with a reason to “unfollow” someone. If someone follows you, take a moment to reply and thank them; Twitter is about building relationships after all. (One caveat: Twitter is plagued by spam accounts, so be careful who you follow back and reply to. See “Be careful”, just below.)

Be careful out there. Twitter, like any community, has bad parts of town to steer clear of. Some Twitter accounts are created solely for the purpose of wasting your time or taking your money. Before following someone, check them out first. Have they bothered to change the default Twitter image with a photo of their own? Have they provided their location? A link to their web site?  What does their bio have to say about them? What kinds of updates do they post to Twitter – do they link to content you find interesting?  On principle I avoid following anyone whose bio claims they a) are an SEO expert, b) can help me make money online, c) get me thousands of followers on Twitter, or d) can get me out of debt fast. Twitter experts will tell you to pay attention to the follower/following/updates ratio. If someone is following 1000 people but only has 50 followers and has posted only 2 updates, watch out; there’s something fishy going on.

By the way, if you’d like to follow me on Twitter, my Twitter handle is @dianelevin.

Coming next: ADR practitioners to follow on Twitter.

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Posted in Networking and Social Media for Mediators, Tech and Business Tips for Mediators

Just launched a dispute resolution blog? Here are 6 things effective bloggers do

Posted on June 14, 2009 | 16 Comments

ADR bloggingAs a blogger who’s been at this now for over four years, I have been fortunate enough to know first-hand the impact of blogging on the way ADR professionals practice.  As a social media tool, blogging has transformed the way I network, helping me forge ties around the world with dispute resolution professionals and others committed to changing the way people respond to conflict. Writing a blog has honed my thinking, and sharpened my ability to spot emerging trends and advances that have bearing on the work I do. And I read blogs myself for breaking news, incisive analysis, and links to content relevant to my practice. In fact, during the four years I’ve been blogging and avidly reading other blogs, I’ve learned, reflected, and deepened my understanding about mediation, conflict resolution, and negotiation more than I did in the nine years that preceded that.

As the webmaster for ADRblogs.com, a site that tracks blogs globally that discuss ADR and conflict resolution (which just celebrated its third anniversary by the way), I have seen quite a few ADR blogs come and go. Consequently I’ve gotten pretty good at predicting which ones will last and which will rapidly fade away into obscurity. The ones that thrive do so because their owners developed certain habits. If you have just launched a blog, or have been blogging for a while now without seeing your readership increase, you may be interested in these observations that I share here now – 6 things that effective conflict resolution bloggers do:

Create worthwhile content for readers. A blog provides you with the ability to share what you know, and there are many ways to do it. Recount a personal anecdote that illustrates how negotiation can work in the real world. Explain how you handled a difficult client.  Share what you learned from a student in the conflict resolution class you teach. Tell your readers about an inspiring book you’ve just finished or a web site that got you thinking. Pose a question to your readers and invite their ideas. Give your opinion and ask readers and other bloggers for their reaction. What to avoid: Flagrant self-promotion turns readers off. If all your posts do is pitch goods or services you sell, you’ll alienate not just readers but also fellow bloggers who otherwise might be happy to send readers your way. In addition, all too often I see new bloggers copy and paste in their entirety articles from other sources, without bothering to contribute their own observations or opinions to add value to the post. That’s okay once in a while but don’t make it a habit. Instead, let your own voice come through loud and clear.

Learn the lingo. Good news! There are really only a couple of words you need to know: “blog” and “post”.  “Blog” can be a verb or a noun. As a verb, “blog” means to compose and publish an entry (known as a “post”) on your blog,. As a noun, “blog” is what your entire blog is called. A “post” is an individual entry. Please do not call a “post” a “blog”; that’s a common newbie mistake. One other concept you should be familiar with is “RSS feed”. They’re like belly buttons – every blogger has one.  RSS feeds make it possible for people to subscribe to and read blogs easily, and your blog should already come equipped with one. Daniel Schwartz at Connecticut Employment Law Blog has written a brilliant explanation of RSS feeds – please read it. (Not to worry, there won’t be a quiz on this tomorrow.) (And thanks to Geoff Sharp for pointing it out.)

Remember to link to others – it’s called “social media” for a reason. Blogs are based on reciprocity; in fact, the currency of the blogosphere is links, inbound and outbound. Successful bloggers link out to other blogs and sites, sending readers away to good content. Outbound links in fact exude confidence, as well known blogger Brian Clark has written, and signal a willingness to engage in a robust exchange of ideas with fellow bloggers. Bloggers often respond by returning the favor and linking back. Inbound links  to your blog are vital, increasing its visibility and bringing new visitors to your site. Last summer I wrote a post reminding ADR bloggers of the importance of linking and the social side of blogging – please read it. Even experienced bloggers sometimes overlook this; recently I was dismayed to notice that an ADR blogger discussed a post of mine but did not link to it. An oversight? Nope – this blogger simply does not link to others. Too bad – they’re devaluing their own blog in the process. Don’t let their mistake be yours: link regularly.

Give credit for others’ ideas. Blogging is like writing term papers in college: you have to credit your sources or you might be accused of plagiarism. If you write a post about an interesting article, news story, or web site that you learned of on someone else’s blog, give credit to that other blogger and – this is the really important part – link back to their post. Incidentally, linking back helps weave the web of conversation that blogging produces – your link back serves as a response to or a riff upon a thought or idea. Links get people talking.

Express appreciation. If another blogger says something nice about your blog on their blog or recommends you to their readers, write a comment to that post thanking them. Or send them an e-mail personally thanking them. Heck, do both. Better yet, return the favor, and blog about them. Make your mom proud.

If you screw up, apologize. I’ve done it. I bet you have, too. It’s not the end of the world. Take responsibility. Apologize. Fix it.

P.S. One other thing. If you do have a dispute resolution blog, tell other bloggers about it. Don’t keep it a secret. We’re here to help.

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Posted in Blogs and Bloggers, Tech and Business Tips for Mediators

Site tracking mediation, dispute resolution blogs world-wide, ADRblogs.com, turns three

Posted on June 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

ADRblogs.comThe World Directory of ADR Blogs, at ADRblogs.com, turned three on June 5. ADRblogs.com grew out of a project I began in 2005 to track and catalog dispute resolution blogs world-wide. Today it tracks over 200 blogs from 30 countries around the globe.

Recent additions to ADRblogs.com include

  • The Divorce Collaborative, covering divorce and family mediation and collaborative law with a Massachusetts perspective, by Stephen McDonough and Laurie Martucci
  • MediAsian, which explores mediation and dispute resolution in Asia, especially, but not exclusively, South East Asia, published by Ian Macduff, a relocated New Zealander – born in Malaysia, now living and working in Singapore.
  • Kluwer Arbitration Blog, discussing news and issues in international commercial arbitration.

No passport is needed to explore the world of dispute resolution and negotiation blogging. Just go visit ADRblogs.com.  Submissions, of course, are always welcome.

Incidentally, ADRblogs.com is itself a blog, so to stay on top of new blogs as they join the conversation about all things related to conflict resolution, ADR, negotiation, restorative justice, and people-centered innovations in law and justice, subscribe to its RSS feed or sign up for notifications by email when new sites are added.

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Posted in Blogs and Bloggers, Global and Cultural Awareness, World Directory of ADR Blogs

Negotiation teaching 2.0: new book rethinks current approaches, considers culture

Posted on June 8, 2009 | 2 Comments

negotiation training - the second generation“But we’ve always done it this way” all too often stifles fresh thinking or bars the way to needed change. That’s why now and again it doesn’t hurt to shake things up.

And shaking things up in the world of negotiation training and teaching is a new book, Rethinking Negotiation Teaching: Innovations for Context and Culture, edited by ADR movers and shakers Chris Honeyman, James Coben, and Giuseppe De Palo. Published by DRI Press, an imprint of the Dispute Resolution Institute at Hamline University School of Law, this book is available at Amazon.com and, best of all, as chapter-by-chapter PDF downloads at the Hamline web site.

In his introduction, Honeyman explains why it’s time to reconsider how negotiation is taught:

The completion of one generation offers a classic moment to take stock in full of any social innovation. By some measures, including market success across a variety of disciplines, the teaching of negotiation has been a great success story, and has been relatively consistent. The cohesiveness and attractiveness of the interest-based model across law, business, public policy, international relations, urban planning, and other fields have been remarkable. From a base of essentially zero courses in 1979, nearly every law or business school in the U.S. now has at least one course in negotiation, and many other countries are at various points on the same path. But that very success has combined with the inchoate nature of an interdisciplinary field to mask the inherent challenge created by the separate discoveries of many disciplines.

Over the last three decades those discoveries have been many. But by and large, they have not yet been incorporated in current teaching in any organized or consistent way. This book, together with the simultaneous publication of the Spring 2009 issue of Nego-tiation Journal, [Volume 25(2), with a special section guest-edited by the same editors], marks the first results of an interdisciplinary effort to make sense of these discoveries. We intend to revamp the teaching of our field across many settings and cultures.

I have already begun to dip into this superb collection of articles. Among those that grabbed my attention are these:

  • “Moving Up: Positional Bargaining Revisited“, by Noam Ebner and Yael Efron. (“If we are going to teach our negotiators to succeed in real life, they contend, we are going to have to teach them to bargain. The authors offer a fully worked-out exercise to do just that.”)
  • “Reflective Practice in the New Millennium“, by Michelle LeBaron and Mario Patera. (“LeBaron and Patera use their own cultures – Canadian and Austrian respectively – to examine the teaching assumptions of a group of top-flight teachers of negotiation. They discover a number of unstated theoretical assumptions, heavily influenced by Western thought in general and U.S. culture in particular, and demonstrate alternate assumptions which might better guide second generation training”)
  • “Death of the Role-Play“, by Nadja Alexander and Michelle LeBaron. (“Alexander and LeBaron argue for a…determination toward removing role-plays from their enthroned position in negotiation training. Their substitution by younger, more vigorous teaching tools, they argue, would be good for the commonweal.”)

If you’re a negotiation trainer or teacher who’s ready to reboot their own thinking about how to teach negotiation, this is one book you’ll want to add to your shelf.

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Posted in ADR Scholarship, Books for Mediators and Negotiators, Global and Cultural Awareness, Negotiation and Settlement, Online Publications and Articles on ADR

Dispute resolution job posting: Meta-Culture seeks trainer, facilitator and mediator

Posted on June 8, 2009 | Leave a comment

Meta-CultureI am honored to call friend the visionary entrepreneur and international dispute resolution professional Ashok Panikkar, who is the executive director of Meta-Culture, the only integrated dispute and relationship management consulting group in the Indian subcontinent. Meta-Culture, based in Bangalore, is in fact two companies: Meta-Culture Consulting (MCC), a corporate and social consulting business, and Meta-Culture Dialogics (MCD), a non-profit center that works in the community space.

Fast-growing and successful, Meta-Culture is currently hiring, seeking an experienced trainer, facilitator and mediator to deliver training programs, facilitate dialogue and conduct interventions in the field of conflict management and allied subjects. Primary responsibilities for the position include:

  • Client management and liaison with multinational companies and various social sector organizations in India and abroad.
  • Conducting innovative training programs in the areas of Conflict Management, Mediation, Negotiation, Cross-Cultural Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity and Innovation.
  • Conducting diagnostics interviews, focus groups and needs assessments for training and consulting projects.
  • Preparing concept notes and recommendations for assessments and interventions.
  • Mediating disputes in the workplace and community.
  • Managing projects through their entire life cycle.

For further details, click here to download the complete job posting (PDF), along with information on qualifications and compensation. Inquiries or resumés with a cover letter may be directed to Rachel Burks, email Rachel@meta-culture.in, or call: +91-80-4152-4785/+91-80-4117-2421. Good luck to job hunters, and my best wishes to Meta-Culture, which celebrated its fourth anniversary on May 2.

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Posted in Careers in Mediation

Lawyers are from Mars, clients from Venus: differing perceptions of mediation documented in new book

Posted on June 5, 2009 | 5 Comments

lawyers and their clients inhabit parallel worldsAfter attending a breakout session at the 2009 ABA Section on Dispute Resolution Spring Meeting titled  “What Do Litigators Want from Mediation?”, I decided it was high time to ask “What about clients?“, writing a post that called for much closer attention to the needs of those directly affected by disputes. I’m glad I did, since it turns out that my readers and I are not the only ones concerned about questions of that kind.

The June 2009 newsletter of the Resolution Systems Institute is out and includes a review of a recent book (PDF), Perceptions in Litigation and Mediation: Lawyers, Defendants, Plaintiffs, and Gendered Parties, by Dr. Tamara Relis, a British Academy Research Fellow in the Law Department of the London School of Economics and Political Science.  Relis’s book describes a vast perceptual gulf between lawyer and client, who hold opposing views and expectations of mediation. From the review:

Relis uses quotes effectively to demonstrate the parallel worlds lawyers and parties inhabit. Moving chronologically from parties’ aims in litigation through their experiences with mediation, the quotes show that lawyers’ and clients’ views and experiences were often completely different. When asked what the plaintiffs wanted from litigation, lawyers unanimously stated it was entirely, or primarily, money. Plaintiffs, on the other hand, discussed a need for explanation, admission of fault by the doctor and/or hospital, and apology. Money was not their focus. These parallel worlds had a significant impact on the cases, the mediations and the resolutions because lawyers maintained control…

Relis documents striking differences not only between lawyers and clients but also between men and women:

Interviews also indicated gender differences among lawyers and parties in perspective and approach to mediation, and among mediators in their ability to control the lawyers. Female lawyers were more likely to see merit in the emotional aspect of mediation. Female parties were more likely to feel trepidation about the mediation, to be more concerned about how their statements were perceived, to be influenced by mediators’ statements and behavior, and to be less likely to talk during the mediation. Female mediators were viewed by the parties as being less in control of the lawyers and the mediation.

An excerpt from the first chapter is available for downloading.

Dr. Relis is also the author of an earlier work, “Consequences of Power,” an article that appeared in Harvard Negotiation Law Review and  available as a PDF download at the Social Science Research Network.  It describes a disconnect between attorneys’ objectives and those of their clients and shows that the intentions of plaintiffs and defendants in mediation are more closely aligned than one might suppose–and  all too often thwarted in their desire to communicate with each other.

I hope that my brothers and sisters at the bar are listening.

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Posted in ADR Scholarship, Attorneys and Mediators, Books for Mediators and Negotiators, Gender Matters, Mediation