Brains On Purpose™

Become a Quick Draw: Let images guide you to new understanding

In every program I present, I advocate the use of images in addition to words to facilitate communication. Last weekend at the 19th Annual Nothwest Dispute Resolution Conference, that advocacy was taken to whole new level because I was fortunate to have Nancy White graphically record my presentation. Take a look at her masterpiece above (click to enlarge). It is obvious why she is one of the world's top gurus of the processes of graphic recording and graphic facilitation!

Coincidentally, today Globe and Mail published a fine article on using images and the visual components of thinking. From "For polished presentations, think visually":

Visual thinking is an approach that uses art to develop critical thinking, communication and visual literacy skills. Incorporating sketching and visual note-taking skills for meeting facilitation in real time instead of using PowerPoint presentations is an effective way to solve problems, articulate ideas and communicate with clients and team members.

Here are ten things about visual thinking that will help you to facilitate a highly interactive, productive and enjoyable meeting.

Click to read the rest.

To read why the brain likes images, take a look at

• Opening the Mind's Eye: How Images and Language Teach Us How To See
• The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

And here are a couple of past blog posts about the value of images in communication and conflict resolution:

• Images can help you paint a bright resolution to conflict
• Are you involved in half-brained mediations? Let's promote full-brained conflict resolution

Now get out your utensils—chalks, pencils, crayolas, pens, whatever—and draw. Doing so will take you to new places in your brain, new solutions and resolutions, new ways of seeing.

Note (added May 9, 2012): Recent post at idealawg: Another way to incorporate images, pictures, drawings in conflict resolution.

Note (added May 10, 2012): New post here: How do you listen attentively? Well, first you grab a paint brush, a pencil, or a piece of chalk.

Forthcoming Events in Mindfulness, Law & Dispute Resolution

From an e-mail compiled by Professor Leonard Riskin:

The Initiative on Mindfulness in Law and Dispute Resolution, University of Florida Levin College of Law
April 1, 2012
 
Forthcoming Events, News, and Resources Related to Mindfulness in Law and Dispute Resolution
(Note: This is not a comprehensive (or systematically prepared list of events related to mindfulness in law and dispute resolution. Other resources for information on events dealing with mindfulness in law and dispute resolution are listed at the end of this document.)
 
April 26-29, 2012, International Symposia for Contemplative Studies, Denver, Colorado. http://www.mindandlife.org/research-initiatives/sri/sri12/ [This is a better link.]
 
June 16-20, 2012. Mind and Life Summer Research Institute: The Embodied Mind, Garrison, N.Y. The Embodied Mind. http://www.mindandlife.org/research-initiatives/sri/sri12/
 
Tools of Mindful Awareness for Lawyers, Mediators, Negotiators, Judges, Arbitrators, and Managers
June 21-23, 2012. Malibu, CA
Oct. 14-16, 2010, Woodstock, VT.
Mar. 14-16, Baltimore, MD.
 
Sponsored by Pepperdine University School of Law, Institute for Dispute Resolution. Led by Leonard Riskin, Professor, University of Florida College of Law and Visiting Professor, Northwestern University School of Law, and Rachel Wohl, Director, Maryland Supreme Court Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office . See http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training-and-conferences/  or contact Lori Rushford at lori.rushford@pepperdine.edu.  [Note: Full-time law school professors may be able to attend for a nominal fee.]
 
June 27-29, 2012, Chicago (Downtown). Summer Institute on Negotiation: Critical Skills for Effective Negotiating.Northwestern University, School of Continuing Studies.  Led by Leonard Riskin, Chesterfield Smith Professor, University of Florida Levin College of Law and Visiting Professor, Northwestern University School of Law, and Daniel Shapiro, Harvard Law School & Harvard Medical School; and Director, Harvard International Negotiation Program. This course, offered for the seventh time, integrates instruction and practice in mindfulness with the teachings of Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro’s award-winning Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate (Viking 2005).  For more information, see http://www.scs.northwestern.edu/summernu/programs/negotiation.cfm
 
July 29-August 3, 2012. Annual Summer Session on Contemplative Pedagogy. Northampton, MA, Smith College.    Sponsored by the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education. http://www.acmhe.org/
 
NEW: Spring 2013.  Second Annual Mindful Lawyer Conference, University of California-Berkeley School of Law, Berkeley, California.  Sponsored by the Berkeley Initiative for Mindfulness in Law,  http://www.law.berkeley.edu/mindfulness.htm
 
 
Recent and Forthcoming Publications
Richard J. Davidson with Sharon Begley, The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live--and How You Can Change Them (Penguin Group, 2012).
(Congressman) Tim Ryan, A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit (Hay House 2012).
Leo F. Smyth, Escalation and Mindfulness, _28 Negotiation Journal 45 (Jan. 2012)
Symposium, The Mindful Lawyer, Journal of Legal Education, May2012)
Articles by Charles Halpern, Angela Harris, Katherine Larkin-Wong, Leonard Riskin,, & David Zlotnick
 
Once published, these articles will be publically available at (http://www.swlaw.edu/jle)
 
 
Other News:
The University of California at Berkeley School of Law has announced the formation of the Berkeley Initiative for Mindfulness in Law. Charles Halpern is the Director.  http://www.law.berkeley.edu/mindfulness.htm.
 
Other Resources

I'll be a featured speaker at the Arkansas ADR Conference in March

Join me in Little Rock on March 8? Click to see the schedule of excellent programs. My presentations will be

• The Mind and the Brain: 21st Century Insight for the ADR Professional (plenary session)
• Total-Brain Mediation: The Whole Brain and Nothing but the Truth

Book on brain featured in current Understanding in Conflict newsletter

Now online: the August edition of the newsletter published by the organization offering the mediation training I most highly recommend. This month the newsletter of the Center for Understanding in Conflict includes these articles:

• The Differences Between Mediation and Collaborative Practice
• How to Loop When Someone is Aggressive or Domineering
• Notes from Norman [Fischer]

And the recommended book for the month is Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. [Click for a post about the book.] The review:

This book examines the intersection of psychology, neurology, and contemplative practice to help us understand how our brains affect our mental states of happiness, love and wisdom.  Our ability to be aware of our inner state impacts our effectiveness as professionals working with people in conflict.  This book educates us about the science underlying our inner functioning and the practices that will help us to work with our inner world for the benefit of ourselves and others.

I would add that the book helps us to work with the inner world of our clients, too.

Click to sign up for the newsletter.

Become a wizard? Become a vampire? Become a collaborative disputant?

This research had me smiling about both real and fantasy-realm possibilities. How about you? What do you think? Could the narrative collective-assimilation hypothesis be used in mediation?

Abstract of "Becoming a Vampire Without Being Bitten: The Narrative Collective-Assimilation Hypothesis" (Psychological Science):

We propose the narrative collective-assimilation hypothesis—that experiencing a narrative leads one to psychologically become a part of the collective described within the narrative. In a test of this hypothesis, participants read passages from either a book about wizards (from the Harry Potter series) or a book about vampires (from the Twilight series). Both implicit and explicit measures revealed that participants who read about wizards psychologically became wizards, whereas those who read about vampires psychologically became vampires. The results also suggested that narrative collective assimilation is psychologically meaningful and relates to the basic human need for connection. Specifically, the tendency to fulfill belongingness needs through group affiliation moderated the extent to which narrative collective assimilation occurred, and narrative collective assimilation led to increases in life satisfaction and positive mood, two primary outcomes of belonging. The implications for the importance of narratives, the need to belong to groups, and social surrogacy are discussed.

Excerpt:

Wishing some of your clients were a bit more hypo-egoic? Two practices that might help

What if your mediation clients had an accurate assessment of their abilities, were able to acknowledge their mistakes, had a lower self-focus (with focus on self often taking a backseat), did not have over-active self-talk, kept their place in the world in perspective, and appreciated others? The items I just listed are some indicators of hypo-egoic states. A mediation between people in hypo-egoic states might be fairly easy to facilitate, don't you think?

"Hypo-Egoic States: Personal and Interpersonal Consequences of Attentuated Self-Attention, Image Concerns, and Ego-Involvement" was the title of one of the symposia I attended at this year's Association for Psychological Science annual conference. This one was presented by Drs. Mark Leary, June Price Tangney, Jennifer Crocker, and Kirk Warren Brown.

The four presentations in the symposium were on humility, self-esteem, mindfulness, and a model of hypo-egoic processes. The theory and research behind each topic were intellectually intriguing, and the possible practical applications

Free presentations on negotiation and conflict resolution at UCLA School of Law

From the brochure of the 2011 Negotiation & Conflict Resolution Colloquium [pdf]:

UCLA School of Law’s Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Program promotes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and managing the competition for scarce resources in legal, business and interpersonal contexts. The program’s broad mission includes the study of private and public transactions and disputes in domestic and international arenas.

It brings together a community of scholars, students and practioners from a variety of fields across UCLA and throughout Southern California with overlapping scholarly, teaching and practice interests. Please join us for our exciting events in the winter and spring of 2011.

COLLOQUIUM SCHEDULE

More about the upcoming "Forecasting the Future: Cutting Edge Issues in ADR"

The news release:

ONTARIO, Calif. - (Business Wire) A growing number of legal disputes never make it into the courtroom. Instead, they are being resolved through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR): arbitration, mediation, negotiation and other methods of coming to terms with a conflict without mounting up the costs associated with litigation.

The University of La Verne College of Law will bring together some of the nation's top minds in this evolving practice in a two-day symposium, Forecasting the Future: Cutting Edge Issues in ADR. Leading experts will present insights into the latest trends in technology and techniques, discuss proven strategies, and examine how an understanding of neuroscience can help in reaching resolution.

What: Forecasting the Future: Cutting Edge Issues in ADR

When: 6-9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28 (dinner and speaker);
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29 (program)

Why: Dramatic developments in ADR will be the topic of the two-day event.

(Up to 7 MCLE credits available for attending the event.)

Where: Sara and Michael Abraham Campus Center, University of La Verne, 200 C. Street, La Verne.

Cost: $90 for both days general admission, $50 for one day, with discounts available to La Verne Law alumni as well as academic, government and nonprofit representatives. La Verne Law students and faculty are free.

“With the cost of litigation mounting and demands on courtroom scheduling at an all-time high, many view ADR as an effective and cost-efficient solution to a variety of legal conflicts,” said La Verne Law Professor, Tiffany Graham. “Even more interesting are the ways in which our

Come hear my keynote & breakout on neuroscience of conflict resolution at this state ADR conference

I'll be presenting the keynote address at the annual Colorado Statewide ADR Conference. In addition to the keynote, I will also be presenting one of the breakout sessions at this 4th annual conference titled "Evolving Frontiers of ADR." The event, to be held in Denver, is November 4. The early-bird registration ends October 21.

My topic: "The Mind and the Brain: 21st Century Insight for the ADR Professional."

Click to read the brochure with all the details [pdf].

I hope to see some of you there.

Are there advantages to face-to-face mediations? When are they necessary? This white paper looks to neuroscience for answers

Although this white paper is about business meetings, much of it also would apply to conflict resolution sessions. From the Executive Summary of the white paper "The Future of Meetings: The Case for Face-to-Face" (found on the Web site of the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research):

With the advent of virtual-meeting technology, the issue of how to format group meetings and events has become remarkably complex. Meetings can be completely virtual, completely face-to-face, or a hybrid of the two. Leading companies are using all three formats. The challenge for meeting planners is to decide which format is most effective for important business outcomes. Rather than rely on personal preferences or currently popular approaches, the decision regarding meeting type is a strategic one that should rest on specific, scientific criteria. This paper examines those science-based decision criteria to help executives determine when face-to-face is the most effective approach to large-group meetings or events. This decision is important because face-to-face meetings require the greatest investment of all meeting types, and thus carry the greatest expectations for a strong return on investment. Face-to-face is most likely to be the best approach in the following three business situations:

(1)          To capture attention, particularly when you want to initiate something new or different;

(2)          To inspire a positive emotional climate, as a way to catalyze collaboration, innovation, and performance; and

(3)          To build human networks and relationships, realizing that information can increasingly be shared virtually whereas the greater value is in people networks and relationships.

You download the white paper at the above link. For another summary of it, read Why Invest in Face-to-Face Meetings? Look to Neuroscience" (Corporate Meetings & Incentives). Excerpt:

I see that the ABA's Section of Dispute Resolution is holding its Annual Conference in Denver next year (and will include a neuroscience track)

Darn! Darn! Darn! TypePad is really annoying me these days. I am trying to learn how to use the so-called new and improved blog posting program, and it periodically simply disappears my posts. The post I am about to write again below was recently lost in the 'net ethers. Grrrrrrrr. Here goes, one more time . . .

For links to all the info about next April's ABA ADR event and the Call for Proposals, click over to ADR Prof Blog. The Annual Conference will be held in Denver on April 13-16, and the proposals are due August 30. Conference tracks include one on "Communication, Neuroscience, and Psychology." For those of you with expertise in those arenas (or any others in the list of 14 tracks), you may want to apply to present [pdf]. (I don't know if neuroscience has been a subtrack at past conferences; I would guess that it has?)

Help me solve a mystery, please. What is that pink and tan building in the foreground of the banner above? In all my years of living in Denver, I don't think I have seen that structure.

Note: Thanks to a friend who knows Denver better than I, the mystery is solved. That building is the boathouse at City Park.

A teleseminar on mindfulness and mediation, with a pinch of neuroscience

Although brain science will not be the main course for this seminar being held Tuesday, June 29, it will be mentioned. From the seminar Web page:

Event Details

Join Mark Kleiman, Esq., Executive Director, Community Mediation Services, Inc. and Jeff Thompson, Mediator, EnjoyMediation.com & ADRhub.com, as they discuss Mindfulness and Mediation at ADRhub.com’s June Web Panel Discussion.

Mark and Jeff recently presented at the ACR-Greater New York Chapter’s annual conference on the subject of how mediators as well as other conflict specialists are