IMPROVISATIONAL NEGOTIATION
A Mediator’s Stories of Conflict about Love, Money, Anger – and the Strategies that Resolved Them
By Jeffrey Krivis
Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint
$35.00, hardcover, 324 pages; ISBN 0-7879-8038-2 (2006).
Jeffrey Krivis has mediated thousands of cases in practically every imaginable legal area. A former trial attorney, he has been a successful mediator for over 15 years, and has served as the president of the International Academy of Mediators and the Southern California Mediation Association. He has taught various courses and workshops on mediation and dispute resolution and in 1993 he received the Dispute Resolution Lawyer of the Year Award. His website (www.firstmediation.com) is filled with a wide array of helpful information.
Improvisational Negotiation takes the unusual approach of showing by example how mediation can help parties reach mutually beneficial solutions. This book forgoes any long-winded discussions of philosophy or the rigid use of a formulaic approach to conflict resolution. Instead, Krivis has filled this book with thirty stories – mostly taken from his own experience. He succinctly explains the disputes in a few pages and then shows how a mediator uses a variety of tools and skills to bring the parties together to settle their conflicts before they end up in the courtroom.
After each case is brought to a conclusion, Krivis summarizes the keys to resolving the negotiations in a short section called “What Happened?” He then concludes with a section called “What Strategies Can We Learn?” where he briefly lists the approaches taken that led to a successful resolution. This is a very entertaining way to show how various approaches are often needed to bring divergent positions to a common ground.
Krivis organizes the stories into sections dealing with:
· Rebuilding Communication Breakdowns and Healing Broken Relationships;
· Financial Negotiations and Using Information for a Better Deal;
· Useful and Proven Techniques For Difficult Technical Negotiations; and
· Advanced Techniques for Negotiations that are Locked Down.
Improvisational Negotiation is filled with entertaining stories and helpful techniques used to bring parties together. Krivis understands that no two cases are alike and that no two mediators work in the same way. He expects that these stories will provide a broad guideline to various approaches that
mediators can use in their practice. He recognizes that “mediators need to change their approach not only from case to case but also within the same case.” He writes in the introduction that he hopes “the stories in this book encourage you to follow a similar path: to search the length and width of the field, anticipating the direction of the case, constantly maneuvering the parties toward the deal.”
This book is filled with great examples of creative and successful mediations – along with an analysis of the techniques used to bring the parties together. Krivis clearly knows his stuff. Mediators and lawyers will find in this book many examples of ways to solve problems that at first blush appear to be nearly impossible. My only criticism of the book is that some of the stories presented point to a fairly obvious solution. Others involve lawyers allowing their clients to engage in somewhat questionable conduct – such as talking privately with the opposing lawyer with only the mediator present, or disclosing information to opposing counsel that might expose the client to even more liability.
On the whole, however, this book excels at showing just how effective mediation can be when done with skill and finesse.
Buy it at Amazon here.
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