In this episode Gary Friedman traces the evolution of mediation from a people-centered alternative to a lawyer-dominated process, explaining how courts and legal culture turned voluntary mediation into mandatory settlement practices. He describes the understanding-based model that returns decision-making to the parties, while showing how lawyers and the law can support - rather than control - constructive, creative agreements.

Friedman offers practical takeaways for mediators and attorneys: how to keep clients at the center, use legal input as a helpful reference, expand what’s negotiable so the “pie” grows, and find professional and personal satisfaction in fostering durable, human-centered resolutions.

Welcome to The Other Chair. Today, we’re exploring a familiar challenge in professional life - workplace conflict. Whether it’s friction between coworkers, breakdowns in communication, or tension between managers and team members, conflict at work can take a toll on trust, collaboration, and productivity.

Our guest is Pat Lau, a longtime workplace mediator, conflict resolution trainer, and co-founder of Intel’s Collaborative Mediation Program. From 2010 to 2024, Pat helped develop and lead one of the few in-house workplace mediation programs inside a major global corporation. His work with Intel's teams, peer managers, and leaders helped address difficult conflicts in a way that encouraged understanding instead of blame.

On this episode of The Other Chair, we are diving into the intersection of emotional intelligence, mediation, and joy, and how empathy can transform even the most challenging conversations into opportunities for connection.

Our guest is Misha Safran, trilingual mediator, keynote speaker, educator, and founder of the Center for Empathy and Emotional Intelligence. In this episode, Misha shares how empathy and emotional intelligence can help us build cultures in workplaces, classrooms, and communities where conflict is not feared but embraced as a path to deeper understanding and connection.