Fear and Decision Making!

Recently,  I stumbled upon an article about  women, fear and decision making. According to a recent study published in PLOS,  these three concepts are related: … fear may affect women’s decisions in choosing immediate rewards versus larger delayed ones, while men’s decisions appear unaffected by emotion, ….  (Science Daily  at [Read More]

By |March 29th, 2024|Odd stuff|

The Importance of Showing Up!

This semester I am teaching an online Employment Dispute  Mediation course at USC Gould School of Law. Using employment law as the substantive vehicle, I am teaching my students essentially how to be mediators from “soup to nuts.” In teaching them how to mediate, I note to my students repeatedly [Read More]

By |March 22nd, 2024|Mediations|

More Words that Matter!

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog on the importance of the words we use during a mediation or any negotiation. For example, rather than using labels “the other side” or “Plaintiff” or “defendant”, we should use the actual names of the people involved. As chance would have it, [Read More]

By |December 8th, 2023|Negotiation Strategy|

Mediation Skills in Everyday Life!

My husband decided to purchase windshield wiper blades at Costco for our Audi.  A few days later, when we took the Audi in for repair, we asked  the repair person to put on the new blades. He advised that they were the wrong ones and would order the correct ones [Read More]

By |December 1st, 2023|Negotiation|

Never Mediate During a Heat Wave!

Every day we read and/or see news of how climate change has affected or is impacting our daily lives. Well- an article in Live Science suggests that heat may cause us to be more aggressive (if not sleepy!) In an article  published in early September 2023 entitled “Hot Weather could [Read More]

By |September 29th, 2023|Research|

Faking Emotions During A Mediation

A recent blog post (dated August 21,2023) by the staff at Harvard’s PONS (Program on Negotiation)  concludes that while  sincere anger may be advantageous in a negotiation, appearing to be happy  may or may not be disadvantageous in a negotiation: …When we display anger, our counterparts tend to view us [Read More]

By |September 8th, 2023|Negotiation Strategy|

Are You an Introvert or an Extrovert?

In my practice of mediation, I never gave this question any thought! But I should.  I just finished reading a book entitled Quiet by Susan Cain (Broadway Books, New York 2013) and realized that our answer to this question greatly impacts absolutely everything we do in life (including negotiating disputes!) [Read More]

By |September 1st, 2023|Negotiation Strategy|
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