One of the courses I am teaching is Employment Dispute Mediation in which I am essentially teaching the students how to mediate. We are at the point of discussing persuasive techniques and bargaining tactics. One of them intrigued me because although I have used it, I did not realize [Read More]
Life is full of coincidences. Recently, I agreed to teach a class on cross-cultural negotiation. A few days later, the Harvard Negotiation Project published an article entitled, “Dear Negotiation Coach: How Can I Improve My Cross- Cultural Negotiation Skills?” (February 16, 2021). ("Negotiation Coach") Besides my academic teaching interest in [Read More]
During my first week of class teaching mediation ethics, I usually give a version of the Kilmann Diagnostic Test because I believe that one’s personality type impacts one’s mediating style. Thus, a blog post dated November 12, 2020 on the Harvard Pons website caught my attention. Entitled “How Much Does [Read More]
Thanks to the pandemic, it seems that everyone is engaging in a lot more asynchronous communication than ever before. Or, is it simply that those older than the millennials are catching up to what the millennials have been doing all along: texting their way through the day? A recent blog [Read More]
When confronted with a difficult person in any type of negotiation, the default position may seem to be “tit for tat”; if the other person is difficult, then you become more difficult in an attempt to out dominate the other (and potentially dominating) person. But a recent blog post [Read More]
Have you ever noticed that some people are better negotiators than others? That more often than not, those folks get more of what they are seeking than others? Well, it probably has to do with their style of negotiation. In a blog posted on August 25, 2020,on the Harvard PONS [Read More]
Long ago, I learned that outside events can affect a person’s mood at mediation. One example is traffic- fighting traffic to get to a mediation on time will affect the negotiation process. For this reason, I try to schedule mediations after rush hour so at least the parties are not [Read More]
In a recent blog, I discussed my use of feigned anger to help resolve a case. This prompted me to wonder whether the use of anger in negotiations is helpful or harmful. It seems that it can be both bad and good depending on the degree of anger displayed. In [Read More]
