Agile creativity is the sweet spot at the intersection of planning and improvising. With the help of David Armano’s image, I propose that’s the intersection from which skilled mediators work much of the time.

David, whose influential marketing blog, Logic+Emotion, is a source of inspiration about creativity, design and user experience, says this about agile creativity: Keep reading →

Mediation & Applied Conflict Studies core faculty member David Specht was quoted recently in an InterPress Service story about Soliya, for whom David serves as a volunteer facilitator.

The Soliya Connect Program uses web-based videoconferencing technology to create weekly meetings between small groups of university students from the US and predominantly Muslim Countries in the Middle East. With the help of facilitators like David, the students engage in dialogue about the relationship between the US and the Arab & Muslim World, explore and research issues of interest, and work on joint projects to express their understanding of relevant political and sociocultural issues.

The InterPress story shared this story from David: Keep reading →

Fellow mediator, ADR blogger, road warrior Geoff Sharp recently found himself in a beautiful—but very cold—spot in the world. In his post about it, Geoff wrote,

Tammy, if your Woodbury College grad students are reading this at the start of class on a summer’s day, tell them please that this is the reality of the coalface for just one of an increasing number of mediation road warriors - but that none of us would change it for all the tea those aggressive tourists have back there in far away China.

Geoff’s right. Those of us who travel a lot as part of our mediation work find ourselves in all sorts of woeful jams. During a period that found me in Kentucky and Ohio a lot, I learned far more Keep reading →

I found the following quote in some papers buried in a pile on my desk. My notes say it was from Joann C. Guter in Discover but I haven’t been able to track it down (if you know more about the original source, I welcome the information!):

Practice doesn’t make perfect, nor is it supposed to. Practice is about increasing your repertoire of ways to recover from your mistakes.

I have no idea to what the original quote was referring, but I do know that it certainly applies to our work as mediators. Keep reading →

I attended a blogging conference last weekend, a first for me. It was SOBCon ‘07 and the sense of community and affiliation in the room was powerful. It turns out that relationship bloggers hug as much as some mediators, and this bunch was just as good at creating meaningful conversation.

During one of the many excellent discussions between presenters and the 110 bloggers in the audience, Lisa Gates of Design Your Writing Life said,

In improv, the rule is to accept the offer and move it forward.

It struck me as really apropos for mediators, too. Accept what the parties offer you next, and move it forward.

What would enable you to do that?

In many towns here in New England, citizens come together at least once a year for Town Meeting Day, when the business of the community is conducted.

As a conflict practitioner, I am always interested in how people engage one another and debate the life of the community. Sometimes the differences are dealt with well and sometimes not.

Several years ago at my home Town Meeting, my friend Toby Balivet was called to the microphone to open the meeting. Keep reading →

I just watched a re-run of Tom Hanks interviewed on Inside the Actor’s Studio. In a discussion with host James Lipton, Hanks commented that,

“The death of acting is self-consciousness.”

Mediation, too. It brings to mind Michael Lang’s text, The Art of Mediation, in which he discusses the ability to reflect in action as well as on action. The tricky part of reflecting in action is to notice what you’re doing and adjust as needed without dwelling so much on self there’s little mental space left to attend to the parties.

What enables you to let go of your own self-consciousness in the mediator’s chair, yet continue to reflect in action? Leave a comment below…we’d love to hear from you.

I came across this story today:

Thomas Edison is reported to have tested anyone he was thinking about hiring. He would invite them to have a bowl of soup with them. Anyone adding salt without first tasting the soup failed his test. He didn’t want anyone making decisions based upon unfounded assumptions.

I have no idea if it’s true, but I sure find myself drawn to it. It seems to me that mediators should generally be able to pass the Salt Test. And we can help our clients do the same.

Thanks to the terrific blog, The Marketing Mix, for the story.

I was talking with a fellow mediator and trainer the other day when the conversation moved to our experience training new mediators. We shared the joys of seeing people use the skills and abilities that they had already developed prior to starting to become a mediator. We also talked about some of the obstacles that new folks have when they begin.

When I came home I began thinking about the multiple tasks that new mediators have to learn to master. In some ways, everything is new.

One of the hardest challenges for new mediators, I believe, is the “Candy Store” phenomenon. Keep reading →

Woodbury welcomed a talented, accomplished new cohort of master’s students this week and I worked with them for the first two days of their on-campus residency. When I returned to my office later in the week, I sat down to craft my lesson plan for Conflict Intervention Skills, a class I’m helping teach to master’s students who began classes last fall.

I’ve found my thoughts turning repeatedly to monkey mind. Keep reading →