Minnesota's 13th Annual ADR Institute on Friday, October 29, includes book discussions

With the number of states and organizations offering conferences on alternative dispute resolution, the challenge for a presenting entity is coming up with programming that is both fresh and useful. I see a couple of offerings at the MN 13th Annual ADR Institute that appear to have the potential of being, as these conferences go, out of the ordinary.

From the conference brochure [pdf]:

• ADR Book Club: The Invisible Gorilla and Stalling for Time-Attendees are asked to read both books so they can actively participate in the discussion. Join your colleagues for a stimulating discussion of two ADR-related books. In The Invisible Gorilla, the authors use a wide assortment of stories and counterintuitive scientific findings to reveal an important truth: our minds don’t work the way we think they do. We think we see ourselves and the world as they really are, but we’re actually missing a whole lot. In Stalling for Time, Gary Noesner, the former head of the FBI’s Crisis negotiation Unit recounts how his training in negotiation and communication techniques helped defuse hostage situations and many other potentially volatile stand-offs.
• Special Luncheon Presentation: Mediating Clergy Sexual Abuse Cases
• ADR Book Club: Bargaining with the Devil and The Truth About the Truth-in some situations it may make more sense to negotiate rather than fight, but how do you decide? In Bargaining with the Devil, Robert Mnookin explores the challenge of making such critical decisions. In The Truth about the Truth, Walter Truett Anderson compiles 33 short pieces by postmodern pundits grappling with problems of belief, identity and conflict in a rapidly changing society.
• ADR Book Club: Predictably Irrational and How We Decide-When we make decisions we think we’re in control and making rational choices, but are we? Entertaining and surprising, Predictably Irrational unmasks the subtle, but powerful tricks that our minds play on us. How We Decide explores the cognitive struggle between the brain’s executive rational centers and its more intuitive regions. These books could change the way you think about thinking.