Business Conflict Blog

It’s my turn to teach First Day School (what Quakers call Sunday School) for the past few weeks.  And as usual I’m having more fun than the kids are.  The King James Version of the Bible has been a favorite ever since I took Prof. Bond’s course on “The Bible as Literature” at Dartmouth (before the Punic Wars, it sometimes seems) and it is a delight to revisit that wonderful collection of superb writing.

Looking through the story of Moses has stirred some concerns, though, about what we Americans think justice is, and what we use the law to accomplish.  In particular, I wonder whether we have lost our fundamental cultural moorings a bit when it comes to our response to being injured. Read more »

Tags: Culture

While working for a company, a guy opens up a competing business and lures away customers.  He is sued by his employer for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.  Prior to trial he participates in a mediation, that is unsuccessful.  At trial he loses and is found liable for $364,000 in damages and $51,000 in attorney fees.

What does he do?  What any red-blooded American would do — he sues his attorney in federal court for shoddy representation during the mediation. Read more »

Tags: Mediation

I told my wife that I wanted to do the following exercise with my 50-person ADR survey class at New York Law School:

“Find a partner and face each other.  Touch your palms together about face-level and then grasp each other’s hand.  The person who can get the other person’s hand past their own ear five times in the next fifteen seconds gets a hundred bucks.”

My wife’s response:  “Don’t do that!  They’ll hurt each other!  Say ‘No hurting’ or ‘Be careful of each other’ or something like that!” Read more »

Tags: Negotiation, Teaching

From the invaluable BASESwiki comes news of just the development I and others have pounded the table about:  A long-term project that features a formal and permanent ”canary-in-the-mine” that identifies and addresses problems early on, and successfully prevents conflicts. Read more »

Tags: conflict management, systems design