Nicole Davidson Negotiation

03/11/2025

Are you a small business owner facing unpaid invoices? Discover what it actually costs to litigate a small business dispute and how you can navigate these challenging waters. It's important to know your options! Read more: https://wix.to/XeyDFEJ

Imagine you are the owner of a small architecture practice. You have a client that has outstanding invoices of $60,000 and they have been unpaid for some time. Initially, the client kept promising that payment would be made “next week”. After numerous follow ups by you, the client has started av...

13/08/2025

𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐢𝐩

In your negotiation planning, are you rewarding people for coming up with the right answer? This might be a problem.

Negotiations generally have no single right answer. The solution to a complex problem will come from good arguments raised by a number of stakeholders.

So, what you want to be rewarding is good arguments not right answers. Those good argument may not deliver the "right" answer straight away but they will encourage further thinking that will lead you to where you want to be.

When you only reward right answers, how often do others in the room not make a contribution because they are afraid it may be wrong?

05/08/2025

𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙡𝙮 𝙉𝙚𝙜𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙏𝙞𝙥

Did you know that your negotiation starts long before you get to the negotiation table?

A pre-negotiation strategy meeting has the benefit of bringing different perspectives before you begin discussions with the other side.

Without a strategy meeting, you enter the negotiation with only intuition and gut-instinct. These are no substitute for careful analysis in a situation that requires complex analysis.

Every person you invite to your strategy meeting will bring a unique perspective so don't feel limited.

Using a structure such as Harvard's 7 Elements of Negotiation will give your meeting the perfect agenda.

Whan to know more? Reach out for a no obligation chat.

04/08/2025

As another month kicks off, here is my availability for the rest of the month.

As always, you can check availability via this link - https://zurl.co/takQW.

17/06/2025

What a delight to finish a mediation this morning to find several messages of congratulations for having been included on 's Guide as one of Victoria's leading mediators for 2025.

I'm not sure how I made the list but thank you to anyone who provided feedback about my mediations.

30/05/2025

Could this be Copilot's best Friday mediation joke yet? If Copilot were a person, I'm sure it would be currently sweetly smiling at you waiting to see if you got the hole joke 🙄

Funny or not funny?

23/05/2025

I'm back with another Friday mediation joke from Copilot. It feels like something's missing from this week's joke. I'm sure with a little digging around, I'll be able to find out what it is.

Funny or not funny?

20/05/2025

Thank you to Maria Kerhoulas at Partners Lawyers for inviting me to speak to the team today. It is always a pleasure to speak about Negotiation and Mediation and to share a few war stories. There were some great questions and discussions. And the sandwiches were delicious.

16/05/2025

Watch out mediators! According to Copilot's mediation joke this week, you soon find the ATO hitting you up for a HECS debt on that additional qualification. Shh, let's keep these skills a carefully guarded secret .

Funny or not funny?

12/05/2025

Continuing with my series of posts inspired by Hamdan Khosa's post about an opposing counsel who only wanted to communicate in writing, I wanted to consider how you might respond to that request. Here is one way I might do it.

"I note your request to communicate solely in writing. I understand that there are some good reasons for having a written record of our negotiations. At the same time, it is my experience that an initial conversation can assist in resolving disputes such as these more efficiently.

With this in mind, I would appreciate being able to schedule a time for an initial discussion. The purpose of this discussion is to understand a little more about your client's position and to share our client's position. I do not expect we will solve the problem in our first meeting but it should assist us in narrowing down the dispute and giving each of us a better understanding of the risks for our clients.

In order to have a record of the conversation, I am happy for the conversation to be recorded. Alternatively, after the meeting, I can prepare a summary of the conversation for you to confirm what was discussed and any agreements as to future actions."

What are your thoughts?

09/05/2025

I'm back with another Copilot generated mediation joke. This week it is all about music and mediation. I'm beginning to think that instead of generating jokes, Copilot has actually been generating metaphors. What do you think?

Funny or not funny?

07/05/2025

How important is your work environment? My home office was painted a dark red colour when we bought our house. I have always hated the colour but never got around to doing anything about it.

Finally, this week I have had the painters in to change the colour to a much more calming blue. I haven't even moved everything back into the office but I'm already feeling so much better when I walk through the door.

The psychology of colour is real. There is a reason I never wear red when I mediate!

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