What's your default?

Two months ago, the default rule for setting out my garbage and compost changed.  It used to be that I placed all garbage and compost into one type of container.  That container was picked up by the City and taken to the local landfill.  That changed.  Now the City provides two types of containers, one […]

Geek Girls: The Next Dispute Resolution Superheroes?

Fifty years ago there was only a few different communication channels.  If you wanted to have a conversation with someone, you had two basic options; meet in-person or call them on the telephone.  Today, thanks (or no thanks, as the case may be) to technology, your options have increased, a lot… add to the above: email, text, internet […]

Place-based Conflict Management

In our global village world, we are more likely to buy into ideas and approaches developed somewhere else, in a different place.  This is certainly true in the conflict management arena; whether its interest-based negotiation, more prisons, or Online Dispute Resolution (ODR).  No matter if good or bad, these other ways can distract us from […]

Collaboration insights gained through improv training with Dave Morris

Since early March I’ve been attending a basic improvisation class, led by Dave Morris, here in Victoria.  It just wrapped up.  I’ve spent a lot of my life relying on my left brain.  Spending 2 hours a week with 15 others, largely in right brain mode, was something I figured I could handle!  Plus, intuitively I […]

The Hybrid Mediator: Choreographing conversations across communications channels

Facilitating difficult conversations is hard.  And, what’s making it even harder is that it can be difficult to know which communications channel is most appropriate, for the situation-at-hand.  The options seem endless; chat, text, email, phone, video, face-to-face…  Using the wrong channel, at the wrong time, in the wrong way… is, well, not a good […]