The Sound of Silence!

The Sound of Silence is a song written by  and released in 1964  by Simon and Garfunkel. It was used  in the movie, The Graduate. Its lyrics include the phrases: “People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening.” It is the last phrase I want to dwell on: People hearing [Read More]

How To Sabotage a Mediation!

Most people attend mediation, fully engaged and committed to the process, hoping to resolve a matter. However, there are some who attend mediation with no real desire to settle, despite their outward claims. I had such a mediation the other day. It was court-ordered on the eve of trial. The [Read More]

By |November 15th, 2024|Mediations|

A Hypothetical Mediation

While driving home the other day, I heard a story on NPR that caught my attention. It was about Kentucky prisoners hacking a computer system to put more money into their digital accounts than existed. It happened at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in Oldham County, Kentucky. After a prisoner [Read More]

Using Chatbots to Negotiate!

The blog post on the Harvard Program on Negotiation(PONS) raised an interesting and timely issue: using chatbots to assist in negotiations. In her post, “Chatbot Negotiations: What can AI Do for You?” author Katie Shonk (August 8, 2024) relays the story of Walmart’s use of a chatbot to negotiate with [Read More]

By |August 23rd, 2024|Negotiation|

Redux– Do Not Mediate in the Heat!

Last week, the news was full of a study about the effects of excessive heat on young children (coinciding with the start of school, no doubt), noting that it hits them hard. An article from the Harvard Graduate School of Education entitled "Excessive Heat Hits Young Children Hard” by Elizabeth [Read More]

By |August 16th, 2024|Research|

Contact Theory

Recently, 60 Minutes presented a segment on Story Corps and, more particularly, on its program One Small Step, which is “… a national effort to help bridge divides during a contentious election year.” (Id.) To do so, the program brings people of diverse, if not opposite, backgrounds together to spend [Read More]

Do Not Mediate in the Heat!

If you have paid the slightest attention to the news over the last few weeks, you have noticed that a heat wave is gripping most of the nation. Excessive heat warnings seem to be posted everywhere. Thus, a recent New York Times article entitled “How Heat Affects the Brain” by [Read More]

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