John Sturrock QC
As the founder and CEO of the Core Solutions Group, I spend a great deal of time thinking and speaking about mediation, negotiation, conflict management, leadership and communication. I am told I should write some of these thoughts down... so, here goes...
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Game Theory
Posted on February 13, 2012 | No CommentsI have recently been studying Game Theory but only superficially – see Game Theory and the Humanities (Brams) and Super Cooperators (Nowak, a brilliant book). My son, David is studying the real thing at the moment at university. Recently, he sent me the lecture slides... -
A Civil Justice Council for Scotland?
Posted on January 26, 2012 | No CommentsCore recently responded to the consultation on a proposed Scottish Civil Justice Council. We expressed the view that this proposal seems to be an essential component in delivering an effective system of dispute resolution in Scotland in the future. We said that having a broad-based policy group,... -
Core’s 2011 Records
Posted on January 20, 2012 | No CommentsWe are delighted that Core has reported significant growth in 2011, our tenth anniversary year. The number of mediation days increased by just under 30% to nearly 100 in the year. Geographically, our mediators and facilitators acted in 24 different locations throughout Scotland and elsewhere, with nearly...
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Finishing Well
Posted on January 13, 2012 | No CommentsWe spend a lot of time as mediators and trainers focussing on how we start mediation. Private meetings? Joint sessions? Breakfast with the parties? Summaries and other documents? Initial telephone contact prior to the day? And so on…. But we spend less time on how we... -
Bargaining with the Devil?
Posted on December 8, 2011 | No CommentsHarvard Professor, Robert Mnookin, in ‘Bargaining with the Devil’, poses the question: should we ever negotiate with evil? At a presentation in Oxford recently, he suggested that we should probably do so more often than we might think. There should be a presumption in favour... -
Two Paradigms, One Bum…!
Posted on November 25, 2011 | No CommentsWe should be hospice workers for the dying as well as midwives for the new, says Graham Leicester, director of the International Futures Forum – we need to respect those who have a vested interest in the old ways of doing things while we grow... -
Changing Times
Posted on November 8, 2011 | No CommentsI had the privilege last week of leading advanced mediation training for a group of barristers at the Bar of Northern Ireland in Belfast. As we drove into the city via the Crumlin and Shankhill Roads, we were reminded of the conflict that had been... -
Can Mediation Emulate Progressive Rock?
Posted on October 25, 2011 | No CommentsThis piece first appeared as a guest blog on the Kluwer Mediation Blog: Last weekend I was entertained by the “progressive rock” group Caravan, a lesser known group of musicians, the peak of whose glory was 40 years ago, in 1971. These grey-haired men in their... -
Mediation in Planning
Posted on September 29, 2011 | No CommentsThe Output Paper reporting on Core’s involvement in the Scottish Government’s pilot project on mediation in planning has now been published: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/planning/National-Planning-Policy/themes/Med11 It is good to see progress being made in this important area. Mediation offers much to assist speedier and more constructive progress in the... -
Remembering 911
Posted on September 9, 2011 | No CommentsOn September 11 2001, I was in London, leading training with fellow senior mediators. At some point in the afternoon, David Richbell, a senior colleague, came into the room. He described two incidents in the United States and said that the twin towers of the World... -
Humean Enlightenment
Posted on July 19, 2011 | No CommentsI had the enormous privilege to sit with many hundreds of others and listen to Nobel Laureate, Professor Amartya Sen as he delivered the Enlightenment Lecture celebrating David Hume at Edinburgh University. If I am honest, much of what Sen talked about was rather above my... -
Dispute Resolution in Scotland
Posted on July 13, 2011 | No CommentsWhile arbitration featured on the last government’s agenda, around the world the really significant development is in the field of mediation as a non-adjudicative form of dispute resolution. The Ministry of Justice recently issued a Dispute Resolution Commitment in which mediation features prominently: http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/mediation/dispute-resolution-commitment.htm. Many... -
Sustainable Futures
Posted on July 4, 2011 | No CommentsAs supporters of the 2020 Climate Group, which I facilitate, Core is encouraged to take steps to reduce its carbon footprint. How do we do that? Well, we recently moved office. We have dispensed with car parking spaces in central Edinburgh. I regularly cycle to...