cognitive biases

It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog just about mediation practice. Other things always seem more important! However, as I was mediating this week, a thought occurred to me about a rather…

Mediators are well acquainted with parties blaming one another for problems.  Scapegoating in particular can get in the way of coming to terms, instead leading to an escalation of bad feelings and an…

Congruence is one of the superpowers the universe makes available to us. When we behave congruently - so that everything we do is in harmony with everything we say – we are at our most persuasive,…

Anna Howard’s first book, ‘EU Cross-Border Commercial Mediation: Listening to Disputants – Changing the Frame; Framing the Changes’ (published by Kluwer), is an important contribution to the…

Introduction "A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." William James Whether as mediators, advisors or parties in dispute, we consider ourselves…

  Why does impasse occur in mediation? In my experience as a commercial mediator, impasse most often flows from a combination of cognitive biases and flawed risk assessments.  Cognitive Biases  The…

Being a mediator brings surprises along the way. For me, I was presented with what turned out to be the biggest challenge of my professional career last November when the Cabinet Secretary for Health…

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Winston Churchill Improving Habit of Thinking The popular quote attributed to the…

  Source: https://medium.com Does the currently predominant model of commercial mediation - a single session of 3 or 6 hours - support good decision-making by litigants? Some doubt is cast by recent…