As a mediator, I must be careful with the words I use during a mediation. In fact, I need to be careful with my words all of the time. I was reminded of this admonition by an article in The New York Times on March 3, 2020 entitled, “How To [Read More]
We are all facing a “new normal.” Most of us- over 75%- are working remotely from home trying to adapt very quickly and competently to this “new normal”. We are attempting to keep the same sense of structure and processes that we used in an office setting without much luck. [Read More]
I guess I am doing what everyone else is doing these days; looking at the news through the lens of my training, expertise and experience. Thus, I am watching the issue of politics/economy vs. medicine play out as a dispute ripe for mediation. On one side is the plaintiff whom [Read More]
Being involved in a lawsuit or even just in a dispute can be stressful, worrisome if not anxiety ridden. Believe it or not, being the mediator trying to help the parties resolve their dispute can also be stressful, worrisome, and anxiety producing. The mediator never really knows what is going [Read More]
Readers of my blog probably realize by now that one of my favorite topics is cognitive biases which “…refer to a range of systematic errors in human decision- making from the tendency to use mental shortcuts. “( “How Common Mental Shortcuts Can Cause Major Physician Errors” by Anupam B. Jena [Read More]
As one might suspect, mediations are more likely to end in settlement when the participants are in a good mood or are happy. Parties in bad moods make a mediator’s job more difficult; their overall negative outlook on life turns even the best settlement proposals into “bad deals”. So, when [Read More]
It seems that implicit biases are all around us and are inescapable: they appear even in the language we use in our writing. A study (“The sex of researchers affects the language of research papers.” ) discussed in the Science and Technology section of the January 9, 2020 edition of [Read More]
One of the latest blog posts from the Harvard Negotiation Project notes the importance of understanding body language in negotiations. Written by the PON staff and posted on January 30, 2020, “Using Body Language in Negotiation” analyses three situations in which analyzing body language may improve the outcome of your [Read More]
