Mediation is Hard! Each week, The Economist prints an opinion article in its business section entitled “Bartleby”. Its January 19, 2023 piece is entitled “Why pointing fingers is unhelpful”. Its thesis is that while it is easy and quite tempting to point fingers and blame someone, it is not really [Read More]
My husband and I were having dinner the other night at our club when our server approached our table and asked us if we “minded” giving her our membership number. Kiddingly, I said I minded but did give her the membership number. However, this prompted a comment from her that [Read More]
It seems that everywhere one looks, there is an implicit bias lurking behind the scenes. While recently, it was the birthday paradox, this week it is the implicit bias we have regarding status. In an article in the Science and Technology section of The Economist (September 14, 2022) entitled, An [Read More]
Recently, I received an email from Darren Lee, Executive Director of The National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals (NADN) with the results of a survey (NADN-2022-SurveyOfLitigators-ViewsOnODR[64656] ) of litigators on virtual mediation. The survey compared responses received in September 2020 with those received in September 2022. Both surveys were sent to [Read More]
I was watching the CBS morning news the other day and as the program neared its end, the anchors talked for a few minutes with Vanessa Van Edwards, an expert on body language and the author of the just published book- Cues- Small Signals – Incredible impact. (video clip) According [Read More]
In various blogs throughout the years, I have discussed the unreliability of eyewitness testimony and of misidentification. However, an article in the Science and Technology section of The Economist (February 24, 2022) entitled “First Impressions”, suggests that eyewitness identification may not always be incorrect. The article notes it has been [Read More]
I always thought ethics was ethics. But evidently, there are two types: macro ethics and micro ethics. According to Wikipedia, Macro ethics is a term that was coined in the 20th century "… to distinguish large-scale issues from individual ethics or micro ethics. It is a type of applied ethics". [Read More]
One of the most important aspects of mediation is self-determination. Standard 1 of the Model Standards of Conduct for Mediation is entitled "Self-Determination." It provides that a mediator shall conduct a mediation based on self-determination which it defines as the "act of coming to a voluntary uncoerced decision in which [Read More]
