Looking for Happiness!

Well… we missed it again! International Day of Happiness was March 20, 2017, according to the United Nations High Level Meeting on happiness and well-being. But, perhaps, missing it was not such a bad thing. According to the report, Norway ranks first followed by Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland. The United [Read More]

By |April 7th, 2017|News articles|

Jack and Jill Go Up a Hill….and Argue!

Imagine this scenario: “Jack” is having a conversation with “Jill” about whether to go up the hill to fetch a pail of water. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_Jill_(nursery_rhyme)) From out of nowhere, Jill makes an offhand but biting remark to which Jack responds negatively. The ensuing conversation gets totally off track on whether they [Read More]

Too Much Information May Be Bad

Often in negotiating, a party may make a monetary demand without providing any reasoning behind it. I have often found that such a tactic does not work well because the other party will ask me “why”. She wants to know the reasoning behind the monetary demand.   So- I return to [Read More]

By |March 10th, 2017|Research|

Emotions Do Carryover

I saw a blog on the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School’s web page written by its staff (January 12, 2017) entitled “How Mood Affects Negotiators”. It caught my attention because I had just witnessed this effect in two of my mediations. Recently, I held two mediations on [Read More]

By |January 27th, 2017|Negotiation Strategy|

Penny Wise – Pound Foolish

Although as a full time neutral, I usually get paid for mediating, as a way to give back to the community, I am on various state and federal court mediator panels in which parties can utilize my services for a certain number of hours on a pro bono basis or [Read More]

By |December 15th, 2016|Mediations|

Emotions Control

Recently, I stumbled across an interesting study published online by the ABA Journal (aka American Bar Association Journal). Researchers discovered that when the LSU Tigers unexpectedly lose a football game, the juvenile judges take their anger/frustration at the loss out on the juveniles before them by imposing longer sentences. (“Louisiana [Read More]

By |September 16th, 2016|Research|
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