Preparation works for the 2016 ISCT international conference in Dayton, Ohio (“NEW HORIZONS FOR TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTICE: INNOVATING BEYOND MEDIATION”) are going on. I’m happy to anticipate that I’ll attend to a session on negotiation, most likely together with Dan Simon and Joe Folger. The title of our session will be THE EMPOWERMENT PARADOX. APPLICATIONS OF THE TRANSFORMATIVE FRAMEWORK IN NEGOTIATION SETTINGS and the idea is to report on latest effort we at the Institute are doing in addressing the typical negotiation issues by making recourse to the transformative approach. One of the most stunning thing we realized in analyzing the dynamics in a negotiation is that the quality of interaction may possibly be enhanced, and better results may be attained if one party empowers the other. Counterintuitive as it may be, the move actually contributes to prevent, or to diminish the typical spiraling-down destructive effects of confrontation. Negotiation is conflict, at base.
More to follow. In the meanwhile, set the conference dates in your diary. It will take place on May 2nd and 3rd 2016, and training events and workshop are scheduled on the days before.
