The end of the semester is drawing near in my online employment mediation dispute class. The theme of the last discussion board is reflective: what three things has each student learned from or skills developed or improved upon in this course. There is a saying to the effect that as [Read More]
No doubt, you have encountered the situation where you are addressing a group of people and ask a question and are met with silence… absolute quiet! It feels awkward… no one is answering your question.(Indeed, Anglophones can not tolerate more than four seconds of silence while the Japanese can tolerate [Read More]
Recently, a friend of mine challenged me to write a blog about how to survive Thanksgiving dinner considering our recent election. Some will be happy while others will be distraught at the results; yet we will all be sitting around the same table (virtually?) breaking bread together. She then told [Read More]
Several weeks ago, The New York Times published an article about one of my favorite topics: Active Listening. Entitled “Practice Better Listening” by Kate Murphy,(Sunday, May 17, 2020, At Home section) the author notes that with life moving at a much slower pace these days, we have the opportunity and [Read More]
Last week, I posted a blog about an article in the New York Times discussing the lost art of active listening. (“Are You Listening?”). It seems that my blog post was very timely because NPR just published an article on the loneliness of Americans. (“Most Americans Are Lonely, And Our [Read More]
One of the first things a mediator in training is taught is to listen, really listen what the parties are saying. Aka “Active Listening”! Well, it seems that the need and ability to listen is a trait that many in the general population should also learn. A recent article in [Read More]
I just finished reading Becoming by Michelle Obama (Crown Publishing 2018). While the book is an autobiography of the former First Lady, its theme is more than just a story about how some African American kid from the Southside of Chicago broke multiple barriers to become a world known public [Read More]
The other weekend, my husband and I were visiting some friends (husband and wife) whom we had not seen in a while. As we were leaving, the wife and I were avidly talking with each other, seemingly interrupting each other, or at least, not letting the other finish a sentence. [Read More]
