Blog responsibly: a public service reminder for dispute resolution bloggers

February 18, 2010 Blogs and Bloggers

I’ve been blogging about dispute resolution for over 5 years now. When I first launched my blog, you could count ADR blogs in single digits. You can still find these early adopters online – folks like my predecessors, blogging role models Bill Warters, Colin Rule, and Tammy Lenski – who continue to produce worthwhile content.
Slowly [...]

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Zero sum game show: celebrities decide who’s right or wrong in The Marriage Ref

February 16, 2010 Conflict Resolution

Billy Collins, a former two-term Poet Laureate of the U.S., penned these lines on the end of marriage:
Once, two spoons in bed
now tined forks
across a granite table
and the knives they have hired
Alas for many divorcing couples, sharp metal objects make an apt metaphor.
It’s also an image in keeping with the popular depiction of marital discord, [...]

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Listening in at the mediation table: books that teach readers how to talk like a mediator

February 15, 2010 Books for Mediators and Negotiators

Ready to trade up from the role play simulations they participated in during their basic mediation training, new mediators look forward to the chance to observe actual mediations, where they can watch experienced professionals mediating real-world disputes. However, as dispute resolution expert and ADR blogger Tammy Lenski recently reminded her readers, finding such opportunities isn’t [...]

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Mediation Channel Classics: golden oldies for February

February 15, 2010 Mediation Channel Classics

Each month I highlight posts from that month in prior years, choosing ones that drew readers (or just happen to be my favorites).
Here’s my selection for February:
February 2009

Mediating between law and mediation: time for both sides to declare a cease-fire
More negotiation lessons from humor
Twittering from the mediation table: social media come to ADR

February 2008

One trick [...]

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Change blindness: testing our powers of observation

February 4, 2010 Mind and Cognition

It’s happened at some point to anyone who drives a motor vehicle. You inch slowly into the intersection, cautiously looking in all directions to make sure that the right of way is clear. Convinced that you can now safely make your turn, you pull forward. Suddenly, out of nowhere, its horn blaring, appears a car, [...]

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Rethinking social media: the worth of trust in online business networking

February 4, 2010 Networking and Social Media for Mediators

In the February 2010 issue of Harper’s Magazine is an essay entitled “The Serfdom of Crowds”, excerpted from You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, the latest book by computer scientist, web guru, and author Jaron Lanier. You Are Not a Gadget serves as a bracing rebuttal to the loud hallelujah chorus of praise [...]

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Beware of the app: a warning to ADR bloggers and their readers on Facebook

February 4, 2010 Blogs and Bloggers

Numerous news articles and blog posts have commented on the dark side of Facebook – its disregard for users’ privacy, the opportunities it affords for cyberbullying, and its vulnerability to spam, phishing exploits and malware.
I’d like to alert my readers, particularly those of you who blog, about a Facebook trap to avoid.
I regularly check search [...]

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Right before your eyes: on cognitive fluency, graphical literacy, and illusion

January 31, 2010 Conflict Resolution

Optical illusions make ideal teaching tools in negotiation and conflict resolution training. They serve as humbling reminders of the unreliability of our senses and the conclusions we draw from the data we perceive. One of my favorite illusions is “Shepard’s Turning the Tables“, which you can view at the web site of Professor Michael Bach [...]

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Does law lag behind science? Psychologists question Supreme Court campaign finance decision

January 31, 2010 Lawyers, Law and Justice

In yesterday’s mail, among the bills, bank statements, and catalogs, I found a solicitation from a non-profit. The package it arrived in declared in bold red letters that my “signature is needed” (not to mention, no doubt, my cash) for a petition to halt some objectionable political action. Visible through the plastic wrapper was a [...]

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What makes a great mediator? 2nd episode of Cafe Mediate podcast series has answers

January 30, 2010 Blogs and Bloggers

In the second episode of ADR podcast series Cafe Mediate, conflict resolution and ADR marketing expert Tammy Lenski, London-based international business mediator Amanda Bucklow, New York City detective and conflict resolution professional Jeff Thompson, and I sit down together to consider the question, “What makes a great mediator?”.
This lively transatlantic conversation focused on the qualities [...]

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