CMA Publications

CMA Publications

Dive into our publications below. These articles, published and contributed to by our in-house experts, will help you deepen your understanding of negotiation, influence, dispute resolution, relationship management, and more.

Search our archive of publications here:

Negotiation Insights: Is your organisation gambling with its future?


What impact are negotiations having on your business? What kinds of negotiations are most important to Australian businesses and government agencies? What kinds of negotiation-damaging risks are they aware of, and what are they doing to manage those risks? What can they do to become more effective in their negotiations? And what is at stake?

What’s the role of role plays?


This article looks at the role of role plays in teaching essential communication skills. Are they a ‘necessary evil’ or a waste of participants’ time? And, if they are necessary, would participants get more value from using scenarios that are factually similar or factually different to their real world context and challenges?

Infrastructure alliances: A two edged sword


In today’s fast-paced, competitive business environment, companies are forever in search of ways to obtain a competitive advantage. In this climate, business alliances and strategic partnerships have become an increasingly important string in the bow of executives attempting to get ahead.

Interview with CMA’s senior associate Joel Gerschman for Business Essentials audio magazine.


Doing business with other parties is challenging enough, but even more so when you’re facing a counterpart with a game plan deliberately set to undermine you. All your best intentions for a win-win in a negotiating a deal can often be thrown out the window by dirty tactics from the other side. Joel Gershman of CMA Learning has some helpful tips on how to counter those tricks – and knowing they exist is the first step.

Give your mediation process a checkup


All experts, whatever their field, have clear and coherent theories to underpin their actions. For example, a physician doesn’t tell you that they are going to take their best shot at curing an illness. They have a sound understanding of human disease, based on years of research and testing, that informs their diagnosis and prescription.

Some reflections on a relational world view


In “The Promise of Mediation,” 2 the authors, Robert Baruch Bush and Joseph Folger, discuss, and ultimately advocate, a new organising framework for (western) society, referred to as the “Relational” world view. The purpose of this article is to explore the Relational vision, primarily through a comparison with the prevailing paradigm of Individualism.

Changing assumptions about mediation in commercial matters


This article suggests that parties and mediators in commercial matters tend to operate on the assumption that building relationships between the parties is secondary to settling the Substantive issues in dispute, and for this reason, the process of mediation is not realizing its full potential. The article offers a different perspective on the value of relationship in commercial disputes, and proposes a new process for mediating in these matters.