better conversations
better outcomes
As the founder and CEO of the Core Solutions Group, I spend a great deal of time thinking and speaking about mediation, negotiation, conflict management, leadership and communication. I am told I should write some of these thoughts down… so, here goes…
On 28 and 29 May 2025, John Sturrock gave presentations at the annual IAM Conference in Gold Coast, Australia, entitled “Shifting Sands”. John’s themes were Regressing from Getting to Yes: The Return of Zero Sum? and …
In 1996, I attended Harvard’s Program on Negotiation to learn, for the first time, about interest-based negotiation. I was privileged to study under the legendary Professor Roger Fisher, co-author, along with Wiliam Ury, of Getting …
Over the past several months I have worked with many different professional people across the health and social care sectors, government, sport, higher education and others. I have been struck by the commonality of some …
“Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears”. Surely some mistake, I thought; shouldn’t it be the other way round? Swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks? It was during Evensong at the magnificent …
Back in the early 1980s, the Cold War was at its height. As we learned in the recent BBC series “Secrets and Spies: A Nuclear Game”, the world came perilously close to nuclear war in …
Recently I spent several hours in Edinburgh in the company of my good friend William Ury. As many readers will know, Ury is co-author of what is arguably the most influential book ever written on …
“It’s all about trust, isn’t it?” observed my assistant mediator in a recent mediation where property investors resolved a long-running dispute with their professional advisers, having incurred considerable legal costs. It was good to see …
“O, wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us!” I am writing this on Burns Night and reflecting on a recent conversation with an acquaintance. I left our meeting feeling deeply …
Gillian Bowditch’s description in The Sunday Times this week of the attack on a schoolgirl at Waid Academy in Anstruther, Fife, brought back memories from 50 years ago. In 1973, I became a pupil at …
Stewart McDonald MP (SNP Defence Spokesperson) describes the horrors experienced in Ukraine and articulates well the concerns felt there about any change in the West’s position, prompted by “extreme voices from the left and the …
Core Solutions Group
Sitemap
Privacy Policy
Registered Office
6 Claverhouse Drive,
Edinburgh
EH16 6BS
