As a US expat, I am on average asked 3 or 4 times a week just what exactly is going on with America, the election and in particular with Donald Trump.  I explain that Americans (particularly middle Americans) are rebelling against the established order and are supporting candidates from the far right like Donald Trump

The Art of Dealing with Difficult Clients and Difficult Lawyers   Founder and CEO of The Mediation Experts, Farley S. Tolpen was delighted to give an invited presentation last night titled “How to Recognise and Deal with Difficult Clients and Difficult Lawyers”. Farley is well known for his inspiring and enthusiastic talks and he was

Farley was once again invited to give a presentation to a medium sized law firm yesterday on dealing with challenging clients and lawyers. Those of you who have met Farley will be familiar with his friendly personality and witty sense of humor which helped ensure everyone stayed involved and intrigued throughout! During this presentation Farley

Sometimes the litigants aren’t the only antagonists. Recently I was asked to mediate in a matter that was already in its 4th year.  There had been 3 prior mediations.  There was a huge amount of anger and there were accusations of fraud, deceit, misrepresentation and thievery.  The litigants had already forked out in excess of

I have devoted my life in assisting people to resolve conflict through mediation. One of the joys of mediation is when the parties are able to set aside their differences and reach a resolution of all issues. In my experience, this occurs about 90% of the time. I recently had a complex combination of an

Yesterday I conducted a training session for about 50 QUT Masters Students on the topic of How to Manage Conflict in the Workplace.  The students were all professionals among them doctors, nurses, managers and department heads. They came from all over the world including India, China, Solomon Islands, New Zealand and Australia. It was a

Take about 40 people from all walks of life; CEOs, COOs, HR, Managers, Department Heads.   Gather in a training session and mix for three hours. Engage their attention, stir it up a bit and apply a bit of heat….. How does workplace conflict occur? How to recognize it? How to manage difficult employees? What do

Somebody asked me the other day why I liked conducting mediations.  I explained that rather like solving the Rubik’s cube or a difficult crossword puzzle, I really enjoy the challenge of finding a way to resolve a seemingly insolvable conflict.   In fact I find I have about a 90% success rate. To illustrate my point,

After a lifetime of playing, coaching and refereeing, I have come to the conclusion that sports psychology can be applied to mediation.  Both require preparation, discipline and patience.  Your mind needs to be calm, mindful, balanced and you shouldn’t take things too personally.  During mediation, as with sport, the players experience a range of emotions. 

I recently had a tough commercial mediation.   It took eight long hours of negotiation until, finally, we reached agreement. By the time I got home I was exhausted.  My head was buzzing from a powerful range of emotions, both negative and positive.   I was hungry and tired but also satisfied with my performance. As I