Neutrality is often held up as the cornerstone of mediation, a beacon of fairness ensuring balanced outcomes. Yet, this hallowed principle might not be as straightforward or as beneficial as it seems. When we peel back the layers, neutrality reveals itself as a nebulous ideal—challenging to define, difficult to achieve, and questionable in its desirability….
“Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears.” Surely some mistake, I thought; shouldn’t it be the other way round? Swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks? It was during Evensong at the magnificent Liverpool Cathedral a few weeks ago that this reading from the Old Testament Book of the prophet Joel caught…
Daniel Kahneman, the psychologist who won the Nobel prize for economics, died in March. He described himself as the grandfather of behavioural economics, which provides so many insights into how people perceive the world and take decisions in practice, rather than in the more theoretical, rational world of homo economicus. His book ‘Thinking Fast and…
Tribalism is often referenced as a significant factor in much of the conflict we see around us at the moment. Perhaps this isn’t so surprising when we look back at the story of human evolution as described by biological anthropologist David Samsom in a recent book “Our Tribal Future: How to channel our human instinct…
It is no secret that the time I spent studying and working with the Harvard Program on Negotiation (PON) was the start of a love affair that has endured.The material from Fisher and Ury’s ‘Getting to Yes’, which evolved into the Seven Elements, is constantly useful as a strategic thinking tool. Addressing my group of…
It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog just about mediation practice. Other things always seem more important! However, as I was mediating this week, a thought occurred to me about a rather imperceptible but very real change in my practice as a mediator, which I develop here, albeit in a simplified way….
Mediators are well acquainted with parties blaming one another for problems. Scapegoating in particular can get in the way of coming to terms, instead leading to an escalation of bad feelings and an increasingly toxic relationship. However, what is less well-known is that ‘scapegoating’ can mean and imply different things, each of which calls for…
For readers who are new, the “Neuro-Linguist’s Toolbox” series is an ongoing series focused on using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) in our practice of amicable dispute resolution. The first section focused on rapport (the first of which can be found here). The second section focuses on matters of self-care and personal improvement for mediators (the first…
Erisology has been defined as the study of disagreement – where people are no closer to understanding each other at the end of an exchange than they were at the beginning. Sound familiar? Eris was the Greek goddess of discord. The term was been coined by John Nerst, a blogger in Sweden, who is interested in…
For readers who are new, the “Neuro-Linguist’s Toolbox” series is an ongoing series focused on using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) in our practice of amicable dispute resolution. The first section focused on rapport (the first of which can be found here). The second section focuses on matters of self-care and personal improvement for mediators (the first…
