Economics

Business, Communication, Cooperation, Creativity, Cross-cultural, Dialogue, Economics, Mediation and Society, Skills, Stages of mediation

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Neuroscientist Hannah Critchlow’s latest book ‘Joined-up Thinking – The science of collective intelligence’ makes the case that the range and complexity of the challenges that face us a  species require an even greater focus on working together to harness our intelligence in its broadest sense. She argues that even though our success as a species…

Business, Cooperation, Economics, Experience, Mediation and Society, Mediation Practice, Policy, Uncategorized

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At a recent Global Ethical Finance Initiative event Katherine Trebeck of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance discussed her book ‘The Economics of Arrival’. The book explores the contribution of economic growth to wellbeing, particularly in the context of developed economies who could be considered to have ‘arrived’. It makes the argument that beyond a certain threshold,…

Dialogue, Economics, Intuition, Mediation and Society, mediation process, Philosophy, Policy, Public Policy, Scotland, Uncategorized

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Mediators work hard to help parties to a dispute to explore and understand their underlying needs and interests, which might have been forgotten or overlooked in the defence of a position that was once adopted to promote their interests. A recent book by political scientist Krzysztof Pelc ‘Beyond Self-interest – why the market rewards those…

Cooperation, Dialogue, Economics, Environmental disputes, Game Theory, Governments/Public Sector, Interests, Mediation and Society, Public Policy, Uncategorized

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‘Entangled Life’ by Merlin Sheldrake is a fascinating look into the role that fungi play in making the natural world what it is. From the impact on humans to the symbiotic relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and trees. The relationship between humans, plants and fungi is also the focus of the Welcome Collection’s current exhibition ‘Rooted…

Causes of Conflict, Communication, Conflict, Cooperation, Creativity, Dialogue, Economics, Interests, Mediation Practice, Negotiation, Skills, Uncategorized

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I recently had the pleasure of taking part in a workshop led by William Ury in which small teams of participants were invited to apply his BB3 framework to challenging situations they were confronting. BB3 brings together a number of ideas and approaches that Ury has contributed to the field of mediation and negotiation over…

Dialogue, Economics, Game Theory, Negotiation, The role of the mediator, Uncategorized

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John Sturrock and I recently had the pleasure of contributing a session on game theory and mediation to a workshop on global conflict and dispute resolution hosted by the Delhi Metropolitan Education College. Preparing for the event led me to reflect further on game theory and its relationship to mediation. In summary, game theory analyses…

ADR, Book Review, Business, Cooperation, Dispute Resolution, Economics

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Attending Harvard’s Program on Negotiation has been life and career changing for many of us – influencing careers in negotiation, mediation and coaching amongst others. ‘Getting to Yes’, first published in 1981 (and never out of print since) was the text accompanying the program, and I read it from cover to cover. I missed the…

Conflict, Cooperation, crisis negotiatons, Dialogue, Economics, Game Theory, Governments/Public Sector, International Mediation, Mediation and Society, Public Policy, Uncategorized

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“Humanity has outsmarted itself. With its ingenuity, this tribal ape has created a world its tribalism can’t manage. We know this…But the knowledge is not enough.” So began Martin Wolf in a recent article in the Financial Times following a meeting of the finance ministers of the G20 – one of the institutions created to improve…

Causes of Conflict, Cognitive Bias, Creativity, Cross-cultural, Dialogue, Economics, Framing, Language, Mediation Practice, The role of the mediator, Uncategorized

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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…

Business, Communication, Cooperation, Dialogue, Economics, Governments/Public Sector, Mediation and Society, Public Policy, Trust

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Given Peter Drucker’s memorable observation, how valuable an asset is trust in shaping a culture? What role could mediators play in strengthening it? From a purely economic perspective there appears to be a strong relationship between levels of trust and output per head (as the chart below from ‘Our World in Data’ demonstrates). As with…