By: Donald L. Swanson Should a mediation be in joint session or caucus? For mediating business disputes, joint session is the better approach—by far. I’ll try to explain. Two Observations Here are two observation about the joint session vs. caucus method for mediating business disputes. 1. People with little-or-no experience in mediation tend to expect a mediation... Continue Reading →

By: Donald L. Swanson This doesn’t happen every day: A mediator’s engagement agreement authorizes the mediator to arbitrate disputes about any settlement agreement the parties might reach in mediation; The mediation achieves a settlement agreement, but a dispute arises over an alleged mistake in the agreement document; and The mediator attempts to arbitrate the dispute and... Continue Reading →

By: Donald L. Swanson Making an affirmative choice among alternatives is one way to make a decision. Rejecting an alternative is another way. Research Results Research shows that these two differing ways of making decisions often produce differing results. That’s because people “adopt different selection criteria” and “allocate different weights and choices” in these two ways... Continue Reading →

By Donald L. Swanson “Soloman’s Paradox” = “we tend to reason more wisely about other people’s problems than our very own” (aka, “Plenty of wisdom for others; but not for oneself”). [Fn. 1] “King Solomon, the third leader of the Jewish Kingdom, is thought of as a sage and a man of great wisdom. People traveled... Continue Reading →