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.)

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

(Hat tip to my pal Colin Rule.)

Economics professor David K. Levine defines game theory this way:

What economists call game theory psychologists call the theory of social situations, which is an accurate description of what game theory is about. Although game theory is relevant to parlor games such as poker or bridge, most research in game theory focuses on how groups of people interact.

Of particular interest to conflict resolution professionals and scholars is the use of game theory to shed light on the way people behave when they negotiate or resolve disputes. (One of my favorite examples of this is the recent game theory analysis of the toilet seat problem.)

If you’re a game theory enthusiast, you’ll enjoy reading Game Theory Tuesdays, a weekly column by economics consultant and self-proclaimed math nerd Presh Talwalkar at Mind Your Decisions, a blog about personal finance, decision-making, negotiation, and, yes, game theory.

This week’s column has ideas on how to get someone to cooperate. Presh is an engaging writer with a great capacity for honest self-reflection and a talent for bringing game theory to life with real-world anecdotes. You definitely don’t have to be a math nerd to enjoy Game Theory Tuesdays.

You wouldn’t expect that a military web site would be a great resource for the peace-loving conflict resolution crowd, but you’d be wrong.

Air Force University maintains on its web site one of the most comprehensive lists of creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making resources I think I’ve ever encountered. Find links to information on everything from emotional intelligence to creativity and innovation to fallacies in logic.

Happy browsing.

Just a few stories spotted in my travels around the web that piqued my interest and hopefully yours as well, dear reader:

In a new twist on the old maxim, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” The Illinois Trial Practice Blog has advice for new lawyers: learn from people more experienced than you — like your opponent.

Robert Ambrogi at Legal Blog Watch reports on the results of a first-of-its-kind video contest sponsored by the State of Texas Bar, Lone Star Stories: Texans on Justice. The contest rules were simple:

Create a three-minute-or-less video that captures your vision of the importance and value of the justice system in our daily lives.

You can view the winning videos at Youtube. Ambrogi’s favorite? “Like Justice for Chocolate“. Mine, too. Go see for yourself.

China Law Blog has advice on cultural awareness in business contexts that can be boiled down to four blunt words: “Don’t Be An Asshole“.

That’s also the workplace advice from Bob Sutton as he reports on the results of a study that indicate that when people are treated rudely, their performance suffers.

It’s advice, if followed, that could put mediators and lawyers out of business.

Science Daily explains how “The Mind And Body Together Lean Toward ‘Truthiness’” — in other words, “the more ambiguous an answer to a question, the more likely an individual will believe it is truthful”.

Finally, Cognitive Daily reports on “What you know, and how it’s different from what you remember” — it’s not just a linguistic difference.

Fans like me of optical illusions will want to mark their calendars. May 11, 2008, is the date set for the 4th Annual Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest, held in Naples, Florida. This is a contest that takes illusion seriously — even the trophies that three lucky winners will receive are optical illusions.

You can view the work of previous contestants, which include enough visual marvels to delight and surprise even the most jaded illusion enthusiast, among them the world’s largest lightness illusion, “how many circles do you see?“, and bouncing brains.

A word of caution — you may want to pop a couple of Dramamine before viewing some of the entries.

Incidentally, I’ve added “Optical Illusions” as a category on this blog. Feel free to explore.

(Hat tip to Omni Brain.)

You must have noticed it.

That odd silence that fell over this corner of the blogosphere, where the mediators hang out.

Yes, some of us were still posting. But something was different. The rhythm was off somehow. You could sense it.

But now, following a month-long hiatus from blogging, he’s back, and with him all the energy and spark and light that filled this end of cyberspace.

And I’ll stop right there, because I know I’m probably embarrassing hell out of him.

Geoff Sharp has returned with this lovely tribute to Edmund Hillary and the achingly beautiful place Geoff calls home.

Road trip to New Zealand, anyone?

A new mediation blog has moved into the neighborhood. mediatorinthemaking.com covers “adventures in learning the practice of mediation”.

Published by an anonymous blogger, identified only as “a newly trained mediator seeking experience wherever I can find it, learning quite a lot as I put my new skills into practice”, this days-old blog already shows promise with “The future’s so bright“, a post that announces the release of U.S. News & World Report’s listing of best careers for 2008 — and the fact that “mediator” makes the list for the first time.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should tell you that I have the pleasure of knowing the anonymous blogger behind mediatorinthemaking.com. Although like a good mediator, I will keep that information to myself, without giving anything away I can tell you that this individual is bright, talented, and promising to be one of the mediation field’s success stories.

It’s therefore my pleasure to send my best wishes and congratulations to the anonymous author of mediatorinthemaking.com. I hope you’ll do the same.

(Photo credit: Afonso Lima.)

How others see us may be very different from how we see ourselves.

But how to map the overlaps and gaps between their perception and our own? How can we see that self more completely?

Professional mediator and tech expert Tammy Lenski points us to a tool that can help us see that total picture: an interactive Johari window that allows users to map personality awareness with the aid of friends, family, and colleagues.

Interested in finding more online tools that test self-knowledge? Visit this post from the MediationChannel.com vaults: “Hidden agenda: online test reveals conscious and subconscious biases“, which links to several, including Project Implicit, which tests for implicit associations, and the Moral Sense Test, an ongoing study of moral intuition.

According to today’s Boston Globe, the University of Leicester has published a Global Projection of Subjective Well Being, or, in layperson’s terms, a world map of happiness.

Which countries are among the 20 happiest? They include Denmark in the #1 slot; Canada, #10; and New Zealand, #18. The U.S. ranks 23rd, while the U.K. is #41 and India #125.

Click here for the list or here for the map (scroll down to see the map image).

This week’s round-up of conflict resolution links include the following:

The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel has advice when it comes to ADR agreements in “ADR Trends for 2008“, which includes the recommendation that “Counsel must also give consideration to the extent to which it is important to maintain an ongoing business relationship with the other parties to the transaction. In such cases it is particularly helpful to include a stepped ADR clause, such as one that requires negotiation and then mediation before resorting to arbitration.”

Speaking of ADR agreements, Workplace Prof Blog points to a recent article by Professor Jean Sternlight, “In Defense of Mandatory Binding Arbitration (If Imposed on the Company)“.

Chicago Family Law Blog describes the ingredients necessary for a “Successful Divorce Mediation“, while CNN.com gives readers “Six Tips to manage workplace conflict“.

For those who ask, “Why can’t we all just get along?”, FriendlyAtheist.com offers “An Atheist and a Christian: A Love Story“, which explains how love can triumph over differences:

But how does a relationship like this last? If you ask Kate and Erik, they’ll laugh and tell you they have no idea. (That’s not a joke; they’re serious.) But it turns out they both share core values and a passion to find the truth, whatever it may be.

They also have strong communication and conflict-resolution skills. They both strive to understand each other instead of trying to change the other. If an interfaith relationship with two passionate people is going to work, they say, you can’t be under the delusion that you will change your partner. Not when it comes to faith.

(Emphasis added.) One can only speculate whether what works for Kate and Erik will also work for Democrats and Republicans.

While we’re on the subject of politics, In These Times looks at misguided foreign policy in “No Talking to the Enemy: Both the U.S. and Iranian governments have stopped dialogues between citizens seeking peaceful resolution“.

Spotted at the Princeton Review web site (the company that American high school and college students have to thank for standardized tests) was this (badly researched) career profile for a mediator, containing this nugget of wisdom: “Although ADR sounds like a terrible syndrome, it’s in fact a more Zenlike approach to conflict resolution, with mediators as the master practitioners.”

Finally, to see how mediators are celebrating the New Year, check out the following posts:

Chris Annunziata takes “A Fresh Approach to New Year’s Resolutions”

Victoria Pynchon bids a colorful welcome to 2008.

Stephanie West Allen greets 2008 with hope and a smile.

Tammy Lenski invites readers to try on the 8 hats of a mediation entrepreneur.

Dina Beach Lynch offers a blogging plan for mediators for 2008.

Year’s end is a time for looking forward and also for looking back, as we take stock of where we’ve been, while we consider the journey ahead of us.

As part of that annual tradition, I’ve pulled together the posts from 2007 that have been the most frequently visited, the ones that drew the most comments and emails, or that are simply my favorites.

I hope you enjoy them.

From January:

“Is your negotiating style leaving value on the table?”

“Mediator certification and credentialing: getting accurate information on becoming a mediator”

“Bridging the divide between lawyers and mediators” - a three-part series

From February:

“Sunshine is the best disinfectant: Bob Sutton’s “The No Asshole Rule” gets an age-old workplace problem out into the open”

Blawg Review #94 - The Getting to Yes Edition

From March:

“What’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding? Thoughts on why we’re not getting to yes”

“Since when is changing your mind a bad thing?”

“Seeing ourselves as others see us: the art of feedback”

From April:

“Why I will not be observing One Day Blog Silence”

“Chicken peacekeepers mediate bunny turf war”

“Are mediators hindering a civil right to counsel? One scholar says yes”

From May:

“In This Case: blog allows people to tell their personal stories about the law”

“Does ADR deliver justice?”

From June:

“Premature negotiation: how to get rid of performance anxiety at the mediation table”

“The ups and downs of conflict: a game theory analysis of the toilet seat issue”

From July:

“Nothing but the truth: Radical Honesty movement proposes a world without deception”

From August:

“Won’t get fooled again: negotiating with liars”

“Mediator nominated for Congressional Order of Merit by National Republican Congressional Committee”

“Requiem for a friend”

From September:

“Art education may help prepare future lawyers (and mediators)”

“Free stuff online to help ADR professionals run their businesses”

From October:

Blawg Review #130 - the Double Hemisphere Edition co-hosted with fellow mediator Geoff Sharp

“(In)justice for all: the case against arbitration clauses in consumer contracts”

“Apologies can improve the health of hospital-patient relations”

From November:

“In weighing the Uniform Mediation Act, Massachusetts mediators may be poised to repeat mistakes of the past”

“How to turn a simple misunderstanding into all-out war: a mediator’s advice”

From December:

“In celebration of the ADR blogosphere: blogging transforms how we talk about dispute resolution”

“Out of the mouths of babes: a child’s guide to the law”

“Optical illusions as a training tool for mastering negotiation and conflict resolution skills”

A happy 2008 to all of you! And thanks as always for stopping by to visit.

Incidentally, in just a few days, in time for my third anniversary of blogging, big changes are coming to this blog. I’m pulling up stakes here at Blogger.com — Online Guide to Mediation will get both a new home (currently under construction) and a new name — plus an easier-to-remember domain name, too.

Plus I’ll be welcoming in the new year with a special series: on each of the first seven days of January, I’ll be posting “New Year (Dispute) Resolutions”.

Stay tuned!

In less than a month I’ll be celebrating Online Guide to Mediation’s third anniversary. Looking back, I marvel at how radically things have changed since my early days of blogging.

With all things web-related, change occurs rapidly and time accelerates. Last year is ancient history and yesterday is old news. Those three years have witnessed some radical change.

When I launched OGM, it was mighty lonely out here for anyone blogging about mediation or ADR. Although there were a handful of early adopters like Colin Rule, Bill Warters, Perry Itkin, and Tammy Lenski, blogging about mediation remained a solitary business. In comparison with the brawling and boisterous legal blogosphere, ADR blogging was awfully quiet then. There were just too few of us to make much noise.

Fast forward three years and now look at us. According to the latest head count, there are almost 120 of us, located all over the world in 22 countries, as you can see at the World Directory of ADR Blogs. And we cover the ADR spectrum — arbitration blogs, mediation blogs, negotiation blogs, and more.

The digital world of ADR blogging pulses with light and sound. That buzz you hear is ADR bloggers using their sites to invite debate about issues important to our field — subjects that range from ethical duties to the role of spirituality in dispute resolution to money offers at the mediation table to the laws that affect our work.

We’re not only using blogs to get our message out, but we’ve also turned to podcasts and videoblogging, as Negotiating Tip of the Week and the Mediation vBlog Project prove.

Although our numbers remain too small to, say, merit a cover story in a major publication for a professional association as legal blogs have done, we have been fortunate to have earned the support of the world’s premier online resource on dispute resolution, Mediate.com, which created a special section on its site to highlight selected posts from its Featured Blogs.

To give you a sense of the diversity of ADR blogging, in terms of subject matter and geography, consider these exemplars of the craft (and these are only the English-language ones):

Idealawg and Brains on Purpose. Published by Colorado-based attorney and mediator Stephanie West Allen, Idealawg unleashes the creative potential and artistry in the craft of law, while Brains on Purpose reflects its author’s fascination with neuroscience as a tool for resolving and transforming conflict.

Mediator Blah…Blah… The creation of Wellington, New Zealand, mediator and barrister Geoffrey Sharp, this blog delivers wit, wisdom, and no-holds-barred truths straight from the mediation table, with plenty of comic relief when the going gets tough.

ICT4Peace. Published from Sri Lanka by innovative thinker Sanjana Hattotuwo, this bleeding-edge blog explores the use of information and communications technology for conflict transformation.

Florida Arbitration Law.com, a group endeavor, is a blog that focuses on law regarding the enforcement of arbitration and issues of vacating, confirming or correcting awards, primarily affecting Florida.

Indisputably.org, published by four prominent American ADR professors, provides a scholarly perspective on mediation, arbitration, dispute resolution, and negotiation.

Gini Nelson’s Engaging Conflicts, based in New Mexico, discusses science, ethics, and spirit in a high conflict practice. It regularly features conversations with dispute resolution practitioners and provides thoughtful discussion of the rewards and challenges that our work produces.

CKA Mediation and Arbitration Blog is published by Georgia mediator and lawyer Chris “Tell Us What You Really Think” Annunziata. Chris pulls no punches as he tackles the issues that mediators face or that bedevil the legal profession (and don’t get him started on ridiculous lawsuits). Don’t be surprised to see sacred cows dispatched along the way — with style and humor.

Settle It Now Negotiation Blog. Commercial mediator Victoria Pynchon dispenses her best advice on negotiation and dispute resolution, with insights into the psychology of negotiating, particularly cognitive errors and the risks they pose for dealmakers. Vickie’s talent for writing is evident in her well-crafted posts, written with honesty and good common sense.

The Ombuds Blog, published by university ombuds Tom Kosakowski in California, is a dependable source for news and information for and about organizational ombuds.

Tammy Lenski’s Mediator Tech. This Vermont-based blog offers “tips and tech for making mediation your day job”. Tammy is skilled at demystifying technology and taking the fear out of marketing for mediators intimidated by both. Tammy made ADR blog history when she launched her first-of-its kind blog-to-book project, “Making Mediation Your Day Job“.

And still more sites worth visiting include:

PGP Mediation Blog, published by California attorney and Mediator Phyllis Pollack, stands out for its consistently thoughtful posts on mediation practice.

Campus ADR Tech Tools, hands-down the best resource on the web for online tools, games, materials, and downloads for conflict resolution practitioners, students, and teachers.

Mediation Mensch, created by entrepreneur and ADR professional Dina Beach Lynch, is the world’s first mediation marketing blog.

National Arbitration Forum Blog, which recently celebrated its third anniversary, lives up to its name and provides news across the nation on arbitration and ADR.

* * * * * *

In the ADR blogosphere today, ideas develop, mutate, and spread, transmitted virally through the medium of the web. The conversation grows, amplified as one blogger after another joins in. Limited no longer by physical geography, we can reach across the world and connect to each other.

The spirit of the community of ADR bloggers is summed up best in a quote that captures the ethos of blogging. Although it was written to evoke the spirit of a very different community of bloggers, it applies to the many bloggers I admire who write so honestly, so compellingly, about ADR:

We help each other. Many of us are stars but we like to pass the ball and create opportunities for others. Points don’t matter. Assists do.

That’s what it’s all about. It’s that simple. Creating opportunities for others. Helping each other. It’s what we’re doing out here, as we try ideas on for size and do our thinking out loud together — in the best spirit of the collaborative nature of our work.

We’d love it if you joined us. In the frontier that is the web, there’s plenty of room for all.

Come join the conversation.

Here’s the latest round-up of conflict resolution and negotiation links for mediators:

The Telegraph discusses the benefits of negotiation training in “The art of being a winning negotiator“. Lessons learned include “Don’t squander trust” and “build relationships with the other party”.

In a story from NPR’s Weekend America, an Iraqi artist living in the U.S. uses art to convey what life is like when it’s lived under the gun.

The Britannica Blog bravely calls for “Negotiation, Not War: How to Deal with Iran“.

Meanwhile, at a time when American political leaders insist that “we don’t negotiate with terrorists”, our field faces a tough sell in convincing Americans that there’s value in talking it out, as I’ve discussed here before. We’ve definitely got our work cut out for us — if wearing peace shirts at a Florida high school can trigger this kind of harassment.

As Shakespeare writes in Julius Caesar, “Words before blows…Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius.” Consider that sentiment and visit Walking the Berkshires, which describes through old family letters “Old School Conflict Resolution” — when duels were fought with swords not words.

From Slashdot is news of a report that finds that the “Brain Changes When Viewing Violent Media“.

Gini Nelson welcomes guest blogger Thomas Kosakowski, who’ll be dispensing advice on the “10 Things Lawyers Should Know About Ombuds“.

Perry Itkin at Florida Mediator reports with an exclamation point that “Florida Supreme Court Removes Bar Membership Requirement for Circuit Court Mediators!” Amen to that.

At Boing Boing, a flowchart that depicts how to determine whether a statement made on the internet is factual.

It’s not often that you see the words “nude” and “settlement conference” used in the same sentence. Things may be different now, if the following headline is a sign of the changing times: “Ms. Cordero Will be Happy to Attend a Televised Nude Settlement Conference“.

My husband’s British, I’m American. That means we often argue over the pronunciation of words in the English language. Resolve your own pronunciation disputes with howjsay.com, a free online pronunciation dictionary. It includes both American and British spellings with pronunciation in Standard British English. (Naughty words are excluded, so it’s safe for kids and the workplace.)

That’s it for this time. Have a great weekend, folks.

Mediate.com, the world’s leading online resource for news, information, and bleeding-edge thinking in the field of ADR, has added a new feature.

Mediation Today highlights the importance of mediation, posting stories from around the globe that demonstrate the many ways in which men and women confront and address disputes — and the continuing relevance of the work that the conflict resolution field is engaged in.