Thursday, February 23, 2012

There's an App for that-- Mediation

According to its developer, the PictureItSettled App helps negotiators map successful negotiation strategies, calculate moves, and graph paths to optimum settlements. The app-based software, just launched this year, is designed so litigants analyze their positions. This may not necessarily help the neutral facilitator (who may make actually better use of this as a quick reference record of negotiations). Midpoints are over-emphasized by litigants in my experience, as is bracketing as a tool, though admittedly there are times when looking at these are appropriate. By entering moves, users plot successful negotiation strategies using proprietary algorithms in the app. Currently available on the Apple iOS and Android market in a free application, the "Lite" version tracks the dollar moves in negotiations and time intervals between offers. The app then analyzes the offer history and graphs the effects of such moves on the likelihood of reaching a settlement by testing the patterns on each side. It apparently projects the expected results in measures of dollars and time commitment, which it is claimed assists parties in negotiation visualize if and when they should settle for "optimum outcome." See site: http://bit.ly/wDrU16