The Magic in Mediation
This is a longer blog post than is normal but I will not be alone in describing Ken Cloke as one of the most influential figures in my life, both professionally and personally…
Every now and again something happens to cause me to pause and think - or re-think. Recently, I had that experience at a small ruined castle in the heart of Scotland, near a lovely country town…
Covid is the gift that keeps on giving. It has provided a wonderful focus for blame that has let us off the hook for a lot of things. It has coincided with significant changes in our mediation…
In one of my recent cases, the question of impartiality appeared in quite an irregular way. It happened when I entered the mediation room where both parties were seated together with their lawyers…
My colleague and fellow Kluwer author Charlie Woods has likened my scatter-gun approach to starting new projects and coming up with new ideas to “guerrilla gardening”. I am sure he means it as a…
“I’ve been trying to tell you, but you didn’t listen. You’ve got to go down more deeply and take more time, you’re rushing it and it’s too superficial. You’re hardly disturbing the surface. You’ll…
Over the Christmas break, I had the pleasure of reading Ken Newell's memoirs, "Captured by a Vision". Ken was (until his retirement some years ago) a Presbyterian Church minister in Northern Ireland…
In this article I discuss some of the perception and cognitive biases relevant to conflict as well as the interaction between biases and conflict. I think that it is important for mediators to be…
John and David Sturrock
1. Introduction
Several years ago, while travelling back with my son David to Oxford where he was studying as an undergraduate, we discussed my work as a mediator and his…