Carolyn Elefant’s was one of the first blogs I read, back in 2002 when she started MyShingle.com. She is offering a free download of a compiled collection of her blog posts called “The Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be: Inspiration for New Grads and Practicing Lawyers.” I think the points are also applicable for mediators and other conflict specialists, as they relate to the dreams and disappointments of establishing a business and being a helping professional.

As she says:

As you probably expect or already realize, practicing law can be stressful. Long hours, nasty supervisors, difficult clients and worries about making the student loan payments can put a damper on even the best of jobs. The day to day stress scarcely leaves time to evaluate where you’re going or how far you’ve come or whether you’re doing what matters to you. This collection of posts is intended to remind, encourage and inspire you to remember what matters and to become the lawyer you always wanted to be.

The article’s format makes clear it’s going to be published as a Change This manifesto (I have posted about other Change This manifestos before, e.g., here, on creativity; here on time management; here, titled Drawings That Will Change Your Life; and here, one of my favorites, on literacy). You have a chance to get Carolyn’s article now, pre-Change This release — just click below to download it. But if you go to her site here to download it by May 15, she’ll put you in a drawing for a copy of her newly published book Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be.

inspired-solo-”The Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be”.pdf

            

As Tammy Lenski at Mediator_Tech says:

Success leaves clues: the mediator interview series

Tammy Lenski interviewed me earlier this week. Indeed, she and I exchanged interviews– here’s the link announcing her interview in Engaging Conflicts Today.As she says in introducing my interview:

Success Leaves Clues is my occasional series of interviews with interesting ADR professionals who have effectively navigated the intersection of technology use and ADR practice-building.

Gini Nelson and I re-connected a few weeks ago and agreed to exchange interviews, and I’m delighted she’s agreed to be profiled for this series. I first met Gini in person a few years ago at the Minneapolis ACR, when I attended a terrific workshop she lead on the neuroscience of conflict. I’d been teaching a grad course for years that integrated that topic into the course and was curious what Gini might add to my thinking about it. She was a dynamic presenter with good content and I’ve followed her blog and newsletters ever since.

Gini’s an active user of the web, as you’ll see in her interview below.

For the rest of the interview, here’s the link.

            

I came across Michael Iva’s article 100 Ways to Kill a Concept: Why Most Ideas Get Shot Down at ChangeThis recently. It says:

So, you’ve got an idea. A big idea. But will your idea take flight? Not if you let your concept be killed by all the usual excuses you hear from your managers, your bosses, your spouses—excuses motivated by fear or possessiveness. In this wide-ranging manifesto, Iva offers you ways to persuade someone to embrace your idea, to not be swayed by negative responses, and to utilize your creativity.

Most people are afraid of or resistant to change and consequently, “kill” new concepts. Sometimes it is others’ concepts, sometimes it is their own. The “100 ways” are common responses to proposals for something new that can stop even considering them further, e.g., “It can’t be done”, That’s been done before”, “It’s not us”, “Yes, but”, etc.

The article is on creativity and how to get past the “100 ways”. Read more »

            

I came across Francis Wade’s article at ChangeThis recently. As it says:

As working professionals across the world, we all want the same things when it comes to time management. We want to feel a certain peace of mind that comes from knowing that our affairs are in order and that we’ve not forgotten something that might jump up later to give us a nasty surprise.

This “timely” article urges:

When new gadgets and a new list of tips is presented, the professional should ask herself: “what does this mean for my fundamentals?”

The article warns about destroying personal productivity by chasing after the newest “promise” of productivity, be it gadget or tip, instead of increasing productivity by learning and practicing the fundamentals.

“When Tiger’s game falls apart, he’s lucky– he knows what to do. He returns to the fundamentals and starts to rebuild. If we were so lucky, we would have the following fundamentals taught to us in the 5th grade. It’s late, but not too late to learn them, and to begin our long overdue practice sessions.”

As he says, time management systems are essentially quite simple, and they are easy to understand and to learn once the fundamentals are appreciated. However, the working professional has seldom been taught the fundamentals and so it follows she has never practiced them. Read more »

            

To business owners — including mediators, attorneys and other conflict specialists– who already blog, this article is dated (2004). For those who are newer to the concept of using blogs and other online tools as part of professional, business and personal development, it’s useful.

As his (2004) bio states (he is now Managing Director at FastCompany.TV):

Robert Scoble is one of bloggingʼs best-known personalities. He is Microsoftʼs technical evangelist for the US .NET Platform Strategy. Before joining Microsoft, Scoble held a variety of jobs ranging from planning conferences at Fawcette Technical Publications, to being director of marketing for weblog software producer UserLand Software, to being sales support manager at NEC Mobile Solutions. He has a 10-year-old son and enjoys technology of all kinds, from playing with his Tivo and Xbox Live system to tinkering around with digital cameras.

Here’s his article The Corporate Weblog Manifesto from ChangeThis. As he says in his introduction:

Thinking of doing a weblog about your product or your company? Here are my ideas of things to consider before you start.

His points include:

• Tell the truth. The whole truth. Nothing but the truth.
• Post fast on good news or bad.
• Use a human voice.
• Make sure you support the latest software/web/human standards.
• Have a thick skin.
• Underpromise and over deliver.
• If your life is in turmoil and/or you’re unhappy, don’t write.

You can find the article at ChangeThis or download it by clicking here:The Corporate Weblog Manifesto.

As his bio states:

Chetan Dhruve has worked for several organizations including IBM, Cisco Systems, and the Department for International Development (the aid wing of the British Foreign Office). He has an MBA from Cass Business School (London), an MA in International Journalism from City University (London) and a BSc in Physics, Maths and Electronics from Bangalore University (Bangalore).
Summary:

• Your behavior is affected by the system in which you live and work.
• At work, you don’t have the right to choose the person who has power over you — your boss. That makes him a dictator, and you a subject.
• The system is hence that of a dictatorship. Your boss, you and your colleagues all behave accordingly.
• To change the system to a free system, subordinates should be given the right to vote for their bosses.
• The result will be a more productive and successful company, and a more successful and healthier you.

I came across his article Why Your Boss is Programmed to be a Dictator at ChangeThis recently. As it says:

Did you vote your boss into the corner office? If not, perhaps your boss is a dictator. Chetan Dhruve explains why bosses become dictators.

You can find the article at ChangeThis or download it by clicking here:Why Your Boss is Programmed to be a Dictator

            

As her bio states:

Randah Taher is a project developer and consultant who worked in montreal for 7 years before moving to Toronto, Canada, where she currently resides. She works with learning, non-profit organizations, and social enterprises, and is involved in projects concerning youth, education, and community revitalization. She consults and trains groups in creative problem solving tools, innovative strategic management, restructuring and program development. Randah is the founder of My Arabic Story, a cultural hub with worldwide volunteers, which narrates folktales by storytelling, doing puppet shows, and recording CDs.

I came across her article 10 Guidelines for Effective Brainstorming at ChangeThis recently. As it says:

Creativity can be taught, nurtured, and enhanced. It does not belong solely to the artist among us, and certainly is not genetically limited to the gifted.

You can find the article at ChangeThis or download it by clicking here:10 Guidelines for Effective Brainstorming

            

As his bio states:

Malcolm Gladwell was born in 1963 in England and grew up in Canada. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Toronto in 1984. From 1987 to 1996, he was a reporter for The Washington Post, first as a science writer and then as New York City bureau chief. In 2000, he published The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Since 1996, he has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine.

I came across his article The Talent Myth at ChangeThis recently. As it says:

When Malcolm Gladwell wrote “The Tipping Point”, he had a sensation on his hands. Called “one of those rare books that changes the way you think about, well, everything” it quickly climbed the charts to become a bestseller. Now Malcolm writes a manifesto for ChangeThis on the seemingly paradoxical truth that talent is not a firm’s greatest asset.

You can find the article at change this, or download it by clicking here:The Talent Myth

            

As I’ve said before, here, I adopted coffee as my drug of choice while in law school. A relative just sent me a post with coffee art, lovely photos, here. It starts with this (but I can’t necessarily vouch for it — further search found a New York barista named Sammy Lin featured for his creations, here):

There is a restaurant in Vancouver that dresses up the lattes. You get to watch them create the pictures.

What can be done with coffee, cream, milk & imagination.

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As his bio states:

Andrew Keen’s deeply controversial Cult of the Amateur [published in 2007] is the first book that exposes the economic, ethical and social dangers of the Web 2.0 revolution. Andrew hasn’t always been a contrarian. In the mid-nineties, he was a member of that generation of Silicon Valley visionaries who pioneered the Internet. He founded Audiocafe.com in 1995 and established it as one of the most highly trafficked websites of the late nineties. Today, he is the host of the Internet chat show afterTV.com and regularly appears on the web, television and radio. His work can be found on his CultoftheAmateur blog, his syndicated Podtech video-essay, his ZDnet column as well as in traditional publications.

I came across his article Against You: A Manifesto in Favor of Audience at ChangeThis recently. As it says:

If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? Andrew Keen asserts that the same riddle can be applied to Web 2.0. While new Internet technology has revolutionized traditional media and allows everyone to be writer/creator, if everyone is writer/creator, then just who is left to listen to the cacophony?

You can find the article at ChangeThis, or download it by clicking here: Against You: A Manifesto in Favor of Audience