Francis Ford Mediation
35 Harvard Street
Worcester, MA 01609
Office: 508-791-7776
Mobile: 508-769-9922
fran@FordMediation.com
 
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Category: About Mediation

SAFE Parenting Plans: Turning Parenting Agreements into Protective Structures author.

SAFE Parenting Plans: Turning Parenting Agreements into Protective Structures

Abstract Parenting plans are typically drafted as legal instruments that allocate time and decision-making between adults, yet from a child's...

By Patricia Wright
Help Your Clients Use AI Wisely Before Mediation Sessions author.

Help Your Clients Use AI Wisely Before Mediation Sessions

Has a client ever come to one of your mediations armed with an AI analysis showing that they had a...

By John Lande
Optimizing Mediation – Table of Contents author.

Optimizing Mediation – Table of Contents

Participant Empowerment, AI andProblem-Solving Optimization in Mediation by Jim Melamed Co-Founder and 25-year CEO at Mediate.com INTRODUCTION About this “Book"...

By Jim Melamed
Optimizing Mediation: The Goals of Your Mediation author.

Optimizing Mediation: The Goals of Your Mediation

Table of Contents Next The Goals for Your Mediation Fairness and Reasonableness?  Empowerment and Recognition? Our plans often miscarry because...

By Jim Melamed
Optimizing Mediation: Less is More & Normative Stories author.

Optimizing Mediation: Less is More & Normative Stories

Table of Contents Next Less is More & Normative Stories Just as an effective mediator continually seeks to take the...

By Jim Melamed
Optimizing Mediation:  Baby Steps and Strategic Mediation author.

Optimizing Mediation: Baby Steps and Strategic Mediation

Table of Contents Next Baby Steps and Strategic Mediation Participants do not need to win, they are just unwilling to...

By Jim Melamed
Optimizing Mediation: Perception and Parts author.

Optimizing Mediation: Perception and Parts

Table of Contents Next WORKING WITH PARTICIPANTS IN MEDIATION Perception and Parts Seeking to become an effective mediator is both...

By Jim Melamed
Optimizing Mediation: Most Capable Solutions author.

Optimizing Mediation: Most Capable Solutions

Table of Contents Next Most Capable Solutions Success doesn't come to you...you go to it. Marva Collins If at first...

By Jim Melamed
Optimizing Mediation: Working with Participants’ Resource States author.

Optimizing Mediation: Working with Participants’ Resource States

Table of Contents Next Working with Participants’ Resource States Question: How do mediation participants come to us? At their best?...

By Jim Melamed
Optimizing Mediation: “Maximizing Mediation” as a Model author.

Optimizing Mediation: “Maximizing Mediation” as a Model

Table of Contents Next Maximizing Mediation as a Model There is no single “right way” to mediate. Mediation practices vary...

By Jim Melamed
Misconceptions About Divorce & Mediation – Separating Myths from Facts author.

Misconceptions About Divorce & Mediation – Separating Myths from Facts

Myths and misinformation often shape people’s understanding of divorce law and their options for reaching a settlement through mediation or...

By Dr. Lynne C. Halem
Scarcity as Narrative: The Hidden Driver of Congregational Conflict author.

Scarcity as Narrative: The Hidden Driver of Congregational Conflict

Congregations rarely divide because they run out of money. They divide because they run out of shared imagination. Scarcity becomes...

By John Potter, Bart Patton
Optimizing Mediation: Building Rapport author.

Optimizing Mediation: Building Rapport

Table of Contents Next Building Rapport in Mediation Building Rapport Matching, Pacing, and Leading If asked to name the three...

By Jim Melamed
Wouldn’t You Like to Read a Plausible Story About Mediation? author.

Wouldn’t You Like to Read a Plausible Story About Mediation?

Are you bummed out that most portrayals of mediation in popular culture are freakish caricatures? Me too. Too often, mediators...

By John Lande
Mediate.com Interview with Tony Piazza: “Lessons from 5,000 Mediations: Converting Dialectic Into Dialogue” (video) author.

Mediate.com Interview with Tony Piazza: “Lessons from 5,000 Mediations: Converting Dialectic Into Dialogue” (video)

This Mediate.com interview of Tony Piazza was recorded on July 29, 2026. Over the past 46 years, Tony has mediated...

By Antonio Piazza, Stephen Kotev
Practice Swimming Like Whales author.

Practice Swimming Like Whales

4⁴SRI® (4⁴ Structured Reflective Instrument) International Certificate Program Tzofnat Peleg-Baker, PhD with Certified 4⁴SRI® Practitioners PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE IS A PRACTICE...

By Tzofnat Peleg-Baker
Turns Out That RPS Coach Really Is Pretty Cool author.

Turns Out That RPS Coach Really Is Pretty Cool

When mediate.com recently created this homepage for RPS Coach, it seemed like a good time to reflect on my amazing...

By John Lande
Using RPS Coach to Create a Disability Real Practice System (DRPS) author.

Using RPS Coach to Create a Disability Real Practice System (DRPS)

This year, I have been celebrating my twentieth bipolar-versary by launching a number of different 20 Years Embracing Bipolar projects...

By Dan Berstein
Optimizing Mediation: About This Book author.

Optimizing Mediation: About This Book

by Jim Melamed Co-Founder and 25-year CEO at Mediate.com INTRODUCTION: ABOUT THIS BOOK What exactly is “a book” these days?...

By Jim Melamed
Optimizing Mediation:  Mediation & Optimization author.

Optimizing Mediation: Mediation & Optimization

Table of Contents Next Mediation & Optimization In any situation in which you are uncertain, consider: "What do I want...

By Jim Melamed
Optimizing Mediation: Mediation Myth Busters author.

Optimizing Mediation: Mediation Myth Busters

Table of Contents Next This “Myth Busters” article was written and issued in 2025 jointly by the American Arbitration Association...

By Jim Melamed
Immersive Mediation Program Trains Tomorrow’s Peacemakers author.

Immersive Mediation Program Trains Tomorrow’s Peacemakers

Cal State Long Beach students are getting into the thick of other peoples’ problems — and solving them — while...

By Andrew Edwards
Mediation in India: Enforceable Settlements Without Compulsory Compromise author.

Mediation in India: Enforceable Settlements Without Compulsory Compromise

In a Delhi family court, a marriage of seven years had already collapsed by the time the case reached the...

By Aftab Mohammad
Optimizing Mediation – About the Author author.

Optimizing Mediation – About the Author

Next Table of Contents Jim Melamed co-founded Mediate.com in 1996 with John Helie and served as CEO of Mediate.com through June 2020...

By Jim Melamed
Optimizing Mediation –  Acknowledgements author.

Optimizing Mediation – Acknowledgements

Next Table of Contents Acknowledgements First off, thanks to my parents. To my dad, now deceased at 93, for his...

By Jim Melamed
Optimizing Mediation –  A Fascinating Journey author.

Optimizing Mediation – A Fascinating Journey

Table of Contents Next OVERVIEW OF THE MEDIATION PROCES An Introduction to MediationA Fascinating Journey If we want to make...

By Jim Melamed
Background to Stephen Kotev’s July 29 Interview with Tony Piazza: “Lessons from 5,000 Mediations: Converting Dialectic Into Dialogue” author.

Background to Stephen Kotev’s July 29 Interview with Tony Piazza: “Lessons from 5,000 Mediations: Converting Dialectic Into Dialogue”

- Register for Free Tony Piazza Interview Here - For almost two decades, I’ve been fascinated by the Aikido concept...

By Stephen Kotev, Antonio Piazza
Guidelines for the Submission of Articles to Mediate.com author.

Guidelines for the Submission of Articles to Mediate.com

Mediate.com welcomes high quality articles on mediation and dispute resolution for publication on our web site. Authors are encouraged to submit...

By Clare Fowler, Jim Melamed, Colin Rule
Advanced Workplace Mediation Training  author.

Advanced Workplace Mediation Training 

with Dr. Clare Fowler of Mediate.com - October 2 and 9 via Zoom The Lodestar Dispute Resolution Center at ASU Law has...

By Clare Fowler
From Observation to Innovation: A Year Inside the AAA–Suffolk Online Dispute Resolution Innovation Clinic author.

From Observation to Innovation: A Year Inside the AAA–Suffolk Online Dispute Resolution Innovation Clinic

Introduction In August 2025, eight Suffolk Law School students became the inaugural participants in the AAA–Suffolk Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)...

By Maya Markovich

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