Mediation Practice

Below the line, Business, Causes of Conflict, Commercial Mediation, Conflict, Developing the Field, Economics, Mediation Practice, Practical Challenges for Mediators, Reflective Practice, Scotland, Uncategorized

(University of Strathclyde)/ /Leave a comment
money

Twice today I’ve found myself responding to mediator reflections in these terms: the money’s not about the money. Both cases involved financial negotiation, even haggling, but that’s deceptive. The key to settlement lay not in the realm of calculation and rationality but in the more opaque social world of face, punishment, justice and emotion. In…

Dispute Resolution, Japan, lawyers in mediation, Mediation Practice, mediation process, Mediators’ Conduct, Negotiation, Neuroscience, Practical Challenges for Mediators, Reflective Practice, Scotland, Stories, The role of the mediator, Time Pressure, Uncategorized

(Core Solutions Group)/ /Leave a comment

“You’ve done what?” It took just a moment. The red mist descended. The words were out before I could haul them back in. “You’ve just gone behind my back and undermined what I set out, and we had agreed, we would do….you might at least have had the courtesy…..” The lawyer had just told me…

ADR, Commercial Mediation, Communication, Creativity, Dispute Resolution, Experience, Interests, lawyers in mediation, Mediation Outcomes, Mediation Practice, mediation process, Mediation Users/Clients, Mediators’ Conduct, Negotiation, Practical Challenges for Mediators, Stages of mediation, Success in mediation, The role of the mediator

(Strategic Resolution)/ /1 Comment

Photo credit: Creative Commons Jean M.Mas 2/2007 Although my mediation training made no mention of it, 32 years of mediating have taught me that mediations generally unfold over two stages: Stage 1: “Who Did What to Whom”? Here parties (or their lawyers) follow the ritual of naming, blaming and claiming – recounting facts, providing evidence…

ADR, Commercial Mediation, cross-border mediation, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Future of mediation, International Mediation, Investor-state mediation, Mediation Practice

(Kwok, Ng & Chan, Solicitors & Notaries)/ /Leave a comment

I have recently been approached to enrol myself in an investor-state mediation training programme and also to speak at one of the sessions. That triggers off my deeper thoughts on the topic of investor-state mediation and related issues. This blog is an attempt to share my thoughts so that fellow mediation practitioners may consider whether…

Dispute Resolution, Mediation Practice, Mediators’ Conduct, Neutrality, Reflective Practice, Skills

(Greg Rooney Mediator)/ /1 Comment

Charlie Irvine in his recent Kluwer blog (Mediation Values: Still Searching) suggested it is our values that determine what we do or say in a mediation rather than any techniques we learn as mediators. Charlie gives a mediation example where the husband wanted to claim his full pension as part of the division of assets….

mediation as a career, Mediation Practice, Philosophy, Scotland, Uncategorized

(Core Solutions Group)/ /1 Comment

“What’s the point?” asked the preacher, rhetorically. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” was his text, taken from Ecclesiastes, an Old Testament book apparently attributed to Solomon, whose wisdom we have all heard about over the years. The child and two women each laying claim to being the mother – and all that. What profit…

Cross-cultural, Dialogue, International Mediation, Mediation and Society, Mediation Practice, Personal Development, Philosophy, Reflective Practice, Stories, Transformation

(Bond & Bond Mediation / University of Wildau )/ /2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I came across a poem by the Native American writer Joy Harjo, entitled “Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings.” The title made me curious, as might be expected for a mediator. You can find the whole poem online on the Poetry Foundation website, or you can buy the book of poems…

Enforcement, Mediation Practice, Mediation Reforms (Legislation, etc.), Settlement Agreements

(ADR Center Romania)/ /5 Comments

Two weeks before the Singapore signing ceremony of the UN Convention on International Mediated Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, the Romanian Parliament adopted modifications to the Romanian Mediation Law according to which, among many other new provisions, the mediation agreement will be enforceable title in Romania if signed by parties’ lawyers. With this modification, it…

Commercial Mediation, Community Mediation, Developing the Field, Domestic Courts, Europe, Future of mediation, Mediation Act, Mediation and Society, Mediation Practice, Mediation Reforms (Legislation, etc.), Mediation Schemes (In Courts, etc.), Mediation Users/Clients, Neuroscience, Opt-Out, Promoting Mediation, Public Policy, Reform, Regulation, Scotland, The role of the mediator, Uncategorized

(Core Solutions Group)/ /2 Comments

Being a mediator brings surprises along the way. For me, I was presented with what turned out to be the biggest challenge of my professional career last November when the Cabinet Secretary for Health in Scotland appointed me to conduct a review of allegations made by staff (through whistle-blowers) of bullying and harassment in Scotland’s…