Urban beekeeping offers us a lesson in change and conflict management

Its summer, here.  Flowers and gardens are blooming.  Bees are buzzing in the neighbourhood, and more, if you have backyard beehives. A Yes! magazine article this week, Four Ways to Build a Bee-Friendly Neighborhood, gave some great tips for alleviating neighbour concerns, associated with urban beekeeping.   I also thought the tips offer a larger model […]

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 […]

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 […]

The way we were: Was it really that groovy?

[This is a guest post by Susanna Jani.   Susanna is highly respected in British Columbia (and beyond) for her contributions to the field of mediation.  Mediate BC named an award after her; the annual Susanna Jani Prize for Excellence in Mediation.   So well deserved!   Susanna’s  commitment and generous spirit has won her many friends, including me. :)] My conversation with a friend […]

Co-facilitation is a value creation opportunity

Sometimes you just have to give up something to get something.   Case in point: collaboration.   We give up a bit of personal autonomy for an outcome that’s greater than what we might have achieved on our own.   Bottom line is that we and the customer/client both get more value. I’ve been formally working as a […]