A recent story in The Globe and Mail profiles a remarkable law student named Sam Michaels from York University’s Osgoode Hall. Michaels is the Founder and Director of a legal start-up that addresses a pressing need:…

It happens all the time. A couple will come to me for marriage counseling, and I can see the fear in the husband’s eyes as soon as he figures out that this “Britt” isn’t a man.It’s not that he’s necessarily sexist, but I can so much as hear the voice in his head that says, “Great, now these two women are going to gang up on me.”

A recent…

A friend of mine – I’ll call him Max – recently had a disagreement with his sister, and he was agonizing to me about it and how to mend things. When he was brainstorming how to get her to talk to him Max said, “maybe I ought to go with an olive branch in hand”. I asked him how he thought that would work and he said, “It’s a goodwill gesture – a symbol of peace – and if she throws it back at me I’ll know the timing is wrong!” Max’s use of the expression inspired me to consider its derivation,…

Bill Warters, an expert on conflict resolution in higher education, will describe the Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution program based in the Department of Communication at Wayne State University in Detroit. He will review dispute resolution in Higher Education generally and…

It is our pleasure to invite you to join us at the 35th United States Ombudsman  Association Annual Conference this October in Lincoln, Nebraska.   Lin Quenzer, Lincoln’s Ombudsman, is our conference host. 

We believe you will find our professions have a lot in common and that our conference sessions will afford you the opportunity for professional growth.  For example, the one-day pre-conference training, Understanding and Managing High Conflict…

Tips for Lawyers When Working with a Mediator

In his column in the latest issue of The Professional Family Mediator, Chip Rose writes about the idea of “The Perfect Mediation.”

As a highly experienced mediator, Mr. Rose acknowledges that a…

"What's Happening in Conflict Resolution" is a weekly round up of the all the ADR news, jobs, events and more. Check it out each week and view past versions [HERE].

“Talk To Me”: What It Takes To Be An NYPD Hostage…

Does ‘being right’ have consequences?

Katie Coombs thinks so. She recently wrote a column in my local paper entitled “I’d rather not be right.”

Katie feels that by if you choose to always ‘be right,’ then you risk the relationships that you have.  She commented that she would rather live in a world where people can make mistakes,…

There’s no absolutely no doubt that the right to a fair trial is an essential foundation of a just society. Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that innocent people are being arrested without prior notice and convicted on trumped-up charges all over the world. Illegal arrest and arbitrary pre-trial detention are essentially human rights abuses in the context…

I think most of us live two personas: The person and the professional. And, although both sides are often intertwined, I’m starting to find that, when it comes to conflict resolution, the two sides have an almost magnetic repulsion.

I have several clients who are in professions that require they be conflict resolution experts (social workers, HR managers, etc.), and, by all accounts, they’re doing an excellent job. However, when it comes to putting those…

When it comes to some interpersonal conflicts the expression let sleeping dogs lie may be used to mean “to leave things as they are; especially, to avoid restarting or rekindling an old argument; to leave disagreements in the past”. Certainly a sleeping dog is a lovely sight. But to me so are most dogs who are awake. Presumably the image of this metaphor is meant to conjure up excessive yapping and…

The  South African Employment Equity Amendment Act, Act No 47 of 2013 (the EEAA) came into operation by means of promulgation with effect from 01 August 2014.

The EEAA as well as other amendments to SA Labor Legislation, to wit the Labor Relations Act, 66 of 1995 (the LRA) and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 75 of 1997 (the BCEA) formed the subject matter of extensive consultations held over a period of almost four years at NEDLAC whereupon 'consensus' was…

With the start of a new academic year, college athletes and coaches prepare for another season and often a whole new environment. They encounter new team members, the pressures of performance and a longing for home. During this program, Joshua Gordon, of the Sports Conflict…

"What's Happening in Conflict Resolution" is a weekly round up of the all the ADR news, jobs, events and more. Check it out each week and view past versions [HERE].…

Every good conversation starts with good listening.

My colleague Jill, who is an adjunct professor at the University of Nevada Reno in Communication Studies, gave me a wonderful “pearl” after coffee one day. She forwarded a copy of the HURIER Listening Profile to me so I could do a self-assessment of my listening skills.

Jill said it might be fun if I guessed how I will do before completing the form … which I did.

So, I thought that HURIER was…

I’d like to share a simulation I’ve  recently written with co-authors Yael Efron and Nellie Munin: FlashPoint: Syria, 2014.

FlashPoint is a simulation-game constructed as a teaching-tool for the topics of conflict analysis and resolution, collaboration, negotiation, mediation and public international law – or any…

If we REALLY want to talk about conflict resolution, then, I need to share with you my experience last week on my trip to Atlanta from Chicago.  O.K.–settle in.

It all started very benign. My family and I boarded our 1 1/2 hour flight to Atlanta with joy–vacation time! And, by all accounts, everything was going smoothly. Until…

During our descent into Atlanta, the pilot informed us we needed to go around some storms to avoid hitting them. No problem.…

When we accuse someone of upsetting the applecart we generally think that person is causing trouble and creating difficulties by doing or saying something that challenges the status quo. Of the four variations of the source of the expression that I read about, the most basic and generic derivation refers to farmers in the 1800s who would bring applecarts loaded with neatly piled,…