If two is company, three is a crowd, and four is a party, what is more than a dozen? The answer, as I recently learned when conducting a multi-party mediation for a complex claim, is that more than a dozen is a challenge (and that...
It’s been said that there are no traffic jams on the extra mile. Putting in a little more effort in what we are doing is rarely a big sacrifice, and yet it can pay huge dividends. Consider the benefits of holding a pre-mediation caucus, for...
You’ve heard the old saying: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Did you know there was more to that story? One day, that fisherman had to move...
There’s a comic drawing making the rounds on the Internet that makes an interesting statement or observation about conflict. It shows two people, who have approached a number from different directions, beginning to argue. One observes a “6”. The other observes a “9”. The original comic...
“And now for something completely different.” No, this isn’t a Monty Python sketch; it’s the moment when participants who are engaged in our adversarial legal system attempt to co-operate and work together. When you say it like that, it sounds almost absurd as one of...