For those of you who know Mediator in a Box will know there is a little card within the box which is a “Take a Break" card. This little card can be used by anyone in a tough conversation who might need to take a break to calm down, rethink things, come back to themselves. Taking a break as a way to keep the conversation productive is substantiated by a study done by John Gottman. He and his team tracked fighting couples in the research Continue Reading
Say No to Enemification!
There is a well-researched phenomenon in social psychology called In-groups and out-groups. We all have built into us an “in-group bias” – we define ourselves in terms of social groupings and are quick to “other” those who do not fit into our group. I’m sure there is a lot of solid reason for why we, as a species, needed to hone this capacity to scan for whether the person in front of us was “either with us, or against us” – as is said in Continue Reading
Conflict Revolution
My colleague Gordon White and I are working on releasing a podcast in 2018. One of the people we have had the honour of interviewing for the podcast is the conflict luminary Ken Cloke. As his bio says: “Ken Cloke is a world-recognized mediator, dialogue facilitator, conflict resolution systems designer, teacher, public speaker, author of number books and articles, and a pioneer and leader in the field of mediation and conflict resolution for Continue Reading
How to Make a Mediator Magically Appear
“An ounce of mediation is worth a pound of arbitration and a ton of litigation!” … Joseph Grynbaum Do you ever have a conflict with someone and wish you could just add water and make a mediator magically appear? That’s the kind of email I got recently from someone who was going through challenging issues with her husband. She wrote to me asking if I knew of a mediator in her area of the country, as she wanted to talk with her husband about Continue Reading