idealawg

Blog Glob: "Mediation can work in many elder care situations"

Excerpt from "Mediation can work in many elder care situations" (Daily Record, Baltimore):

It has been said that there is a larger grace bestowed on society when families demonstrate their respect for and acceptance of loved ones growing old, and together, thoughtfully, make decisions about their care. A mediator can assist in the process so everyone is involved.

Click to read the rest.

Related: "Elder-Care Mediation - How a New Breed of Mediators Helps Families Navigate Difficult Conversations"

"Mediation of Disputes Between Family Members Before, During and After Funeral Planning"

Pam Vetter (about whom I blogged here) conducted a brief, skeleton interview of me about disputes between survivors after a death, and prevention of the conflict. (I will explore the topic in depth in a later post.) Excerpt from "Mediation of Disputes Between Family Members Before, During and After Funeral Planning" (American Chronicle) [added: the link to the article is now here]:

Even without estrangement, family members oftentimes disagree about a variety of issues in funeral planning including disposition of the body, funeral service format, religious references or lack of religious references, flower and musical choices. Even if the deceased expressed a clear wish to be buried, disagreements may ensue over choices of casket, plot and cemetery location.

As many people don't have written plans for their own funeral preferences, family members must make those decisions on their behalf.

While every family member shares a common goal to remember the deceased, everyone grieves in his or her own way and sometimes they view a meaningful funeral service differently.

Stephanie West Allen, Mediator and Author of "Creating Your Own Funeral or Memorial Service: A Workbook," believes it's important to open communication among family members before death.

Read the rest of the article here. [here]

Scientific American: "The Secrets of Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn"

Storytelling plays an important role in the law and in my model of mediation. I am happy to see that Scientific American has just published a good article on the topic. Excerpt from "The Secrets of Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn":

Narrative is ... a potent persuasive tool, according to [Patrick Colm] Hogan [pdf] and other researchers, and it has the ability to shape beliefs and change minds.

Advertisers have long taken advantage of narrative persuasiveness by sprinkling likable characters or funny stories into their commercials. A 2007 study by marketing researcher Jennifer Edson Escalas of Vanderbilt University found that a test audience responded more positively to advertisements in narrative form as compared with straightforward ads that encouraged viewers to think about the arguments for a product. Similarly, [Melanie C.] Green co-authored a 2006 study that showed that labeling information as “fact” increased critical analysis, whereas labeling information as “fiction” had the opposite effect. Studies such as these suggest people accept ideas more readily when their minds are in story mode as opposed to when they are in an analytical mind-set.

Works of fiction may even have unexpected real-world effects on people’s choices. Merlot was one of the most popular red wines among Americans until the 2005 film Sideways depicted actor Paul Giamatti as an ornery wine lover who snubbed it as a common, inferior wine. Winemakers saw a noticeable drop in sales of the red wine that year, particularly after Sideways garnered national attention through several Oscar nominations.

As researchers continue to investigate storytelling’s power and pervasiveness, they are also looking for ways to harness that power. Some such as Green are studying how stories can have applications in promoting positive health messages. “ ...

Read the rest of the article here.

From today's New York Law Journal: "Become a Better Counselor Through Meditation"

Earlier this month I posted about an upcoming mindfulness retreat for lawyers. In today's New York Law Journal is an article about the retreat, as well as the benefits of mindfulness in the practice of law. From "Become a Better Counselor Through Meditation":

In an article for the spring 2002 issue of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, professor Leonard L. Riskin of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law [Professor Riskin is now at University of Florida Levin College of Law] proposed meditation as an antidote to his two paramount concerns: high levels of debilitating stress among lawyers and law students, and the related tendency of those who suffer stress to give bad legal advice.

"These problems stem in part from certain narrow, adversarial mind-sets that tend to dominate the way most lawyers think and most legal education is structured," wrote Riskin. Such attitudes, he added, "tend to promote egocentric behavior, excessive adversarialism, and a lack of balance between personal and professional aspects of life, which often lead to unhealthy levels of stress, to experiences of isolation, emptiness and absence of meaning, and to the rendering of inadequate or inappropriate services."

The Contemplative Center's Web site pledges that its meditative training can help lawyers "quiet the mind, enhance clarity and professional effectiveness, and restore a more peaceful balance" between personal and professional life.

Other links on mindfulness in the law.

Blawg Review virgin Vickie Pynchon: Tension building as her first time is coming

By the time Vickie posts her maiden Blawg Review at IP ADR Blog, the whole blogosphere may be watching. To begin the excitement, she promised it may be the best ever. Then anonymous Ed. at Blawg Review held a Blawg Review virgin lineup in which Vickie was one of the suspects. Next Diane Levin jumped in asking that we all do what we can to make Vickie's first time special.

The momentum is mounting and I have a feeling there will be more prelude posts preliminary to this big event. I will post them here.

What's Blawg Review? Each week a blogger finds the best posts in the legal blogosphere and features them on his or her blog. The creative presentations of these round-ups (aka carnivals) often amaze and astound. I frequently think when I experience these BRs, "How can it get any better than this?" And then it does. I anticipate the bar rising when we see what Vickie unveils.

Image credit: jeanfrancoismartyn

A fine newsletter about matters related to death and funerals: Often uplifting

I recommend that you take a look at the ezine and online newsletter titled The Funeral Lady written by Celebrant Pam Vetter. Each edition carries a wide range of topics, many intriguing and heart-warming (without being saccharine). Click to read the most recent edition and to read the archives. Click here to get your own subscription. I don't know of anything quite like The Funeral Lady. It's an excellent read.

Looking at something doesn't mean we see it: Will becoming a magician improve your negotiation skills?

Magicians may be way ahead of cognitive scientists in understanding perception. Researchers from Canada and Britain are demonstrating that "Age-old Magic Tricks Can Provide Clues For Modern Science" (Science Daily). They studied three techniques key to magic: misdirection, illusion, and forcing. Watch examples of misdirection and illusion. From the Science Daily article:

"Imagine someone who makes an object disappear or successfully predicts what you will do next," says Kuhn. "These tricks may seem like they defy the laws of physics and logic, but they are actually created through a combination of skill and a deep knowledge of human psychology."

For example, the vanishing ball illusion indicates that anticipation plays a factor in what we see -- our minds tend to fill in the blanks. In this trick, the magician tosses a red ball in the air two times and on the third throw will palm the ball. However, study participants will report seeing the magician toss the ball in the air three times.

...

They developed various magic tricks and experiments to test recent findings in vision science, which shows that only a small part of information that enters our eyes actually enters our conscious awareness. One particular finding shows a distinction between where you look and what you see.

...

"The critical factor is not where someone directs their eyes, but where they are sending their attention," explains [Ronald] Rensink. "If they didn't attend to the manipulation behind the trick, they simply weren't able to see how the trick was done."

I ordered Magic for Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Magic Tricks to take a look and see

Holographic video conferencing: Implications for mediation, negotiation, marketing, law firm management, and what else?

I have blogged about telepresence before when Ray Bradbury was teleported from California to Kentucky. But each time I see an example of people being teleported from one place to another, I watch wide-eyed in amazement. The potential is astounding for world-wide visual collaboration! From the Human Productivity Lab blog post Cisco Experimenting with an On-Stage Telepresence Experience:

During a presentation to the media in Bangalore, Cisco CEO John Chambers "beamed up" Marthin De Beer, Senior Vice President of Emerging Technology Group at Cisco, and Chuck Stucki the General Manager of the Telepresence Business Unit from San Jose. The photorealistic and lifesize virtual duo from San Jose then interacted with the Cisco CEO and presented to the audience in India.  You can check out a video of the launch of the Cisco Globalization Center East which includes the stand up telepresence experience on the Cisco video website here:
http://tools.cisco.com/cmn/jsp/index.jsp?id=67656 

[Use this link.]

In the session, the current usage as well as the future possibilities of the technology are discussed. Watch now. What ideas do you have for teleporting?

Hat tip: Rob Millard at The Adventure of Strategy.

Update: I had forgotten that Geoff Sharp blogged about mediating holographically in June. I see that I posted a comment inviting him to a holographic dinner. My blog post memory seems in need of sharpening.

Note (added April 17, 2012): "A Short History Of The Hologram, As Told By 4 Pre-Tupac Holograms" (Gothamist).

Boston Globe's Sunday Magazine: The Boomers Issue

For the boomers amongst us, today's edition of Magazine includes these articles:

"Answers on Aging"
Boomers have plenty of issues to wade through in the years ahead. We asked five experts to help.

"American Idle"
Never before has an entire generation had so much time in which to do so little.

"Hey. Ho. Let's Go . . . Online"
Why I'll always be a punk rocker.

"The Real Greatest Generation"
The generation Tom Brokaw praised won an extraordinary peace against true evil. But boomers did more than give us tie-dye and ABBA. They changed society monumentally.

"Save My Brain!"
The mind, like the body, gets flabbier with age. Can a crash course in, well, anything, keep it in shape? We sent a boomer to One Day University to find the answer.

Bonuses from other newspapers today:

• "Chasing Down Retirement" (Chicago Tribune)
• "You must remember this: how the mind works" (Guardian)

"Law is a 'slash' profession": Some career advice

From "Off the beaten track: Once you have the basics in place, you can take an advanced degree in all kinds of unusual directions" (The Boston Phoenix):

"I always tell people it isn’t a law degree that gets non-traditional, it’s you," [Maris] Abbene [the director of career services at Boston College Law School] says. She explains that most people with law degrees do go on to work at law firms first, but that, armed with the ability to analyze on their feet, negotiate, and a host of other marketable skills, people with a law degrees can go anywhere they want. Helen Long, director of the Career Development Office at Boston University School of Law, cites David Kelley, producer of the Boston-based law-firm show Ally McBeal (among a host of other shows) as one of BU Law’s most famous graduates, and a good example of someone who took his law degree in an atypical direction. She also mentions another BU Law grad, who founded Barrister Books, a bookseller directed at lawyers.
...

But how to decide if practicing law is right for you? "It’s the same type of advice you give anyone taking their career in a new direction," says Long. It’s a combination of knowing what you want to do, what your skills are, and which of those skills you like to use. "Law is a ‘slash’ profession. There are a lot of lawyers/journalists, lawyers/poets, lawyers/CEOs." Law school’s primary purpose, explains Long, is training lawyers. "You need to go through the creative process on your own to decide where you want to go."

I suggest that "the creative process"  should include assessing your values, interests, and aptitudes. What do you suggest?

On a related note: Click to read about some research showing that affirming your values can lessen stress.