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Last week I had a Tiddler moment... What is that you may ask?! Stick with me... Tiddler is my favourite Julia Donaldson book and a firm favourite in my house. It's about a fish called Tiddler whose stories travel far and wide thanks to his Granny, who likes to talk. She..."told it to a starfish, who told it to a seal, who told it to a lobster, who told it to an eel..." Last week my husband came home and said, I met [friend] who told me that his [unnamed client] told him they had been in a mediation, to which [friend] asked if the mediator was you, to which [unnamed client] said yes, followed by some much appreciated compliments about my mediation skills and working with me.* Unnamed client (starfish) told friend (seal) who told husband (lobster) who told me (eel) 😆 A mediator's best marketing strategy is word-of-mouth referrals. It's how we win work. We have no-one else to do it for us. No colleagues with cross referrals, rarely parties who mediate regularly and more mediators than there is work. So, if you work with a mediator who has done a great job - be like Tiddler's Granny - and talk about it (without breaching confidentiality)! * NB: there were no breaches of confidentiality and the testimonial below is from someone else #mediation #wordofmouth #feedback #thankyou

⚡️Monday motivation⚡️ After my children came to support me at my first HYROX on Friday, I tried to use it as a teaching moment about a growth mindset. “No one is born great at something” I say. “We all need to practice. The more we practice the better we get at it and the more effort we put in the better the result or the outcome.” My daughter pipes up “you were born great at something mummy!” Delighted, I wait for it…what is she going to say?! Burpee broad jumps?! Sandbag lunges?! Sled pulls?!… “Drawing!” 🙄😂 But it got me thinking - how often do we celebrate our achievements?! I’m not very good at it - like many of us I suspect. It doesn’t matter what I do, I always think I could have done better, or that I could have tried harder. The former is often true, but if I’m honest, I think the latter rarely is - I mean, do these photos look like I needed to try harder?! (that’s not a smile on the sled push!) I didn’t make the time I was hoping for on Friday. I was aiming for under 1:20:00 and I came in at 1:22:55… …I ran an extra lap by mistake (don’t judge, apparently lots of people do!)… …and I did 75m of sled pulls rather than 50m! (do judge as I very much doubt many people do that!)…. But I was still disappointed. Yet, today I was back in the gym because I believe that if I keep doing more of what I’ve been doing, I can get under 1:15:00. We’ll find out in about 7/8 months.

When you pre-register for HYROX on the way to a networking / CPD event and you wish you’d known they were going to write on your arm so you could have worn a long sleeved top 😳 A conversation starter for tonight’s The Property Litigation Association Scotland case update and drinks… I’ve not been arrested and I’m not on parole 😂

Ever had that feeling you’ve over committed?! It has been all systems go at Squaring Circles HQ for the last 5 years as I’ve put blood, sweat and tears into building my mediation practice. There is always a fair bit of personal sacrifice when you are trying to build a business, and I’ve found that to be especially true with the juggle of being a mum to two young children. I therefore decided last year that I was going to do something for me, and spend the first two months of 2025 sweating it out in the gym and less time sweating it out in the pursuit of persuading lawyers to meet me for coffee as I wax lyrical about the virtues of mediation! So, on Friday I am hoping to complete my first ever HYROX in Glasgow…with my children cheering me on. And when I say “complete” what I really mean is that I hope to smash the time target I’ve set myself. Because if a job’s worth doing… I don’t know anyone who has done it before, so hit me with your top tips for smashing it! And wish me luck! (Normal service of coffees and train trips resume next week)

What's in a number? I must confess it's not something I've spent much time contemplating in recent years. Until this week, when I started watching Prime Target (making the most of my Apple TV trial!) Don't worry - no spoiler alerts! Of course, numbers allow us to understand the magnitude of something (although not all of the time*), to measure time and distance, and to make quantitative comparisons between things. Negotiation on the numbers is certainly the route to settlement in many of the mediations I am appointed to. But I am now quite fascinated with numbers. First of all, do you have a favourite number? Mine is 7. The number seven symbolises countless elements in human civilisation. There are seven days of the week, seven continents, seven colours of the rainbow, seven chakras, and seven wonders of the world. It seems I'm not alone and that there's a lot to like about the number 7 😁 https://lnkd.in/e3DRDgbh. I also have quite a lot to say about numbers this week. My Grandmother turns 100. My son turns 7. My mediation practice turns 5 - that's 114 mediations, 38 training sessions, 22 speaking engagements, thousands of miles on trains and hundreds of coffees. And to mark the end of the 3 - 5 year plan, and before I embark on the 5 - 7 year plan, I will enter a whole new world of numbers next Friday when I take part in Hyrox. (Who doesn't like a numbers challenge?!). So, as I enjoy the TV show and marvel in a world of conspiracy theories, entertainment aside, I have been reminded of how fundamental mathematics is to our very existence and modern life, and how numbers provide structure, clarity and efficiency in an otherwise unpredictable world. Have you been reminded of or gained a new found appreciation or respect for something this week? * Google tells me the largest US civil law suit settlement in history was $206 billion. That is $1 for every second for over 6,500 years. There is around £3 trillion of pension assets in the UK which is £1 for every second for over 95,000 years.

What do you see? A bird in the sky or a bird on the water? "Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It's not logical, it's psychological" Stephen R Convey We all view the world from our own unique perspective. The lens through which we view and make sense of the world is shaped by our experiences, beliefs, and values. It influences how we see, interpret and understand events, and respond to what we perceive. Having been involved in hundreds of disputes and mediations, one of the main causes of conflict is us forming different perceptions – of the same facts, the same event, the same information – whatever it is, it is those different perceptions that drive the dispute. Each person comes to mediation with their own experiences, biases, and emotions, which shape how they perceive the dispute. One of the key roles of the mediator is to help the parties see things from different perspectives - through a different lens. An easy thing to say but a difficult thing to do. Once parties step outside their own point of view and look at the conflict from those different perspectives they can: ✅ move beyond rigid positions to explore the interests that drive their positions and those of the other side ✅ see beyond their own experiences, acknowledge and perhaps even find merit* in the perceptions of the other ✅ look for common ground ✅ turn impasse into creative problem solving ✅ make good informed decisions (* which is different to agreeing with) This applies to even the most commercial of disputes. "When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change" – Wayne Dyer Photo of a Cormorant at Clubbiedean Reservoir, Pentland Hills Regional Park, January 2025 #mediation #doingdisputesdifferently