I am just returning from a conference with the International Academy of Mediators in Scotland. I always feel like I’m with my tribe when I am among IAM practitioners. You know what I mean, that feeling you have too when you resonate with a group of people, a group that is easy to be with because you experience resonance, you vibe with each other, you like each other, you have things in common. I bet at least one personal or
Inspired by the late Martin Luther King, Jr, whose life we remembered last month, 50 years after he was assassinated, I have been
thinking deeply about Relational Practices and how Dr. King’s message and life was a model of being relational. Dr. King stirred us with his words, “Time is cluttered with the wreckage of communities, which have surrendered to hatred and violence. For the salvation of our nation and the salvation of mankind, we must follow another way. This does
If at first you don’t succeed… That’s right, “…try, try again.” Remember your grandmother’s old adage? And it’s so true for being relational. Especially for lawyers. So often the knee jerk response to other’s conflict is to shake our heads, join, or, at the request of a potential client, file a lawsuit, or, perhaps to write a letter on behalf of the client to the person whom they feel has aggrieved them. That letter often carries with it the thin
Have you seen the ABA’s recent report from the Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being (LWB)? Sobering. The Report says we have a lot of unhappy lawyers in our profession. It also reports that lawyer unhappiness is resulting in staggering rates of depression, alcoholism, suicide and other mental and emotional ailments. Serious stuff.
I recall testifying in our Maryland state legislature back in the late 1980’s on the issue of child support collection, making a case for why recalcitrant and delinquent payors,
Tina Turner belted out in her 1984 lyric, What’s love got to do with it? You remember, right? The sizzly song about the crazy confusing experience of strong emotional and physical desires butting up against the rational protect yourself mental act. We can bet that when our Relational Mindset is in alignment with our behavior and actions that we too will experience that crazy push-pull. Well, maybe not quite as steamy as Tina Turner but definitely real, with our active