I often say to colleagues that confidentiality in mediation is a bit of a myth. I don’t mean we should stop offering it. I mean that the way we usually describe it promises clients something we can’t actually deliver. Here is the kind of situation I have in mind. A client makes a complaint about […]
Confidentiality in Mediation: Are We Promising Something That Doesn’t Exist? Read More »
Prepared by The Conflict Management Academy, August 2026 Why finance is one of the biggest employers of dispute resolution skills in Australia If you have studied finance, you may not realise that the financial services industry is legally required to run dispute resolution systems, and that it employs thousands of people to do so. Two
There is a new guide out called Prompt Engineering for Mediators. The Singapore Mediation Centre wrote it with the Singapore Academy of Law and Microsoft. It is free. At 23 pages, it takes half an hour to read. It is one of the first practical AI guides written for mediators rather than for lawyers, and
A New AI Guide Written for Mediators, Not Lawyers Read More »
You are setting up a workplace mediation. The referrer, often someone from HR, says they want a copy of any written agreement the parties reach. It sounds like a routine request, but it changes the process in ways the referrer may not have thought through, and how you respond shapes both the parties’ experience and
When the Referrer Wants a Copy of the Agreement Read More »
Most jobs come with two descriptions. The one that gets written down is about outcomes: deliver this analysis, manage this caseload, draft these contracts, service these clients, hit these targets. That description ends up in the position description, the contract, the performance review. The other one isn’t written anywhere. Be approachable in the kitchen. Read
The Job Description and the Unwritten One Read More »
The best interests of the child is the principle Australian family dispute resolution is built around. It’s the test parenting arrangements have to satisfy and the standard we keep coming back to in every matter involving kids. The Family Law Act s 60CC factors to consider when determining what parenting arrangements are in the child’s
The “Best Interests” of the Neurodivergent Child Read More »
The setup most of us know Most workplace conflict coaching referrals follow a familiar pattern. An HR manager or other employer representative contacts you. They have two employees who can’t work together, and they want something to change. They arrange coaching, possibly with mediation to follow. They pay the invoice. And then, at some point,
Who Are You Reporting To? Confidentiality in Employer-Referred Conflict Coaching Read More »
You are doing an intake with one of the parties to a workplace mediation. Somewhere in the conversation they tell you, almost as an aside, that they are already looking for other roles. They have mentally checked out. They are hoping that by the time the mediation takes place, the question of how they work
When parents come to mediation disagreeing about whether their child should be assessed for neurodivergence, or whether an existing diagnosis is valid, the presenting issue rarely captures what’s actually happening. On the surface, it looks like a healthcare dispute. Two adults disagree about a medical appointment. Mediators who treat it that way will spend a
Interest in workplace mediation has grown sharply in recent years. It is not surprising that some larger organisations are looking to develop this capability in-house. What is less often discussed is how much harder it is to do well than it looks. There is a quiet contradiction at the heart of in-house mediation. The qualities
The Inside Job: What No One Tells You About Being an In-House Mediator Read More »