For almost two decades, I’ve been fascinated by the Aikido concept of embodying harmony. Not just understanding the concept of it – having it be something that was felt and tangible by others. Whispered on the lips of my fellow Aikidoka was the mention of a Bay Area Mediator who was doing just this with Complex Commercial cases over amounts up to millions at steak. His name was Tony Piazza and he was willing to welcome us in to observe one of his cases and learn what we could from his practice.
Almost 15 years ago, I took him up on his offer and organized a small group to do just that.
It was fantastic.
This wasn’t an aspirational ‘what could be…’ experience – it was something vibrant an active.
Tony was in-demand and quite successful. He was taking what he learned ‘on the mat’ from his Aikido practice and applying it to his Conflict Resolution practice.
He was interfacing with hardened Litigators and their frustrated clients to reach settlement. It was inspirational and so much fun.
I’ll have the wonderful pleasure of interviewing Tony on Wednesday, July 29th at 1 pm EST (10 am PST) via Mediate.com. We’ll focus on how Tony structures his sessions and what he does to transform the dialectic into dialogue:
Please join us! It will be well worth your time. (And that cheesy grin in these photos was from the joy of it all…)
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