Eamon Blackthorn is a communication skills expert and author of the best-selling book SAY IT RIGHT EVERY TIME.
15 min audio Co-mediation pairs two mediators in a single process, and knowing when to use it changes everything. This article explains how co-mediation differs from solo mediation, where each approach serves best, and how to choose between them with confidence.
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15 min audio These case studies examine workplace mediation in action, from disputes between colleagues to fractured team dynamics. Each scenario shows what effective mediation looks like, what it costs when it fails, and what any practitioner can learn from watching it work in real situations.
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14 min audio Effective mediation depends on more than good intentions. Skilled mediators use specific psychological tools to read what is actually driving a conflict, not just what people say about it. This article explains those tools and how to apply them in real disputes.
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17 min audio Virtual mediation requires more than moving your usual conflict skills online. This guide covers the specific techniques mediators need to manage remote disputes effectively, from setting up the right environment to reading emotion through a camera lens.
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16 min audio Timing is one of the most overlooked skills in mediation. Step in too early and you disrupt natural resolution. Wait too long and the damage is done. This article helps you recognise the warning signs that your timing is off, before the conflict hardens.
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13 min audio Cultural sensitivity in mediation is the ability to recognise how background, values, and communication style shape every conflict. This article explains what that means in practice, what mediators get wrong, and how to build this skill before your next difficult conversation.
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4 min audio A court ruled against Cape Town's tariff structure, exposing what critics say was an unlawful overreach by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and the city administration. Residents who overpaid are now owed answers. Instead of a clear public response owning the outcome, the mayor's office has stayed largely quiet. That silence is not neutral. In a crisis like this, silence is a message. And it is the wrong one.
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4 min audio New research backed by psychologists confirms what good communicators have always known: stepping away briefly during a heated exchange is not avoidance. It is active regulation. When the nervous system spikes during conflict, the brain's capacity for measured speech collapses. A short physical break resets that capacity. The people who look like they are walking away from the fight are actually walking toward a better outcome.
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4 min audio The role of CEO has shifted in a fundamental way. Corporate leaders are no longer judged solely on quarterly results or board relationships. They are now expected to function as publishers, broadcasters, and personalities. The public, employees, and investors all want direct access to the person at the top, and they want it constantly. Silence from leadership is no longer neutral. It reads as absence.
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4 min audio Nepal's Prime Minister Balen Shah has drawn sharp criticism for his persistent silence inside Parliament. Political opponents and commentators are treating his reluctance to speak as a sign of weakness or disengagement. But silence from a sitting head of government is never accidental, and it is rarely what it appears to be on the surface.
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4 min audio Julia Ismael, founder of The Equity Consortium, built her professional mission around a straightforward premise: people cannot do their best work when they feel threatened, dismissed, or unsafe. Speaking to International Business Times, she made the case that emotional safety at work is not a perk or a cultural bonus. It is a structural requirement, and leaders who ignore it are not just being unkind. They are being ineffective.
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4 min audio Leadership communication is undergoing a fundamental shift. The old model of top-down messaging, polished press releases, and controlled narratives is losing ground to something rawer and more direct. Leaders today are being measured not just by what they decide, but by how they explain those decisions, in real time, to audiences who will not wait for a PR team to craft the perfect response.
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