Here, I take a stand without professional impartiality. I named this category after a prophet who wasn’t believed, even though she was correct.
In Greek myth, the god Apollo desired Cassandra. To woo her, Apollo gave her foresight into the future. Cassandra spurned him despite his great ‘gift’. In revenge for her refusal, Apollo cursed her that her prophecies, although always correct, would never be believed.
While I’m not always correct like Cassandra, I enjoy using Conflict Analysis, my special interest, to speculate about how things are, how they got to be that way, and what should be done about them.
The mediator was Deborah Sword. She conducted an exemplary mediation conducted with dignity and professionalism. This case was perhaps more difficult than most. At first, I did not have high hopes for resolving this file at the mediation stage. However, Ms. Sword brought the participants to a point where we reached common ground and we were able to settle it fairly.
A lawyer at mediation
Please accept my deepest thanks also for your very thoughtful and thought provoking training. I have had many of our team share how valuable they felt that it was. You are very good at what you do and we are exceedingly fortunate to have you involved.
A Training Client
I found the assignments, class discussions, role playing, modeling the most valuable in this course. I appreciated the connection to current societal conflicts. I think the conflict analysis framework paper a valuable exercise. Deborah did a great job of taking over the class. Fabulous facilitator!
A Student
Deborah Sword 