Virtually all conflicts directly or indirectly concern power. Conflict is often a means of seeking or maintaining the balance or imbalance of power in relati...

My mother is 88 years old and is still as sharp as a razor. She was recently asked to take over as Corporate Secretary for a voluntary group that she’s been ...

In mediation and negotiation, we often meet people who are vehemently opposed to any form of compromise with a counterparty, based on moral or quasi-moral gr...

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle tells us, observers influence what they observe. A little like war correspondents, mediators cannot be genuinely neutral ...

Albert Mehrabian, the father of body language research, found that the total impact of a spoken human message is about 7 % verbal (the words), 38% vocal (ton...

I have always been fascinated by high-pressure negotiations. As a kid I Ioved that scene from the film “The Enforcer”. Robbers at a liquor store are holding ...

As a result of the COVID19 pandemic, and the social distancing that entails, more and more mediators are engaging in shuttle mediation. But a few words of c...

I am often drawn to psychology to help me in my conflict resolution practice. Especially when parties seem to be “stuck”. The Drama Triangle is a social mode...

Quite often your negotiation counterpart will try to pressure you into doing a "quick" deal. This may be because they don't value your business and don't wa...

The great 1988 power-ballad “In The Living Years” by Mike and the Mechanics portrays a son lamenting how he and his father were for ever “talking past each o...

The Gibbons Review (2007)[1] of workplace dispute resolution recommended that early-stage mediation be used to resolve workplace disputes. Since then HR prof...

Make sure you Anchor Most important first step in making any concessions in negotiation is to anchor the original offer. Spend some time legitimising your o...

Virgil’s famous saying "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" roughly translates to: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts". Virgil was writing about his Greek enemies – ...

It's important when entering any negotiation to make sure that your counterpart has the decision-making power to conclude your discussions. According to a ...

A study in reciprocity found that a waitress who gives a single sweet to each dinner guest at the end of a meal leads to an average 3.3.% increase in the tip...

1. Set your target price (your goal). 2. When calculating your target price use precise non-round numbers like, say, £437,500 rather than £438,000. It gives ...

It you're anything like me you hate choosing your menu options when you're in a restaurant serving lots of food that you really love. I just hate making up ...

Elsewhere in this blog I extol the virtues of "anchoring" - stating a price early on as a means of setting expectations. This is a good psychological tactic...

A "snow job" is a particularly common tactic negotiation designed to confuse and distract you - and to tie up your resources. The American Management Associ...

A bogey is a particular issue that one side in negotiation pretends is vitally important to the deal, though in reality it is unimportant. By agreeing to con...