A common misconception is that negotiation (or mediation) is a form of manipulation. I strongly disagree. Manipulation influences outcomes through deception, lies, fear, and dominance. Whereas negotiation and, by extension, mediation influences decision-making through connection, communication, understanding, and exploration. As Dan Oblinger and Allan Tsang wrote in Negotiation Mythbusters: “When…
Author: Sylvia Mayer
Attorney with over 30 years of experience in courts nationwide. Arbitrator and mediator with over 10 years of experience as a neutral. As a National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals member and a TMCA Credentialed Distinguished Mediator, Sylvia Mayer has served as counsel or neutral in thousands of disputes spanning a breadth of industries and a wide variety of issues. She serves on several arbitration and mediation rosters for civil, commercial, consumer, energy, employment, and healthcare disputes. As a neutral, she has resolved disputes with damages ranging from several thousand dollars to multi-million and billion dollars. As an arbitrator, she has served as an emergency, chair, panel, and sole arbitrator. As a mediator, she has mediated two-party disputes and complex multi-party disputes. Sylvia is available to assist parties throughout the U.S. with online, in-person, and hybrid mediations and arbitrations.
Certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council
S. MAYER LAW is proud to announce it received national certification as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). The WBENC standard of certification is a meticulous process including an in-depth review of the business. The certification process confirms that the business is owned, operated,…
Book Review: Negotiation Mythbusters (Part 2)
Sylvia Mayer of https://smayerlaw.com/ joins Mac Pierre-Louis and Natalia Olowska-Czajka of https://olowskapierre.com/ to discuss Dan Oblinger and Allan Tsang’s Negotiation Mythbusters, which explores whether knowledge is really power and empathy is really necessary in negotiation and mediation. https://youtu.be/zI9kj45wcJg
Book Review: Negotiation Mythbusters (Part 1)
Sylvia Mayer of https://smayerlaw.com/ joins Mac Pierre-Louis and Natalia Olowska-Czajka of https://olowskapierre.com/ to discuss Dan Oblinger and Allan Tsang’s Negotiation Mythbusters, which challenges and redefines the concepts of trust and win-win in mediation. https://youtu.be/R9WTS-Wz1BY
Book Review: Robert Cialdini’s PreSuasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade (Part 2)
Sylvia Mayer of https://smayerlaw.com/ joins Mac Pierre-Louis and Natalia Olowska-Czajka of https://olowskapierre.com/ to discuss Robert Cialdini’s Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade. Sylvia is an avid reader and shares her takeaways from reading Pre-Suasion and how they apply to mediation and conflict resolution. At its core, relying on real-life situations and…
Mediator Insights: Don’t Just Know What You Want, Know What You Need
As parties prepare for mediation, they often focus on what they want. They want $X. They want out of a contract. They want to pay nothing. They want…. Sometimes parties forget to also consider what they need. There is a big difference between what you want (e.g., everything you asked…
Mediator Insights: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus in Mediation
While it may require time, patience, perseverance, and creativity, as a mediator, I truly believe that most disputes can be settled. But just because most disputes can one day be settled, does not mean that all disputes can be settled at any given time. To illustrate, let’s consider Mo Willems’…
Mediator Insights – Click Clack Quack: Drafting Mediated Settlement Agreements
You go to mediation. You work hard all day culminating in an agreement. Now you need to document that agreement. Easy-peasy? Not really, because the devil is always in the details. To illustrate, I’m going to re-visit a children’s book that I explored previously: Doreen Cronin’s Click Clack Moo: Cows…
Mediator Insights: Bursting Bubbles by Challenging Mediation Truisms (Part 2)
Knowledge is Power. Always be Empathic. Continuing my exploration of the negotiation myths challenged by Dan Oblinger and Allan Tsang in Negotiation Mythbusters, here I explore the validity of the above two truisms in the context of mediation and negotiation. Is Knowledge Really Power? The authors challenge three myths related…
Mediator Insights: Bursting Bubbles by Challenging Mediation Truisms (Part 1)
Trust is Necessary. The Best Negotiated Outcomes are Win-Win. Are these two oft-touted truisms really true? Dan Oblinger and Allan Tsang challenge these and other “myths” in Negotiation Mythbusters. Thought-provoking and insightful, their book forces us to think more deeply about the fundamental underpinnings of negotiation and mediation. Is Trust…