Alltop, a newly launched news aggregation site described by founder Guy Kawasaki as

an ‘online magazine rack’ that displays the news from the top publications and blogs

has just added eight mediation blogs. They are:

• My blogs, Mediation Channel and World Directory of ADR Blogs
• CKA Mediation & Arbitration Blog (Chris Annunziata)
• Conflict Zen (Tammy Lenski)
• Engaging Conflicts(Gini Nelson)
• Idealawg (Stephanie West Allen)
• Mediator blah…blah… (Geoff Sharp)
• Settle It Now Negotiation Blog (Vickie Pynchon)

You can see us all at http://law.alltop.com.

I feel deeply honored to have both my blogs selected for inclusion in this “best of the best”. To Guy Kawasaki, Kathryn Henkens, and Will Mayall, thank you for finding a place for mediation blogs on Alltop. And congratulations and best wishes on Alltop’s launch!

Before I was so rudely interrupted, I was about to tell you about the latest additions to my ongoing project to catalog ADR blogs world-wide at the World Directory of ADR Blogs.

They include:

NYC Family Mediation and Collaborative Law
is published by mediator and collaborative lawyer Joy Rosenthal, whose motto is “Let’s talk!”. This blog offers reflections on family-based and divorce mediation and collaborative law from the heart of New York City.

Mediation Stuff, published by New Hampshire-based John Lassey (which means he is practically my neighbor), brings perspectives and ideas on mediation and ADR from someone who’s been a trial lawyer for 30 years and a mediator for 15.

The next four I owe to the web-surfing talents of mediator and barrister Geoff Sharp:

The ZapaBlog (which I first mistook for a misspelled tribute blog to the immortal Frank Zappa) is the work of Brandon Krieg, president of Zapacap Mediation. Brandon’s work and this blog focus on the needs of small businesses.

Malaysian Mediation is published by Chan Kheng Hoe, Advocate-Mediator, who has extensive experience in commercial dispute resolution and serves as a mediator on the panel of the Malaysian Mediation Centre. This is also the first Malaysian blog added to ADRblogs.com.

My Weblog by James South is published by a New Zealand barrister and solicitor, who also serves as a director for the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR). He launched this blog with the intention of recording his experiences in many different countries to establish mediation in civil justice systems around the world.

Global Conflict Resolution and Mediation Discussion posts conflict resolution and mediation articles and comments, from the Mediation Training Institute International.

I’d like to wish a warm welcome to the ADR blog neighborhood to all of these bloggers.

Incidentally, if you publish a blog and would like it added to the World Directory of ADR Blogs, don’t be shy — let me know about it.

Perhaps the greatest gift that blogging has brought me has been the fellowship of fellow bloggers. Mediator and lawyer Stephanie West Allen, one of those remarkable bloggers I am privileged to count as friend, has just marked a milestone: the second anniversary of her blog Idealawg, which celebrates the artistry of the lawyer’s craft and honors the lawyer’s role as healer, not instigator, of disputes.

Stephanie shares the results of her intellectual inquisitiveness with readers by artfully covering topics ranging from idea productivity to life after law to conflict resolution.

Happy anniversary, Idealawg.

I’ve just added two new blogs to the World Directory of ADR Blogs, my ongoing project to track and catalog ADR and negotiation blogs around the globe. Allow me to introduce them to you:

• Arabulucu Blog, a Turkish language blog, bears the distinction of being Turkey’s first and only blog about mediation and negotiation. It is published by mediator Samil Demir, who is based in Ankara.
• dominique.lopez-eychenie is the eponymous blog of French lawyer and mediator Dominique Lopez-Eychenie who practices in Lille. In addition to her many other professional accomplishments, Dominique is the Vice President and founding member of Nord Mediation. She blogs about mediation, negotiation, alternative dispute resolution, and collaborative law.

I’d like to wish both these bloggers the best of success and to offer them a warm welcome to the ADR blogosphere.

I’m always on the look-out for blogs to add to the World Directory. If you publish or know of a blog that you’d like me to add, 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.

(With thanks to Negotiation Guru Jens Thang for kindly introducing me to Dominique and her blog.)

Five years ago Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever published Women Don’t Ask, a book that ripped the lid off of one of negotiation’s most intractable problems: the challenges that women face in negotiating successfully. They examined the barriers — institutional, cultural, and social — that hold women back and provided strategies to help women conquer the gender divide at the negotiation table to ask for and get what they want.

Women Don’t Ask touched a responsive chord in women nationally and internationally, many of whom had encountered these barriers up close. Many women contacted the authors to thank them for writing a book that opened up their eyes to negotiation’s possibilities and to ask for help with their own negotiations. This enthusiastic response motivated Babcock and Laschever to write a second book, the recently published Ask for It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want.

I plan to post a review of this book later this week, but one thing I can tell you right now is that it may be one of the best books on negotiation I’ve ever read. What Tammy Lenski recently did for mediation marketing, Ask for It does for real women facing real-world negotiations — women who want practical, common sense advice and tools for being effective negotiators. The advice is so good though and the revelations about gender issues at the negotiation table so disturbing that men should read it, too — not just to learn better ways to negotiate but to find out how any of us can battle gender bias in negotiation.

The Ask for It web site provides support for negotiating women, everything from downloadable worksheets and information to links to online resources, including Babcock’s work helping girls learn to negotiate.

There’s even (be still my heart) a blog. Although the blog is new with just three posts so far, if “Scary Monster(.com)” and “Cut Throat Bitch“, with their gutsy commentary on negotiation and gender, are any indication of what’s to come, this is one negotiation blog you’ll want to follow.

Thanks to the always vigilant Geoff Sharp, I’ve just added a new mediation blog to my World Directory of ADR Blogs project, this one from across the pond.

The Mediation Times is the creation of Amanda Bucklow, a full-time commercial mediator for the past 12 years based in the U.K. Here’s what Amanda has to say about Mediation Times:

Why a blog and not a web site? There are a number of good mediation web sites but web sites don’t have quite the same level of interaction as a blog. I also like the idea of the mediation community making this blog what it can be. It fits the mediation model so much better! A weblog or blog is much more sophisticated and flexible. It offers a much higher level of interaction and it suits my preferred method of communicating: conversation. It is also very simple…

I also wanted to design something that could be international. You will find language translators powered by Google on this site for French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish and Greek. I will add more and if people post in those languages you will be able to translate into English using the same tools.

This is a blog that really encourages full participation in the conversation — and I like the idea of Google translators so that language is never a barrier to joining in. Not so different from what we mediators try to do with our clients, I’d say.

I hope you’ll stop by Mediation Times and join me and Geoff in wishing Amanda a warm welcome to the ADR blogosphere.

If you’re interested in learning more about the resolution of international disputes or other topics that concern the practice of dispute resolution and negotiation abroad, there is no better resource than the International Dispute Negotiation (IDN) podcast series.

IDN is hosted by Michael McIlwrath, Senior Counsel, Litigation for GE Infrastructure - Oil & Gas. The two latest issues of this excellent series are #16, “How to Borrow a Mediator’s Powers” with ADR scholar Professor Dwight Golann from my alma mater Suffolk University Law School in Boston; and #17, “Offshore Litigation Work in India“, in which Mike pays a visit to Mumbai to explore this controversial method of reducing litigation costs in common law systems and talks to the founder of successful outsourcing firm Pangea3, and to one of its top managers.

I came across a post titled, “ADR Mediation: A Valuable Tool“, and found it irresistible for two reasons.

Reason 1: It describes an ADR program underway in Houston to provide opportunities for dialogue and improved relationships through mediation between members of the public and employees of the Houston Police Department.

Reason 2: I learned that the chief of police of a major U.S. city blogs. He was the one who posted the article.

Kudos to Houston for the mediation program and the blog.

The Complete Lawyer — an online magazine covering professional development, quality of life, and career issues for attorneys published by Don Hutcheson — has added an ADR column, “The Human Factor“.

Written by me and three smart, savvy women I am honored to call my friends — Stephanie West Allen of Idealawg and Brains on Purpose, Gini Nelson of Engaging Conflicts, and Victoria Pynchon of Settle It Now Negotiation Blog — “The Human Factor” seeks to make ADR relevant to the work of lawyers today. The inspiration for the title of our column comes from pioneering legal reformer Dean Roscoe Pound, whose work presaged the rise of the alternative dispute resolution movement:

A century ago, Dean Roscoe Pound exhorted the legal profession to transform its institutions of justice and adjust its principles “to the human conditions they are to govern,” “putting the human factor in the central place.”

Located in different parts of the U.S., each of us offers a unique way of looking at ADR and its connection to law and justice, in particular what that connection means for the human factor — the individuals whose lives the law affects. In our first column, we introduce ourselves to readers and let them know what to expect from future issues.

Besides “The Human Factor”, there’s plenty more worth reading at the latest issue of The Complete Lawyer, which focuses on the question, “What Do Women Lawyers Really Want?” (I’m one, and I’m still not sure myself.) Find out the answers by visiting The Complete Lawyer now.

Tammy Lenski — talented blogger, prolific author, inspiring colleague, and respected thought leader — heads in a bold new direction.

After blogging about conflict resolution at Lenski.com for many years, she is leaving her old digital home and launched a new site, Conflict Zen.

Tammy explains why:

My writing has always served two masters: You and me. You, in that you have interest in effective conflict resolution in your life, your family, your workplace or business, and/or your community, and it’s what’s drawn you to subscribe to my articles. Me, in that my writing helps me explore ways to frame what works for my current clients so that I can share it even more effectively with future clients.

But I have always puzzled over the paradox of an imperfect human (me) offering up conflict resolution advice to others. It’s important to me that you understand I don’t come to you from the high place of interpersonal perfection, but instead as an equal human in front of you. I happen to know a thing or two about conflict resolution because I’ve spent two decades studying and successfully practicing it in a professional capacity. But I have yearned for a place where I would frame my work as a teacher who is also your co-learner. Conflict Zen will be that place.

Tammy, best of luck. I’m glad to know that we will all continue to benefit from your wisdom.

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!

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.

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

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.