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COLLEEN BYERS, JD, MBA

Facilitating Difficult Conversations

“I have met few people who have such powerful listening skills— the way Colleen heard my client was impactful and was a significant reason that the case moved to settle. Colleen projected confidence, no-nonsense, and patience. All were key to bringing closure to this family.”


Counsel at AmLaw 100 Firm

2020 Lawyer of the Year

How to Negotiate Better Outcomes

“I’m privileged to help companies, families, and individuals de-escalate conflict, improve their communication, and find practical solutions for their business and their lives.”

Colleen Byers, JD, MBA 

Employing strategic planning, team building, and effective communication skills, we help organizations and high-achieving professionals have powerful, productive, and meaningful conversations.

“Every human being walking this earth has painful stories tucked in the corners of their hearts. If we could remember this truth, perhaps we could see with eyes of compassion rather than the eyes of our own judgments and preferences.” 

Deborah Adele

News & Updates

By Colleen Byers 06 Feb, 2024
Managing Emotional Clients Colleen L. Byers collaborated with fellow neuroscience geek and mediator, Chris Osborn, to deliver this month’s Expert Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Series sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Association. Colleen co-presented about the impact of trauma on clients in the legal system and shared some practical tools for managing difficult emotions within ourselves (as lawyers or as mediators) as well as with our clients. View the CLE, which includes 1 hour of Mental Health/Substance Abuse credit in North Carolina here .
By Colleen Byers 31 Jan, 2024
You have been mediating and negotiating all day long. You are fully invested and can sometimes glimpse the fragile light at the end of the tunnel. Suddenly, all the momentum that has been slowly building all day seems to come to a screeching halt. How do you avoid crashing into an unbreakable impasse? First things first. Pause and take a deep breath. Then take another deep breath for good measure. Then get a sheet of paper and a pen. Along the left side of the paper, write the numbers 1 through 5. Now, with pen in hand, ask yourself these questions and write the responses next to numbers 1 through 5. What is the craziest idea I can think of to solve this problem? What is the second craziest idea I can think of to solve this problem? What is a variation of the other side’s idea that would work for me with an adjustment? What is another idea? What else might work? You have now generated five new possible ways to solve this problem that you can share with the other side to keep the negotiation moving forward and avoid running straight into an impasse. Let me give you a real-life example. My daughters were fighting over the most coveted seat on the couch. The older child asserted, “This is my spot. I always sit here.” The younger child claimed, “But I was here first today!” Unsurprisingly, their attempts to persuade the other to acquiesce were unsuccessful. They are not old enough to engage lawyers to determine who had the stronger legal claim to the coveted seat on the couch but they both came running to me pleading their respective cases in hopes that I would serve as the arbitrator. I declined to serve as an arbitrator but did put my mediator hat on. We all sat at the kitchen table with paper and pen to brainstorm possible solutions that would work for both of them. You may be wondering how I got my young children to do this. I told them that they could not watch any television until they found a solution to which they could both say yes. So down they sat with pen in hand. Using questions 1 through 5 above, as prompts, they generated the following ideas: Take turns – alternate days; Take turns – set a timer and then switch; Sit on top of each other; Build a fort on the couch for both of us. Then we went back through the list one by one, and I asked each child if they were a “yes” or a “no” for that particular idea. Here is what that looked like:
By Colleen Byers 30 Nov, 2023
How to Ask Better Questions Have you ever asked a question and then scratched your head at the response and wondered if perhaps you were not speaking the same language? Have you ever been in a meeting and asked a question only to be met with blaring silence and blank stares?  Although we cannot control what may or may not come out of someone else’s mouth, we can follow a few simple steps to ensure that we ask better questions to set ourselves up for the most productive response possible. Step 1 – Lead with Your Why In one short sentence, tell the other person why you are asking the question. We previously outlined more details on how to accomplish Step 1 here . Step 2 – Use Open-Ended Questions Turn your internal interrogator off. No one likes being grilled and if they feel like you are interrogating them, they are going to clam up and not give you the information you seek. Instead, you open-ended questions. An open-ended question is one that does not suggest an answer.
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