As a trainer of negotiation and conflict resolution skills, I love using optical illusions to demonstrate the fallibility of our perception. They alert us that our senses can be unreliable and susceptible to influence. And they remind us that it is always possible to see things differently. The ability to be alert to errors in thinking and judgment that any of us are prone to is of course essential to anyone who is negotiating or resolving a dispute.

Here are two optical illusions I was recently introduced to that I’ve incorporated into my training. Both of us these can be found at Michael Bach’s web site, 75 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena.

The first is Shepard’s “Terror Subterra”, a cool interactive illusion that demonstrates how perspective can bias us.

The second is Shepard’s “Turning the Tables”, an interactive illusion with tables that appear to be of different dimensions but are in fact identical, with the ability to test the visual effect for yourself. It’s extraordinary how knowing the truth doesn’t necessarily prevent us from making mistakes in our thinking.

Some good stuff on the web to round out the week:

Language Log posts a cartoon on communication by omission about all the unspoken messages family members convey to each during the stress of the holidays (particularly mothers and their adult children), as well as a meditation on the use of diplomatic language to settle disputes in “The moral of losing your pants, your suit, and your job“.

Thinking Ethics links to a great resource on the BBC web site on the ethics of lying.

At the Harvard Gazette Online is an article on “Buddhism and the art of negotiation: Mindfulness, ‘unattachment’ — and getting what you want“.

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog asks, “Is arbitration the new litigation?” and provokes a lively debate in the comments section.

In “Navy Showers, Low Flow Showerheads and Other Water Conservation Ideas“, Chris Annunziata at CKA Mediation and Arbitration Blog describes how one mediator gets his whole family to go green and conserve water.

Finally, if you’re in need of some inspiration at the end of a tough week, then treat yourself to this uplifting video of a cellphone salesman achieving a lifelong dream to sing opera. (Thanks to my pal Geoff Sharp for sending the link my way.)

No sooner had the virtual ink dried on my post about a new ADR health care blog than I received a delightful message about a new dispute resolution podcast — this one with a distinctly international flavor.

International Dispute Negotiation, presented by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR), explores ways professionals from different countries and backgrounds approach dispute resolution. The podcast is intended to help listeners understand the risks of disputes and shed insight on optimal ways of accepting, mitigating, and managing those risks in the real world, whether through mediation, arbitration, or litigation that arises far from home.

International Dispute Negotiation is hosted by Michael McIlwrath, Senior Counsel, Litigation for GE Infrastructure - Oil & Gas. Michael is based at his company’s headquarters in Florence, Italy, and is a long-time member of the CPR Institute and its European Advisory Committee.

Michael tells me that the podcasts are mainly recorded when he’s on the road in different countries, the editing is done in Florence, and the feed is through CPR’s website in New York.

This podcast is the latest addition to the World Directory of ADR Blogs, which tracks and catalogues blogs covering dispute resolution and negotiation. 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.

Congratulations, Michael, and best wishes on the launch of this superb audioblog.

This week’s round-up of links and articles for mediators includes:

Jonathan Reitman, one of the New England mediation community’s most beloved and respected figures, asks, “Is there mediation fatigue?” as he considers what happens to a mediator’s ability to be compassionate when mediators are exposed on a regular basis to traumatic stories told by their clients. This is required reading for any mediator whose work routinely exposes him or her to suffering.

At MediationTools.com you’ll find “Impasse is a Fallacy“, an article by dispute resolution professional Lee Jay Berman with strategies for mediators to avoid stalemates and jump-start stalled negotiations.

Before I refer readers to online resources or tools, they must first meet a few criteria. It’s got to be stuff that’s readily available on the web (which usually means no registration or subscription required and preferably is either free or really, really cheap). I’m making an exception today for the Engaging Conflicts electronic newsletter (which is free but does require you to sign up with an email address to receive). Produced by Gini Nelson, this outstanding newsletter regularly features interviews with extraordinary individuals in the dispute resolution field. The most recent edition introduced newsletter subscribers to Emmy Irobi, a conflict resolution specialist now living in Poland, who once served as a child soldier in Biafra and has first-hand experience of the human tragedy that conflict and violence give rise to. Although I know that many readers want to reduce the influx of email, this is one newsletter that consistently delivers great content with information relevant to any dispute resolution professional.

In the “you’ve got to be kidding me” category is a story of an Illinois teenager punished with two detentions by her public elementary school for — get this — hugging two classmates. (For full appreciation of just how dumb this disciplinary action is, watch this interview with the girl and her parents.) (Thanks to QuizLaw for the link. A caution to those of you with delicate sensibilities — QuizLaw in its post uses language that would land it a week’s worth of detentions, so careful as you click.)

In case you hadn’t heard, Tammy Lenski of Mediator Tech is offering for download free copies of the first chapter of her soon-to-be-released book, Making Mediation Your Day Job. Tammy is known for her wise advice, generously dispensed to readers of her blog.

At the Chronicle of Higher Education, read about one university administrator’s growing appreciation for the role of conflict resolution in addressing institutional disputes in “When Private Animosities Distort Professional Judgment“.

Finally, I close with a titillatingly captioned mediation-related news story: “Mediation ordered for topless bar owner, landlord“. Some mediators get all the fun cases.

Here is Online Guide to Mediation’s latest round-up of links for mediators:

From Bob Sutton is a link to a video by a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford who takes an honest look at “why we’d rather lie than be associated with failure“.

George Lenard points to “Top Small Workplaces 2007“, which reveals what successful small businesses do to motivate, develop, and retain their employees.

For conflict resolution trainers, mediation training videos from UK Mediation Ltd. depict the stages of a workplace dispute from initial flare-up to agreement, courtesy of Bill Warters.

Boing Boing reports on the latest customer relations snafu by a large corporation: AT&T punishes consumers for speaking out on the web.

At Not Exactly Rocket Science, learn how “Genes affect our likelihood to punish unfair play“.

Thanks to Diana Skaggs, learn “What Price Does The Company Pay In An Executive’s Divorce Or Custody Battle? Without Some Forethought, A Hefty One“–which I think could be used to support the argument that employee assistance programs should include mediation services among their offerings.

Vickie Pynchon urges readers to haggle when it comes to purchasing consumer goods, and points to No More Haggling, a company that seeks to capitalize on the American aversion to negotiating.

Finally, a project in Jerusalem uses the power of the stage to encourage Jewish and Arab audiences to hear the other side of the story.

A new blog has joined the impressive and continuously growing stable of blogs at the Law Professors Blogs Network: Indisputably, which will focus on negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and dispute resolution.

Written by four eminent ADR scholars, Andrea Schneider, Nancy Welsh, Michael Moffitt, and Sarah Rudolph Cole, Indisputably offers its readers what is at once challenge and invitation:

The four of us differ in our backgrounds and ADR focus, and we hope to showcase those differences with running commentary on the latest work in arbitration, mediation, negotiation, and other dispute resolution processes. At the same time, we are similar in our desire to engage in dialogue that is both scholarly and practical, to dig into the empirical work that is relevant to ADR, and to reflect on the reality of ADR in action, for better and for worse. We will be posting on a regular basis, and we hope that you will add to the richness of this blog by sharing your reactions and comments. Point us to great articles, interesting cases or programs, new reseach, or even something funny. We also expect this blog to serve as a home for the numerous other resources available in ADR. The links we provide will highlight law school programs, conferences, research sites, and teaching resources available through many other productive colleagues. And so, we look forward to the adventure of blogging and invite you to join us on this journey.

Please stop by this newest member of the ADR blogosphere and join me in welcoming them. Congratulations to Indisputably’s team of blogging scholars, and best of luck in the launch of what promises to be a stimulating addition to the growing conversation about dispute resolution here on the web.

The World Directory of Alternative Dispute Resolution Blogs, which tracks and catalogues dispute resolution and negotiation blogs around the globe, has added three new sites to its inventory, which now lists 112 blogs from 22 countries:

eMediacion by AcuerdoJusto®. This blog is published by AcuerdoJusto, an interdisciplinary, international team of professionals based in Argentina, Spain, and Chile who share a common interest–to facilitate the resolution of disputes. It will focus on providing conflict resolution content, aimed at the Spanish-speaking public, with the goal of promoting social awareness of the benefits of conflict resolution.

Medierea. This Romanian weblog and online discussion forum provides news and information about the benefits of mediation as an effective alternative to resolving disputes. It is the first Romanian language blog to be added to the World Directory.

Indisputably. A member of the Law Professors Blog Network, Indisputably, a team blog published by four ADR scholars, focuses on negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and dispute resolution. It aims to engage in dialogue that looks at ADR from scholarly and practical perspectives.

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.

One of the greatest things about the web is the amount of free stuff out there to help any small business owner, well, take care of business.

Thanks to the Canadian legal research and IT blog Slaw, I just learned about 100 free (or really, really cheap) products and services ideal for the entrepreneur launching a business on a shoestring.

You can browse The Poor Entrepreneur’s Toolset: 100 Freebies for Boostrappers at the Bootstrapper blog.

(Photo credit: Leea Gilmour.)

Today Mediate.com, the world’s premier mediation site, posts its 200th newsletter.

Not only is Mediate.com a web site that I visit frequently to research information on topics in ADR, but it’s also the one that I recommend first to my mediation students and to anyone interested in understanding more about mediation, conflict resolution, and negotiation.

As a blogger I am also deeply grateful that Mediate.com reached out to embrace bloggers at the beginning of this year through the launch of its “Mediate.com Featured Blogs” section. Mediate.com is not only a dependably top-quality resource, it is also a good cyber-neighbor.

Congratulations, Mediate.com. Here’s to 200 more.

The World Directory of Alternative Dispute Resolution Blogs added a negotiation podcast this week to its growing catalogue.

PONcast is produced by the Harvard Program on Negotiation. Posts include “First You Have to Ask“, on the impact of gender on negotiation.

Do you publish a blog on negotiation or dispute resolution? Let me know, and I’ll add it to the World Directory of ADR Blogs. (Please review these painless submission guidelines first.)

As I’ve discussed here before, the conflict-averse among us (which, I suspect, is actually most of us) go to great lengths to avoid confrontation.

But even among those who are willing to tackle conflict, no one seems to want to do it face to face–which may explain the popularity of leaving notes for roommates, co-workers, neighbors, and others which detail grievances and make demands for behavioral change.

A blog, passiveaggressivenotes.com, collects these messages and displays them for the enjoyment of its readers. A fascinating foray into the stuff that drives people nuts and the way they deal with it.

As a mediator, I see people behave under extraordinary pressure and in the face of difficult circumstances. They come with carefully constructed narratives of the past which often must be dismantled and considered anew. Their understanding and reactions may influenced by unanticipated forces. I watch as they struggle to expand the boundaries of perception–and reshape their understanding of themselves and each other.As a consequence of my work, the way people interpret the world around them fascinates me. I was therefore glad to be introduced to a blog that opens my eyes to the workings of the human mind. The Situationist

is a forum for scholars, students, lawyers, policymakers, and interested citizens to examine, discuss, and debate the effect of situational forces – that is, non-salient factors around and within us – on law, policy, politics, policy theory, and our social, political, and economic institutions.

What does a situationist do?

…[S]ituationists rely on the insights of scientific disciplines devoted to understanding how humans make sense of their world—including social psychology, social cognition, and related disciplines—and the practices of institutions devoted to understanding, predicting, and influencing people’s conduct…

A sampling of recent posts from The Situationist includes:

“Pervasive Developmental Disorders and the Formation of Stereotypes“, which describes how stereotypes are so easy to learn that they can develop even in the presence of “damage to the ’social brain’”.

“First Person or Third, How Would You Tell Your Story?“, discussing the ways in which people express memory as narrative.

“Slips, Falls, and the Situation of Tort Reform(ers)“, raising the possibility that tort reform advocate Robert Bork’s slip-and-fall suit against the Yale Club of New York is the result of a phenomenon known as “actor/observer difference” in which we see our own actions as the result of situational factors while seeing the actions of others as a result of their dispositions.

(Thanks to Steve Hicks for the link.)

The best part of being webmaster of the World Directory of ADR Blogs has got to be the emails I get from people around the world contacting me to tell me about their web sites and the work that they do.

Here are some of the sites that I’ve been introduced to within the last few days.

The Peace and Collaborative Development Networking site was created by Dr. Craig Zelizer, a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Masters in Conflict Resolution within the Department of Government at Georgetown University. Craig describes this site as “a free professional networking site to encourage interaction between individuals and organizations worldwide involved in development, ADR, conflict resolution and related fields. Members are encouraged to dialogue and share resources. The site has blogs, forums, resources and much more.”

You’ll find three new blogs at the World Directory of ADR Blogs–along with a newly added country–Switzerland. They are:

CKA Mediation and Arbitration Services Blog. Recovering litigator Christopher Annunziata opines about all aspects of alternative dispute resolution, mediation, arbitration and recent developments in Georgia law and beyond. Expect to find topics to enlighten the practicing attorney and non-lawyer alike, as well as the occasional humorous story. (I’ve told Chris in a recent email exchange how friendly the ADR blogosphere is, so please be sure to visit Chris and say hi.)

The Peacebuilding Blog. A Geneva, Switzerland based electronic resource to support the work of the UN Peacebuilding Commission, showcasing relevant research and policy materials, news, critical analysis, events and employment related to peacebuilding, conflict management and resolution, worldwide.

The Geneva Peacebuilding Platform Blog. According to its web site, the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform’s “overarching objective is to contribute to international peace and security by building partnerships among and between governments, international organisations and NGOs on disarmament and arms control issues of common concern.” Its web site includes this blog.

Do you have a blog you’d like to tell my readers about? 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 submission guidelines.

The internet abounds with web sites to fill every imaginable need–including those of the conflict-avoiding multitudes.

Sorrygottago.com provides a sure-fire way to get off the phone and avoid annoying callers. Simply select a setting (at work, at home, telemarketer), turn up the volume, click on a sound file (traffic jam, airport, other line ringing, etc.) and let the sound effects do the dirty work for you.

(Thanks to Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips for the link.)

One of the brightest stars in the ADR blog firmament is celebrating an important milestone. Settle It Now Negotiation Blog, the result of the creative genius of Renaissance woman, lawyer, and mediator Victoria Pynchon, celebrates its first anniversary of blogging.

Congratulations, Vickie–best wishes to a fellow mediator, a respected colleague, and a cherished friend.