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]
Recently, I attended the Annual Conference of the Southern California Mediation Association. One of the workshops intrigued me as it was all about the words we use. Entitled “Words Matter: What to leave at the Courthouse Steps” , the speakers Dr. Debra Dupree and Harold Coleman, Jr. Esq. discussed how [Read More]
The other night in mediation ethics class, we discussed using deception in negotiation and more specifically why certain folks will outright misrepresent an important fact as opposed to merely puffing or embellishing a little bit. In order to use such deception, we have to tell ourselves it is okay by [Read More]
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]
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]
Our recent book club discussion featured Split the Pie: A Radical New Way to Negotiate by Barry Nalebuff (HarperCollins, New York 2022). While I understand the author’s concept, I am not sure if I am able to implement it as a mediator. In the simplest of terms, in a two-party [Read More]
The Harvard PONS blog posted an interesting tale about a billionaire who bought a 53-acre parcel for $37.5 million encompassing Martin’s Beach in 2008. In “When our “Principles “Crash up Against our Negotiation Goals,” by PON staff (May 11, 2023), the author notes that as the land was subject to [Read More]
In their book, Essentials of Negotiation, Roy J. Lewicki, David M. Saunders and Bruce Barry (7th ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 2021) set out the traditional negotiation styles. They include: Contending (also called competing or dominating) in which a party will pursue his/her own “…outcomes strongly and show little concern for [Read More]
