Samantha Hardy

Mediation Doesn’t Have a Marketing Problem, It Has a Clarity Problem

By Sarah Blake and Samantha Hardy Why the world needs mediation, but clients aren’t buying in We know the world needs mediation. The research is overwhelming: Dr Emily Skinner’s work, among others, shows that conflict is everywhere, in workplaces, communities, families, and politics. The cost to organisations and individuals is massive. And yet, despite this […]

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Wenn Entschuldigungen ausbleiben: Verstehen und Umgang mit der Weigerung, sich am Arbeitsplatz zu entschuldigen

Von Dr Samantha Hardy and Dr Judith Rafferty Hinweis: Dieser Beitrag wurde von Judith Herrmann-Rafferty aus dem englischen Original übersetzt und leicht angepasst, damit er speziell auf HR und Führungskräfte zugeschnitten ist. Den ursprünglichen Artikel in englischer Sprache, der den Blick stärker auf die Arbeit von Mediator*innen richtet, gibt es hier. Entschuldigungen können enorm kraftvoll sein.

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When Apologies Don’t Come: Understanding and Managing Refusal to Apologise in Mediation

By Dr Samantha Hardy and Dr Judith Rafferty Apologies can be transformative. A brief “I’m sorry” has the potential to mend trust, restore dignity, and signal a willingness to move forward. Yet in practice, many mediators have sat through sessions where one party waits, sometimes desperately, for an apology that never arrives. The other party’s

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WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: Conflict Resilience, by Robert C. Bordone

This new book by Robert C. Bordone (negotiation professor) and Joel Salinas (behavioural neurologist) is essential reading for everyone! It asks the question “Have we lost the capacity to engage constructively in conflict?”, exploring what this might look like, potential causes, and most importantly, strategies to help people re-engage. The authors define conflict resilience as

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Navigating the Grey Zones: A Practical Guide to Ethical Decision-Making for Mediators

The Conflict Management Academy has been running “The Mediator’s Dilemma Series” events this year, in which mediators explore a challenging hypothetical and discuss how they would deal with the dilemmas at various stages of the process. These events have been well attended and the discussions enlightening (and sometimes heated!) but what struck me after having

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WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: How to Think About AI: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Richard Susskind

I’ve been able to avoid much of the controversy around AI, just playing around with it for fun when I’ve had some spare time, until recently. However, two things really piqued my interest. One was working with iResolve on an AI Conflict Coach (which despite my dubiousness, turned out to be astonishingly good).  The second

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Mediating Underwater: Rethinking Mediation to Make It Inclusive for Neurodivergent Clients.

This blog post is based on a presentation I gave at the Australian Dispute Centre conference in Sydney in May this year. Navigating a Sea of Conflict Put your hand up if: You can swim. You’ve ever been caught in a rip. You’ve ever been scuba diving. You can navigate underwater. You’ve ever been night

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Caught in the Gossip Trap: When Social Pressure Replaces Constructive Feedback in the Workplace

“One obvious sign you’re living in a gossip trap is when the primary mode of dispute resolution becomes social pressure.” —Erik Hoel, The Gossip Trap I came across this quote after the first session of our Workplace Conflict Practice Group, where we explored the dynamics of workplace conflict—what fuels it, what silences it, and why

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