ICC’s biggest educational event of the year, its International Mediation Competition, took place from 5 to 11 February 2021 and, for the first time of its history, it was conducted online. It was its…
I wrote this piece for Strathclyde Mediation Clinic after a series of conversations with new and learner mediators. Some surprised me with their passivity in the face of parties' lack of knowledge…
Kindergarten and conflict – Pre-school leadership in conflict resolution.
Becoming a devoted Grandma has been a surprising and enriching learning experience for me. The early childhood teaching and…
Alright, idiots, what's the problem? And don't waste my time!
“Hi, I’m Rick. I’m your mediator for today. I can’t decide what happens in this dumb dispute or how you resolve issues. My job is just…
“It is pointless to do with more what can be done with fewer.” William of Ockham
A colleague recently asked me to present a workshop to employment mediators on 'Time Limited Mediation.' Until that…
“I hold to the idea that civility, understood as the willingness to engage in public discourse, is the first virtue of citizens.”
Mark Kingwell, The World We Want: Restoring Citizenship in a…
(This post is being republished because of technical problems when it was first published.)
One of the key debates among mediators centres on the word 'evaluation'. I've written about this before -…
Try this thought experiment: imagine a mediator without empathy. How and what would they do? Would there be drawbacks? Benefits?
The response to these questions probably depends on our own…
Greg Bond's recent post on mediation cultures reminded me of an encounter I had with a group of mediators several years ago. Allow me to share with you my recollection of what happened.
I was…