One reason I started this site was because there didn’t seem to be all that many blogs on mediation, so I thought I might be able to contribute to the discussion. Since I started, some have dropped out, and new sites have cropped up. Here is a list of some sites that have mostly been around longer than I have, and that I tend to turn to most often.
On Friday, September 18, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at age 87 (1933-2020). I was still working (remotely) when I heard the news. The group texts began to slowly roll in. The news alerts started popping up on my phone. A friend called and we commemorated the life of “Notorious RBG” and …
There aren’t many benefits to being in a bad mood, even if that’s your reliable, long-standing default mode. Being in a bad mood can make you less effective, less open to creative solutions, and due to stress, it can affect your health. Most peoples’ jobs have a degree of stress, some much more than others.
Yesterday was an interesting day for me. I spent the day in a training for a Personnel Commission for which I have served as a Hearing Officer for over a decade. At its conclusion, a very young female participant in the training took me aside and complemented me for being a “bad ass” woman whom she hoped to emulate in her burgeoning career.
Chances are you heard this wise advice from your Mom when she reminded you that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.
Mediation can be hard. Often, the parties start out a great distance apart, work towards narrowing the gap, but occasionally can’t quite straddle the gulf to come to an agreement in a single day. Last week, I gave my final lesson to my students at Pepperdine on sophisticated steps for breaking an impasse. I told them that it was a matter of both skill and faith.
There are better and worse ways to do it. The Muse’s article on delivering bad news to your boss has lessons for talking to clients and colleagues too.
Conversations are the social lubricant that makes relationships, moving ahead professionally, generating new clients and settling lawsuits easier.
Negotiation and mediation are all about communication.
No one is perfect. We all get upset. But some of us get upset more often than others.