What a great Wimbledon win for the unassuming Marion Bartoli from France as she took out the Women's trophy against an equally modest Sabine Lisicki from Germany over the weekend.
The follow-up clash last night between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic was riveting, with Murray delighting Brits all over the world as he became the first British Wimbledon champ in 77 years. Murray's victory was even sweeter for being against arch rival, Djokovic, although both men obviously have the greatest respect for the other.
At the same time as these two gutsy blokes were centrecourt at Wimbledon, the iron men of cycling were agonizingly wending their way onward and upward through the Pyrenees in their herculean struggle to be heralded as the best in the world. We are right behind our Aussie boys.
Most of us cannot hope to approach the amazing achievements of these elite athletes, but we can learn a lot from them about persistence, resilience, strength of character and graciousness when pipped at the post or on the other side of the net. These positive human qualities are all applauded by Brisbane Mediations.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Monday, July 1, 2013
20 Reasons To Choose Us For Your Mediation – the ultimate being No. 20
20 Reasons To Choose Brisbane Mediations –
the ultimate being No. 20
1.
All
our Mediators are highly qualified and experienced
2.
You
choose the mediator you want
3.
Faster
solutions
4.
Cheaper
than litigation
5.
You
retain control
6.
Nobody
decides for you
7.
Less
destructive to relationships
8.
Less
formal than Court
9.
Workable
with or without lawyers
10. Confidential to the extent allowed by law
11. Can be terminated or suspended at any time
12. Can be reconvened at any time
13. More or less interactive - either "around the
table" or "shuttle" (separate rooms)
14. One or more mediators as required
15. Can include expert opinion if agreed
16. Mediator's skills matched to issues at hand and complexity of
dispute
17. Suitable in a wide range of disputes contexts
18. Promotes ongoing cooperation between parties
19. Any dispute, any time with any mediator you choose
20. Assists you to leave the past in the past and move on sooner
and in better shape
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
How 'bout that! Find out how Gen Y spend online.
We
explore the latest findings from research into the online behaviour of Gen Y,
and it isn’t what you’d expect.
Thanks to extensive research
conducted by Flywheel, an innovative
IT team based in London, we can finally know for sure which brands and retail
experiences Gen Y LOVES and of course HATES.
According to Flywheel, “Gen Y
feels very differently about the way they buy than previous generations.”
Online spending of Gen Y, or people aged 18-33 years, by far exceeds that of
all other generations, but they are also the most brand-conscious and therefore
selective when it comes to purchasing.
Results found that 95% of the
total 639 Gen Y participants LOVE the Amazon brand, way ahead of runner up
Apple at 51%. Clocking in at No.1 for retail, travel was 69% purchased online
as opposed to offline in 2012, and entertainment was second with an even 50/50
split between online and offline, showing an increase of 15% from the previous
year. The most surprising figure of all according to Flywheel, was the amount
of Gen Y’s buying their clothes on line at 27%.
So what does this mean for the
average business? EASE. Reaching Gen Y is all about making it easy for the
consumer, by being in the right place at the right time, carefully aligning
your 4 Ps (price, product, promotion, place) for the easiest purchase possible,
and taking your business online wherever possible.
You can see
all the Flywheel findings here.
Are you getting the full 8 hours?
Despite popular belief that productivity is in the amount of hours we
work, Huffington Post founder Arriana Huffington argues that while we’re
bragging about how little sleep we got the night before, we have actually
decreased our productivity by not getting the full 8 hours.
In The Harvard Business
Review, Huffington discusses the direct impact sleep deprivation has on facial
cues, employee safety, health and well-being, and most interestingly, can
stimulate unethical behaviour in the workplace, an effect we see all too often
in workplace mediation cases. This behaviour in turn can lead to a number of
workplace conflict issues and a decrease in productivity.
While Huffington suggests the eventual implementation of ‘nap rooms,’
rooms especially assigned for a midday snooze, in the meantime large and small
businesses can work on the health and wellbeing of employees by encouraging
yoga, meditation, and stressing the importance of sleep.
We could all take a leaf out of our US counterpart’s books and make a
stand for a healthier generation of workers and productivity, and according to
Huffington “change the workplace culture so that what's stigmatized is not
napping but walking around drained and exhausted.”
If you have encountered what you believe to be unethical behaviour in
the workplace or believe your workplace is unfairly promoting an unhealthy
lifestyle, contact Brisbane Mediations for a fast and inexpensive solution.
By Katie Prowd
(07) 3839 7400
resolve@brisbanemediations.com.au
Thursday, May 16, 2013
De Facto Relationships and Separate Houses
Courts are often called on to declare whether parties are in a de facto relationship for purposes of determining entitlement to property settlement under the Family Law Act.
In deciding whether to make such a declaration, the court has to consider a range of criteria set out in the Family Law Act including, the duration of the relationship;the nature and extent of their common residence;whether a sexual relationship exists; the degree of financial dependence or interdependence,and any arrangements for financial support between them; the ownership, use and acquisition of their property; the degree of mutual commitment to a shared life;the care and support of children and the reputation and public aspects of their relationship.
The court has said that the definition of de facto relationship is a very broad one.
An interesting decision on the issue was a recent one of Kazama & Britton handed down on 15 January 2013, where Watts J held that the parties were in a de facto relationship, despite the fact that they maintained separate residences throughout their relationship.His Honour held that although they maintained separate residences, they spent significant time together, mainly at the male's residence and that he visited the female's home from time to time.
The fact that the parties maintained separate residences did not preclude the court finding that they were "living together as a couple on a genuine domestic basis".
The case is also of interest because the male party had made representations to the Department of Immigration that the parties were in a de facto relationship and in the circumstances, the court declined to accept evidence from him that contradicted those representations.
In deciding whether to make such a declaration, the court has to consider a range of criteria set out in the Family Law Act including, the duration of the relationship;the nature and extent of their common residence;whether a sexual relationship exists; the degree of financial dependence or interdependence,and any arrangements for financial support between them; the ownership, use and acquisition of their property; the degree of mutual commitment to a shared life;the care and support of children and the reputation and public aspects of their relationship.
The court has said that the definition of de facto relationship is a very broad one.
An interesting decision on the issue was a recent one of Kazama & Britton handed down on 15 January 2013, where Watts J held that the parties were in a de facto relationship, despite the fact that they maintained separate residences throughout their relationship.His Honour held that although they maintained separate residences, they spent significant time together, mainly at the male's residence and that he visited the female's home from time to time.
The fact that the parties maintained separate residences did not preclude the court finding that they were "living together as a couple on a genuine domestic basis".
The case is also of interest because the male party had made representations to the Department of Immigration that the parties were in a de facto relationship and in the circumstances, the court declined to accept evidence from him that contradicted those representations.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Flexibility in Mediation
The American Bar association has recognised "flexibility" as one of the factors defining high quality mediation practice.
The finding is one of the factors identified by the Association in it's published Final Report-Task Force on Improving Mediation Quality.
While it is good to have some recognizable steps or standardisation in mediation process, the mediator needs to be ever mindful of the range of approaches and tools in his or her skillset and try to identify what may or may not work in a particular dispute.
An example of this arose in an elder law mediation we undertook last week where an 80 plus lady was involved in a family dispute with allegations that one of her children had taken advantage of her to enrich himself.The parties were embroiled in District Court litigation over a jointly owned property of reasonably modest value and the prospect that if not resolved, the dispute would further lessen the net value of the property in dispute and accentuate the divisions in what was already a highly divided family.
During the shuttle discussions it became apparent that the son was prepared to compromise his claim for compensation for work allegedly undertaken on the property, however his mother had reached a hard nosed position and was intent on taking all,despite the fact that this would involve a costly and messy trial with the possibility of no real winner.
Rather than follow the customary steps, a heavy emphasis and lots of time was spent in listening to and validating elderly mum's concerns and developing a rapport which proved invaluable in gently guiding her to what was clearly a sensible and commonsense solution of a complicated fact situation with various allegations and counter allegations many of which would be difficult to prove.
Whilst the path of the process was not clearly apparent when we set out and evolved as we moved through the dispute, I as the mediator, have no doubt that the armchair chat type approach and heavy investment in rapport and trust was the right one for this dispute and resulted in an outcome where the parties not only saved significant costs, but were able to take up the threads of communication in a manner suggesting at least some prospect however small, of family healing so that the elderly mother could possibly have some chance of finding harmony and peace in her twilight years.
The finding is one of the factors identified by the Association in it's published Final Report-Task Force on Improving Mediation Quality.
While it is good to have some recognizable steps or standardisation in mediation process, the mediator needs to be ever mindful of the range of approaches and tools in his or her skillset and try to identify what may or may not work in a particular dispute.
An example of this arose in an elder law mediation we undertook last week where an 80 plus lady was involved in a family dispute with allegations that one of her children had taken advantage of her to enrich himself.The parties were embroiled in District Court litigation over a jointly owned property of reasonably modest value and the prospect that if not resolved, the dispute would further lessen the net value of the property in dispute and accentuate the divisions in what was already a highly divided family.
During the shuttle discussions it became apparent that the son was prepared to compromise his claim for compensation for work allegedly undertaken on the property, however his mother had reached a hard nosed position and was intent on taking all,despite the fact that this would involve a costly and messy trial with the possibility of no real winner.
Rather than follow the customary steps, a heavy emphasis and lots of time was spent in listening to and validating elderly mum's concerns and developing a rapport which proved invaluable in gently guiding her to what was clearly a sensible and commonsense solution of a complicated fact situation with various allegations and counter allegations many of which would be difficult to prove.
Whilst the path of the process was not clearly apparent when we set out and evolved as we moved through the dispute, I as the mediator, have no doubt that the armchair chat type approach and heavy investment in rapport and trust was the right one for this dispute and resulted in an outcome where the parties not only saved significant costs, but were able to take up the threads of communication in a manner suggesting at least some prospect however small, of family healing so that the elderly mother could possibly have some chance of finding harmony and peace in her twilight years.
Friday, May 3, 2013
PEACE TALKS - Life is for Living, not for Litigating
Are you allowing conflict to dominate your life?
When the wheels fall off our relationships, of course we all need time to adjust and to grieve what might have been as well as the loss of the best aspects of what was.
However, as our parents always told us when we were kids (and most of us didn't have a clue what they meant until we were of 'more mature years'), "Life's very short".
A popular fridge magnet in keeping with this theme states, "Life's too short for bad wine". How true!
In Queensland we are lucky to live in one of the World's idyllic locations - geographically, socially, culturally and politically - no matter what our beliefs or political bent.
After separation, the best favour you can do yourself and your children (if you are lucky enough to have them) is to find a timely and user friendly way to resolve issues with your ex so that you can move closer to enjoying the lifestyle you all deserve.
Don't waste a second more than you have to on pointless and expensive escalation of conflict. Try mediation - with or without your lawyer present. There is so much to experience in life and no time to lose.
When the wheels fall off our relationships, of course we all need time to adjust and to grieve what might have been as well as the loss of the best aspects of what was.
However, as our parents always told us when we were kids (and most of us didn't have a clue what they meant until we were of 'more mature years'), "Life's very short".
A popular fridge magnet in keeping with this theme states, "Life's too short for bad wine". How true!
In Queensland we are lucky to live in one of the World's idyllic locations - geographically, socially, culturally and politically - no matter what our beliefs or political bent.
After separation, the best favour you can do yourself and your children (if you are lucky enough to have them) is to find a timely and user friendly way to resolve issues with your ex so that you can move closer to enjoying the lifestyle you all deserve.
Don't waste a second more than you have to on pointless and expensive escalation of conflict. Try mediation - with or without your lawyer present. There is so much to experience in life and no time to lose.
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