MEDIATION IS LIKE MAKING COMPOST
Finding Insights in the Garden: Lessons from Mediation Before convening a formal mediation meeting, I always have several private conversations with each party. This approach allows me to delve deeper into their perspectives and uncover the underlying issues. I ask questions that provoke introspection: Did the other person make you feel demeaned? What was […]
The Speed of Trust – reflections upon
<1344 words> My son gave me a Vitamix for Christmas. I’ve become pretty proficient at creating interesting and sometimes compelling smooth greenies as a result. I’ve developed quite a taste for them, in fact. It is a formidable machine. It is to blenders what the Lexus is to cars. Some might even say it’s what a […]
Four Decades of Being a ‘Senior’
<1243 words> FOUR DECADES OF BEING A ‘SENIOR’ WARRANTS A CLOSER LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCES There are more and more forecasts that more and more of us will live to be one hundred. Our eligibility for Canada Pension kicks in at 60. For many of us that marks the beginning of our new status – we’ve […]
The Elephant in the Room
<520 words> I was at a meeting a while back, in a room with a low ceiling, comfortably seating about 8 people around a board room table; plastic water bottles and everything. During the conversation someone mentioned that there was an elephant in the room – with reference to something we all knew and thought […]
Ghostwriting & Mediation
It may seem an odd combination, being a ghostwriter and a mediator. This morning I realised that it isn’t so. The ghostwriting is not only an excellent proving ground for refining my writing skills but it is also giving me deep insights into the ways of mediation. I have a few Canadian clients but mostly they are from very different worlds – the Philippines, Australia, the USA, the Middle-East, East Africa, England. The writing involves a range of assignments which means that I’m broadening my general knowledge – often on topics I didn’t think I needed to know much about , but more frequently on topics that become fascinating as I work on them. My awareness of cultural nuances is sharpening as a result. Australians ARE very different from Canadians, for example.
When a quiet lunch goes wrong in a public place
Irritability can sometimes come out of nowhere and ruin a perfectly good day. I recently had the
experience with someone who was triggered by the totally innocent and absent-minded behaviour of someone else – a complete stranger: the signs of agitation were there. She vocalised it “if that
guy doesn’t stop playing with his ice I’m going to have to do something.” I looked up, and yes indeed at the next table there was a man …