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WorkAccord
@workaccord.bsky.social
18 followers 43 following 54 posts
WorkAccord is a #postlaw governance + dispute resolution practice that advances ADR through accord-building, ethical collaboration, and continuous learning, founded by Andrew C. Wood, Mediator, Conciliator & Learning Designer.
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workaccord.bsky.social
WorkAccord @workaccord.bsky.social · Apr 25
Sending out a friendly ‘Coo-eee!’ to all the mediators, conciliators, peacemakers, ADR program designers, collaborative thinkers, and post-lawyers in the woods or on the web.

If you’re exploring new paths in conflict resolution, let’s find each other.

#mediation #DisputeResolution #PeaceMaking
Person in the woods with hands to mouth as megaphopne shouting, "Coo-eee!". Note: "Coo-eee" is an Australian bush call used to find lost mates
workaccord.bsky.social
This is the first of 3 posts in which I reflect on the place of #friendship in #mediation.

I start with a retelling of the well-known teaching story, "The 17 Camels". In my version there are only 15 camels. What flows from that we'll discuss in my next post.

open.substack.com/pub/andrew26...
The Imaginative Mediator IM/003
A Teaching Story and the Question of Friendship
open.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Reposted by WorkAccord
auspublawblog.bsky.social
New today on AUSPUBLAW: Reflections from Frank Pasquale (@frankpasquale.bsky.social) on Yee-Fui Ng’s book ‘Combatting the Code: Regulating Automated Government Decision-Making in Comparative Context’: www.auspublaw.org/blog/2025/11...
Reason-Giving Without Reasoners? Confronting Generative AI Use in Administrative Processes - Combatting the Code book forum — Australian Public Law
Frank Pasquale In her Combatting the Code: Regulating Automated Government Decision-Making in Comparative Context , Y ee-Fui Ng examines many instances of predictive AI use that raise serious co...
www.auspublaw.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:35 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
This short article is a grateful acknowledgement and more thorough response to a reader, who asked an insightful question that challenged me to set out a little of the learning design approach I have used in building WorkAccord Learning.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/thank-...
Thank You to a Reader Who Asked a Challenging and Insightful Question
Yesterday, I published a LinkedIn post for WorkAccord Learning, announcing a new project developing a comprehensive learning library around the Australian Government’s Scheme for Compensation for Detr...
www.linkedin.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:32 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
I wonder if, beyond the politics of Left or Right, we are actually starting to see the emergence of a new politics of Affordability and whether that might be the real significance of the NYC Mayoral race.

If so, how far might those ripples extend?

#Affordabiity #NewPolitics #NYC
November 6, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by WorkAccord
lflegal.bsky.social
Curious about a #DisputeResolution strategy born at the intersection of #disability and #accessibility? @workaccord.bsky.social wrote reviews of every chapter in my book focused on using Structured Negotiation with #veterans in #Australia www.lflegal.com/2025/11/stru... #BookSky #ConflictResolution
Beyond Digital Accessibility: An Australian Reader Takes Deep Dive into Structured Negotiation Book
Four years after I published the second edition of my book -- Structured Negotiation, a Winning Alternative to Lawsuits-- something unexpected happened that brought me great joy. An Australian peacema...
www.lflegal.com
November 2, 2025 at 5:18 PM
workaccord.bsky.social
What can fairy tales tell us about mediation? In this Field Note, I reflect on Vigen Gourian’s exposition of Margery Williams’ "The Velveteen Rabbit, or How Toys Become Real" and sketch out some connections to mediation as a practice of integrative peacemaking.
andrew267.substack.com/p/the-imagin...
A watercolor illustration of the Velveteen Rabbit. The illustration is by William Nicholson and shoes the rabbit on a mound of grass with ferns and flowers. The sky behind is gold and grey. The title of the illustration is "Spring Time".
October 26, 2025 at 12:31 PM
workaccord.bsky.social
This Field Note opens a series exploring what it means to practise mediation with moral imagination inside the integrative-law tradition.

andrew267.substack.com/p/the-imagin...

#IntegrativeLaw #MoralImagination #ADRDesign #TheImaginativeMediator
The Imaginative Mediator
Integrative Law and the Moral Imagination
andrew267.substack.com
October 17, 2025 at 8:57 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
We're now more than half way through Lainey Feingold's Structured Negotiation process and reading about overcoming obstacles during a negotiation.

@lflegal.bsky.social #StructuredNegotiation #ADRDesign

substack.com/@andrewcwood...
Reading Lainey Feingold's (2021) "Structured Negotiation: A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits" - 2nd Edition (Cont'd)
Chapter 9: Overcoming Obstacles during Negotiation
substack.com
August 13, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Reposted by WorkAccord
woodac.bsky.social
Lately, I've been reflecting on my #DisputeResolution work as something closely related to #LearningDesign, allowing us to bring the human dimensions of a dispute to light and to create space for collaborative and care-full attentiveness, response, and redress.

open.substack.com/pub/andrew26...
Reflections on Post-Law Practice
A Stretch Toward Moral Imagination
open.substack.com
July 16, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by WorkAccord
woodac.bsky.social
It's not easy to model the trust expected of others when drafting an invitation to negotiate. Often, it goes against instinct and training. It might also set up the need for an internal negotiation with your own client.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/readin...

@lflegal.bsky.social #StructuredNegotiation
Pull quote on a square orange background: "Every legal instinct might be to fight on in the hope or expectation of forcing a settlement under the pressure of litigation. The claimant might be urging you to do precisely that – and maybe not even in hope of securing a settlement, but out of a deeper need to assert identity, seeking recognition. " Andrew C. Wood. Reading Lainey Feingold's (2021) "Structured Negotiation: A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits" - 2nd Edition (Cont'd)
July 15, 2025 at 5:47 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
Thinking, this week, about how we can build and nurture the #StructuredNegotiation mindset. As learning designers, we’d like to think that it would be possible to design a program that could support the development of a significant change in attitude.

open.substack.com/pub/andrew26...
Pull quote on a mottles, grey, square background: "Yet these approaches to the problem suggest that Structured Negotiation practitioners must be advocates for the process as well as advocates for the client and that the toughest negotiation of all may, at times, be the internal negotiation that takes place within the client team." Andrew C. Wood. Reading Lainey Feingold's (2021) Structured Negotiation: A wimming Alternative to LAwsuits - 2nd edition (Cont's)"
July 11, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Reposted by WorkAccord
woodac.bsky.social
In our reading of Lainey Feingold's (2021) Structured Negotiation 2nd ed, we are discovering that “the Right Thing to Do” may be established in relational rather than in legal space.

open.substack.com/pub/andrew26...

@lflegal.bsky.social #StructuredNegotiation #ADRDesign
A pull quote on a square, mottled, grey background: "- the right thing to do is not always self-evident. It can be buried beneath tecvhnical exclusions, discretionary silences, historical blind spots, or out-of-scope policy framings. Often, no one in the system feels authorised to name it, let alone act on it." Andrew C Wood. Reading Lainey Feingold's (2021) "Structured Negotiation: A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits" - 2nd Edition (Cont'd.)
July 4, 2025 at 1:32 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
I used to think we were mediating disputes; but perhaps we are mediating peace.

open.substack.com/pub/andrew26...
Pull quote on square mottled grey background. "What is beginning to emerge in our work is an extended framework for mediated intervention - a way of being present in the midst of conflict, before the sharp edges form, and before formal remedies close in". Andrew C Wood
June 7, 2025 at 6:24 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
The latest in my series of 'Field Notes from Post-Law Peacemaking' delves further into the ways in which mediation and structured negotiation might work together to serve the requirements of relational justice.

open.substack.com/pub/andrew26...

#mediation #structurednegotiation #VeteranSupport
Pull quote on a dappled, grey, square background, "mediation, at its best, is not simply an event, but a care-full presence. A pressence that holds space for people in their meaning-making" Andrew C. Wood. Still 'Swimming with the Dolphins'.
June 4, 2025 at 5:19 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
Proof-of-concept testing of our Veterans' Mediation model on a hypothetical "offsetting" challenge, revealed the model's logical sequence for moral repair.

open.substack.com/pub/andrew26...

#Mediation #VeteranSupport #MoralRepair
A pull-quote on a mottled, grey square background. "In many systems, the sequence is clear: first prove entitlement, then receive remedy. But in this work, the sequence is often reversed: First, the harm must be acknowledged. Then, the relationship must be repaired. Only then, can any remedy be meaningfully received." Andrew C. Wood "Wicked Problems and Institutional Courage - Testing Relational Justice in Veteran Entitlement Offsetting."
May 14, 2025 at 4:10 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
We launched WorkAccord Learning on the Heartbeat platform earlier this week - quietly, intentionally, and with care.

We also adopted a freemium model.

This article shares why we made that choice, who this space is for, and what we’re building together.

www.linkedin.com/posts/workac...
A group of happy people from mixed occupations, cheering with fists pumping the air.
May 14, 2025 at 2:01 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
When we tested our Veterans' Mediation model we discovered that "Mediation is more than an event."

From:"Wicked Problems and Institutional Courage - Testing Relational Justice in Veteran Entitlement Offsetting."

andrew267.substack.com/p/wicked-pro...

#Mediation #VeteranSupport #CareEthics
Pull quotye on a grey square background, "The process demonstrated itself as more than a single event: Intake became orientation. Pre-mediation became narrative anchoring. Dialogue became midpoint. Outcomes became waypoints. Follow-up became continued care."
May 13, 2025 at 9:22 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
This latest Field Note is not a critique. It is a mapping. We are not yet asking what ought to be done differently. We are first asking: What exactly is the space we are being asked to enter as mediators?

andrew267.substack.com/p/holding-sp...

#Mediation #CareEthics #VeteranSupport
Pull quote on a square orange background: "We do not mediate because the law has failed. We mediate because the law has finished - and something still remains to be done." Andrew C. Wood Holding Space where the Quality of Mercy Is Most Definitely Strained."
May 7, 2025 at 6:23 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
Journalising the design process for a veterans' mediation program has been a valuable, reflective discipline.

Here I grapple with the challenges: How do we design space for the exercise of institutional courage and moral repair? Why do we need to?

andrew267.substack.com/p/finding-ro...
A pull quote from my Substack article: "Finding Room for Courage: Discretion and Relational Justice in Veterans' Disputes". "In commercial and administrative disputes — particularly as matters approach adjudication — relational space collapses, and mediation can become lawyer-driven, risk-averse, and relationally hollow."
May 1, 2025 at 11:42 PM
workaccord.bsky.social
It has been a worthwhile challenge to journalise the design process for a Veterans' mediation program. Here's a little of what has been directing my thinking abut why such a program needs to be "reparative" rather than "restorative".

andrew267.substack.com/p/towards-a-...
A pull quote from my Substack article "Towards a Theory & Practice of Relational Justice in Veterans' Mediation" "… for many veterans: There is no civilian status quo ante to return to; Military service has intentionally broken and reshaped their identity, perception, and agency; Transition has often broken them again—often without reshaping or re-formation. To ask for restoration may, in some cases, be to ask for a third breaking. Instead, we offer relational justice: not a return, but a recognition; not reconciliation, but responsiveness; not closure, but accompaniment."
May 1, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Reposted by WorkAccord
sacromediation.bsky.social
Next month sees the start of a series of online workshops, designed for practising mediators.

Our Mediation Theory workshop has been updated and revised and is one of a series of four workshops to be held over the next year.

To find out more visit scmc.sacro.org.uk/training-cou...
April 30, 2025 at 9:37 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
"It's Not Fair!"

I’ve been reflecting on what we're saying about “fairness” in our design for a veterans' mediation program. But it’s not so much about what we're saying. It’s more about what we're hearing. And to hear, we have to listen attentively.

#justice

open.substack.com/pub/andrew26...
"It's Not Fair!"
A Supplementary Field Note on the Jurisprudential Foundations of WorkAccord's Veterans' ADR Program
open.substack.com
May 1, 2025 at 1:16 AM
workaccord.bsky.social
Who Is Talking about Distributive Justice in Veterans’ Mediation Programs?

There is talk about military justice, criminal justice and procedural justice — as one might expect. But the near-silence around distributive justice in veterans’ systems is disturbing.

open.substack.com/pub/andrew26...
Towards a Theory & Practice of Relational Justice in Veterans’ Mediation
Mediation Program Design within an Ethic of Care Framework
open.substack.com
April 27, 2025 at 5:32 PM
workaccord.bsky.social
Sending out a friendly ‘Coo-eee!’ to all the mediators, conciliators, peacemakers, ADR program designers, collaborative thinkers, and post-lawyers in the woods or on the web.

If you’re exploring new paths in conflict resolution, let’s find each other.

#mediation #DisputeResolution #PeaceMaking
Person in the woods with hands to mouth as megaphopne shouting, "Coo-eee!". Note: "Coo-eee" is an Australian bush call used to find lost mates
April 25, 2025 at 11:04 PM
workaccord.bsky.social
Towards a Theory & Practice of Relational Justice in Veterans’ Mediation

“A mediation program that is not well calibrated to a coherent theory and practice of justice may be little more than a platform for care-less deal-making.”

#Mediation #CareEthics #Veterans open.substack.com/pub/andrew26...
Towards a Theory & Practice of Relational Justice in Veterans’ Mediation
Mediation Program Design within an Ethic of Care Framework
open.substack.com
April 24, 2025 at 12:41 AM