Decision making

Causes of Conflict, Cognitive Bias, Communication, Cooperation, Decision making, Dialogue, Dispute Resolution, Future of mediation, Mindset, Negotiation, Reflective Practice, Scotland, Transformation

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“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…

Creativity, Decision making, Economics, Mediation and Society, Philosophy, The role of the mediator, Uncategorized

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Making the ‘right’ decision can be one of the hardest parts of the mediation process. Once understanding of has been enhanced and options thoroughly explored – how best to choose a way forward? One of the great Enlightenment thinkers may be able to offer some help. Adam Smith is best known for ‘The Wealth of…

Bias, Causes of Conflict, Cognitive Bias, Communication, Decision making, Economics, Framing, Mediation Practice, Neuroscience, Policy, The role of the mediator

(Core Solutions Group)/ /2 Comments

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…

Clients, Decision making, Mediation Users/Clients, Perception

(ADR Center Romania) and (HR Consultant at Dubai Government)/ /2 Comments

Introduction If you find yourself in the midst of a legal dispute, you might feel confident that taking the matter to court is the best option, especially when you have a strong case. After all, who wouldn’t want to see justice served swiftly and decisively? And why show any vulnerability when holding all the cards?…

Creativity, Decision making, Humorous Pieces, Improvisation, Instinct, Interests, Intuition, Mediation Outcomes, mediation process, Negotiation, Skills, Tips

(Strategic Resolution)/ /2 Comments

  As long ago as 1981, in the very first edition of Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher and William Ury proposed the following novel negotiation method:   separate the people from the problem focus on interests, not positions invent options for mutual gain and insist on using objective criteria. Later…

Communication, Decision making, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Domestic Courts, Future of mediation, Growth of the Field (Challenges, New Sectors, etc.), Mediation Reforms (Legislation, etc.), Mediation Schemes (In Courts, etc.), Opt-Out, Promoting Mediation, Public Policy, Scotland

(University of Strathclyde)/ /1 Comment

The idea of using insights from behavioural science to achieve desirable policy goals burst into popular consciousness with the publication of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (R Thaler and C Sunstein, Yale University Press, 2008.) It describes the appealing notion that people can be encouraged to make good choices by the way…

Argument, Causes of Conflict, Cooperation, Decision making, Developing the Field, Dialogue, Future of mediation, Language, Mediation Practice, Philosophy, Reflective Practice, Scotland, The role of the mediator, Uncategorized

(Core Solutions Group)/ /3 Comments

The former British politician (and leadership contender when the Conservative Party was choosing Boris Johnson), Rory Stewart, is making a mark as an even more independent thinker than he was in the British Parliament. Recently, he hosted a three-part series on BBC Radio 4 entitled A Long History of Argument. It is worth listening to…

Artificial Intelligene, Deal Mediation, Decision making, Dispute Resolution, Future of mediation, Mediation, Mediation and Society, Mediation Practice, Mediation wisdom

(Bruce Greig, Civil and Commercial Mediator)/ /1 Comment

Most people’s experience of artificial intelligence (AI) is limited to interacting with a chat bot on their bank’s website. These bots are unimpressive, dispensing trivial and mostly unhelpful answers. Don’t be misled into thinking that unhelpful chat bots represent the state of the art in AI, though. The cutting edge of AI research has moved…

Bias, caucus, Caucus, Cognitive Bias, Commercial Mediation, Communication, Confidentiality, conlfict coaching, Decision making, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Flexibility, Intuition, lawyers in mediation, mediation models, Mediation Outcomes, Mediation Practice, mediation process, Mediation Skills, Mediation Training, Negotiation, Practical Challenges for Mediators, Reflective Practice, Scotland, Stages of mediation, The role of the mediator

(Core Solutions Group)/ /3 Comments

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….