idealawg

Podcast with author of RAINY BRAIN SUNNY BRAIN (one of my favorite books)

This short interview of Professor Elaine Fox is for all the people to whom I have recommended her book Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain: How to Retrain Your Brain to Overcome Pessimism and Achieve a More Positive Outlook. She gives a short overview of one of the best books I've read this year. For those to whom I have recommended the book, perhaps this will be the motivation to read the book—if you haven't already. Click to listen (Guardian).

Bonus: She mentions a study with law students.

"Become more optimistic by imagining a best possible self"

Abstract of "Become more optimistic by imagining a best possible self: Effects of a two week intervention" (Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry):

Background and objectives: Optimism is a personality trait which has repeatedly been shown to correlate with, and predict psychological and physical well-being. The present study investigated whether optimism can be increased by imagining a best possible self (BPS). Effects were compared to a control group in which participants imagined their daily activities (DA).
Methods: In order to minimize inter-individual differences in content of imagery, participants constructed their BPS according to 3 domains, namely a personal, relational, and professional domain. All participants were instructed to practice their imagery exercise for 5 min per day over a period of two weeks. Effects on optimism and mood were measured after one session, after one week and after two weeks.
Results: Results indicated that BPS imagery led to significantly larger increases in optimism as compared to DA imagery, after one session and over a two week period. Effects on optimism remained after controlling for possible mediation by the change in positive mood. Limitations: In order to test the effectiveness of our BPS imagery intervention we relied exclusively on self-report measures.
Conclusion: The present study confirmed that imagining a BPS enhances levels of optimism, independent of the mood effect.

Excerpt from Discussion:

In conclusion, the present study indicated that daily imagery of a best possible self (BPS) over a period of two weeks caused significantly larger improvements in levels of optimism as compared to imagery of daily activities. The current BPS imagery intervention may be a suitable technique to study and establish the causal relationships between optimism and various cognitive, behavioral, and physical correlates.

Excerpt from Appendix A:

Recommended article on the sorry state of leadership education

strategy+business just published a fine article on the current state of leadership development. If you are interested in the topic, it is an article you should not miss. From "Mad about Leadership" which reviews and includes an excerpt from the book The End of Leadership:

...With a few notable exceptions, we’ve failed to recognize or acknowledge that the enterprise in which we are engaged is about as effective as faith healing. And, as [the author of The End of Leadership Barbara Kellerman] usefully notes, “the metrics are mostly missing” from the field of leadership development. In other words, we have no idea what works and what doesn’t when it comes to the education and training of leaders. I would go further and assert that we don’t even have metrics for what amounts to effective leadership in the first place (in contrast, for example, to the sound data available for judging the management of financial performance).

If anything, most corporate in-house leadership training is an even bigger waste of time and money than what goes on in business schools. Kellerman is right on target when she singles out the manifest inadequacies of the two corporate leadership development programs most often cited as world class: those at General Electric and Goldman Sachs. And those programs are run by the best minds in the business and supported by generous budgets!

Click to read the rest (and I hope you do!)

The Law as a Platform for Writing

If I were to go to the ABA Annual Meeting this year, there is one panel I would want to attend. The law as a Platform for Writing will feature four best-selling authors who are also lawyers. From Talmage Boston:

On Saturday, August 4, Talmage Boston will moderate a panel discussion featuring best selling authors Stephen Carter -  William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University; Jeffrey Toobin - Staff Writer at The New Yorker and Senior Legal Analyst at CNN; and Scott Turow - Partner at Chicago office of SNR Denton.

Click here to learn more about the authors [pdf]. I am not planning to go to Chicago for the Annual Meeting. Are you?

Because of the many lawyers who are also successful writers, and the large number of best-selling authors who left the law to pursue writing, I have often thought that a JD might be more helpful to becoming a professional writer than is an MFA.

Note (added August 4, 2012): Here's an article about the panel: "So You Want to Write a Novel? Legal Training Is a Plus, Legal Author Tells ABA Audience" (ABA Journal).

Excellent blog posts about mediation from The Center for Understanding in Conflict

I believe that the very best mediation training offered anywhere is that of The Center for Understanding in Conflict. Those who read idealawg regularly have seen several blog posts about the Center, trainers Gary Friedman and Jack Himmelstein, and their book.

Today I bring to your attention their latest newsletter which points the way to new blog posts. Here are excerpts.

"Looking Toward the Future, While Taking Account of the Past"

When disputes are resolved in court, judges generally make a decision based on how the law applies to what happened between the parties – to past events. This keeps the dispute, and the parties in the dispute, generally oriented to the past. One reason mediation makes particular sense to parties is that the focus can be on what is important for the parties in their lives presently and going forward. Many parties to disputes, whether business people, divorcing spouses or others can easily become stuck in the past. “Conflict” readily keeps them focused on bygone grievances, hurt and justifications. Understanding can soften the hold that conflict’s focus on the past can have over them, and allow them to build greater understanding toward the future. If the focus is exclusively toward the past, it is easy to become or stay stuck there.

Click to read the rest.

"Looking Beneath the Dispute to What is at Stake for Both Parties at a Deeper Level"

"Power of Conflict Coaching": A too-hasty trash toss

My computer desktop has on it too much stuff! Am I the only one who looks up from her computer and sees the surfaces in her office mirror her computer desktop? Too many piles, too many files?

Because my computer is slow due to the overabundance of visible articles, documents, and whatevers, I decided yesterday to clean, to fill up my little trash icon. I tossed out an article without reading it titled "Power of Conflict Coaching." Where did I get it? That's a mystery, but then I have lots of things on my desktop of unknown origin.

Imagine my dismay when I learned that the article featured my friend Cinnie Noble! (I learned that as a result of having sent the article out to a few colleagues before it was banished.) I have rescued the article and now pass it on to you. Click to read.

Syllabus for Duke Law course titled "Well-being and the Practice of Law"

I have no doubt that many of you will find this syllabus of interest. Thanks to the course professor Dan Bowling for permission to post it here. Excerpt:

Course Title and Description: WELL-BEING AND THE PRACTICE OF LAW

Professor: Daniel S. Bowling, III. law.duke.edu/fac/bowling; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

        “The practice of law is not fully intelligible without reference to (the) great philosophical issues in ethics . . . (N)either is the practice of law fully intelligible without reference to the inner mind of each of us who engages in the practice of law.” - Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr.

"Well-being and the Practice of Law," will examine why the “pursuit of happiness,” a phrase written by a lawyer, has proved futile for many members of the legal profession and those aspiring to its ranks.There is considerable data (that predates the current recession in the legal market) indicating that lawyers and law students suffer from greater rates of depression and anxiety than other professions, along with accompanying social maladies such as substance abuse and stress-related illness. There is also considerable evidence of high career dissatisfaction among lawyers, and many others are leaving the profession or performing well below their capability. This seems unfathomable given the high levels of education, affluence, and respect lawyers enjoy (or will enjoy), factors which predict happiness and job satisfaction in other areas of life. Importantly, research indicates these problems begin in law school; that something happens between graduation from college and the beginning of practice that negatively impacts life satisfaction at a rate far beyond other professional or graduate educational models.

The class also focuses on a very important, but under-explored, question: what is the impact of all

Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Loneliness in Older Adults

News release from Carnegie Mellon:

Press Release: Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Loneliness in Older Adults, Carnegie Mellon Study Shows

Researchers Also Found That Mindfulness Meditation Training Lowers Inflammation Levels and Alters Gene Expression

Contact: Shilo Rea / 412-268-6094 / [email protected]

PITTSBURGH—For older adults, loneliness is a major risk factor for health problems — such as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's — and death. Attempts to diminish loneliness with social networking programs like creating community centers to encourage new relationships have not been effective.

However, a new study led by Carnegie Mellon University's J. David Creswell offers the first evidence that mindfulness meditation reduces loneliness in older adults. Published in "Brain, Behavior & Immunity," the researchers also found that mindfulness meditation — a 2,500-year-old practice dating back to Buddha that focuses on creating an attentive awareness of the present moment — lowered inflammation levels, which is thought to promote the development and progression of many diseases. These findings provide valuable insights into how mindfulness meditation training can be used as a novel approach for reducing loneliness and the risk of disease in older adults.

"We always tell people to quit smoking for health reasons, but rarely do we think about loneliness in the same way," said Creswell, assistant professor of psychology within CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. "We know that loneliness is a major risk factor for health problems

List of 50 innovators in the law—No mediators made the group?

fastcase has chosen a group of "the law's smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, & leaders." The group is here. I only know a small number of them, but it's fun to learn about the rest of the group of 50.

I may be missing him or her (or both) when I peruse the list, but it seems there is no one listed who is engaged in mediation or other forms of ADR. I hope they remedy the omission next year.

This octogenerian lawyer would probably be at home at next month's Purposeful Planning Rendezvous

In just three weeks, the second annual Purposeful Planning Rendezvous will begin. I am pleased to be presenting again this year, and am looking forward with excitement to spending time with a group of committed and forward-looking professionals. If you have read my prior posts about the event (here and here), you may recall that this is a group furthering ways to broaden the concept of trusts and estates beyond the monetary and tangible. Their notions of legacy encompass much more, including significant and essential values, expansive wisdom, and sagacious foresight.

In reading this uplifting article about octogenarian lawyers who are happy with, and in, their practices (Chicago Lawyer Magazine), I felt certain that one of them would fit right in next month at the Rendezvous. I have been told by very senior lawyers that the broad definition of legacy being explored and furthered by the Purposeful Planning Institute, although not the norm these days, was common decades ago. Meet Harry Rosenberg:

[He] has spent six decades writing wills, setting up family trusts and handling estates. It's an area of law that almost demands a personal connection with clients.

And that's what motivates Rosenberg, 83, a partner at Reed Smith, who said he aims to give his clients comfort and peace of mind.

"I like the idea that I'm 75 percent a lawyer and 25 percent a psychologist, priest, rabbi or minister," he said. "I would be very, very uncomfortable working on SEC regulations, commercial code or big corporate work. It's just never attracted me. I've always been attracted to dealing with people and their families."

... He still gives his clients the sort of personal touch a person would expect from a solo practitioner. He insists on meeting with clients inside his personal office rather than a more impersonal conference room.

"I think this office tells something about me the conference (room) never would," Rosenberg said,