General

As we head into a new year of mediation and managing conflict in the world it strikes me that, at least in this little corner of Europe, the discipline of mediation itself is at a crossroads. A…

I like the Christmas season. It marks a very happy time in the year for me and I'm afraid, it makes me a bit silly. In that spirit, I hope readers will forgive that I start off with an Elephant story…

This blog is inspired by a page from Monty Python's 'Big Red Book' entitled 'Why Accountancy is Not Boring.' (Apologies to those who have not come across the Pythons' rather English form of humour -…

I am writing this from outside my home country, on a two-week assignment. It’s not a “mediation” as we might typically know it – not yet, anyway - but rather an early stage engagement with a long…

One of the things that has been exercising me for some time is the question of what constitutes success in commercial mediation. I ask the question because the experience of the London office of my…

 Yep, it's been an up-and-down month.  More down than up if I'm honest. But hey! I've done enough of these things to know that my old Dad was right all those years ago when we'd stand at the top of a…

 Hong Kong is the global city of designer ‘labels’ as even the most reluctant of shoppers cannot fail to observe. It is also the city of fakes – fakes with labels and fakes without labels – and the…

This week I came across an article in Forbes magazine (not my usual reading, I hasten to add!) which irritated and inspired me in equal measure. Under the title “The Ten Most Peaceful Countries Don…

Desire. I have some transcripts from real-life family mediations to analyse and reading the transcripts, it struck me that I was reading about desire. This sent me back to my 1985 language,…