Author Archives: abfifer

Church Re-unites 24 Years After Split

March 30, 2020 – 12:16 pm

Church splits are common news. But congregations re-uniting after a full split? That’s a God story. In 1993, First Baptist Church of Ellisville, near St. Louis, Missouri, divided in two: 400 members left to start a new church, and 400 stayed behind. The new church, West County Community Church, built a building five miles down […]

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Conflict With Your Ex Over Parenting? There’s an App for That

March 25, 2020 – 2:09 pm

The “stay home” orders around the world are forcing us to minimize personal meetings and maximize technology. One example: mediators and family judges often met with divorced or separated parents to help them resolve issues regarding their children, like child support, parenting time, and education. Those in-person meetings are no longer available, at a time […]

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Apology is Better Without “Any”

March 7, 2020 – 4:38 pm

Public apologies are hard to do well. Just ask the leaders of the University of Michigan. With reports about sexual misconduct from a former sports doctor going public last week, U of M President Mark Schlissel issued an apology to “anyone” who was harmed by Dr. Anderson, according to a Detroit News report. What if […]

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Quit While You’re Ahead

February 17, 2020 – 3:38 pm

Mediation is facilitated negotiation, so it’s good for mediators to pay attention to what happens in negotiation. I had two recent experiences that reminded me of a key negotiation principle, “quit while you’re ahead.” In one case, I hadn’t gotten points in my airlines reward program. I made my case over the phone for why […]

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Baseball Players Apologize

February 13, 2020 – 4:51 pm

Several Major League baseball players apologized today for what’s been called the “sign-stealing scandal.” Members of the Houston Astros team were caught impermissibly intercepting signals exchanged between members of their opposing teams. But you wouldn’t know that from their vague apologies. None of them specifically explain what they did that was wrong, or for what […]

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