Business Conflict Blog

The first of three short films on community/corporate relationships, on the Ambuklao/Binga dams in Luzon,  is about to be premiered at the United Nations, in Geneva, on June 16.  We are also just about finished the second one, concerning the Tintaya mine in Peru.  An interesting coincidence has arisen in editing the interviews:  In both films, someone talks about shoes.

In the Philippines, a community member who was displaced and whose rice land was submerged says, “If you were me, if you were in my shoes, I think right now you would also be crying.”  And in the Peru film, a corporate manager narrates the leap he made from making sure the company paid taxes and employed people properly to perceiving that the communities’ very livelihood had been unalterably ruined when the mine was built two decades before, by saying “You have to put yourself in their shoes.”

Being reminded of this ancient principle of communication and negotiation prompts a fresh and critical look at some of the practices that parties and mediators engage in. Read more »

Tags: ADR, Culture

Jane Gunn’s new book is the first ADR volume I have read whose introduction begins “This is not a sex manual!”

Well, neither is it a self-help book, nor a reminder of the virtues of candid conversation, nor a refresher on the teachings of the Buddha or Jesus.  Yet all that and more can be found in How to Beat Bedlam in the Boardroom and Boredom in the Bedroom (HotHive Books 2010).

This is not a book intended for mediators seeking to improve their skills, or for business clients seeking to manage their litigation portfolios.  It is for human beings who wish to improve the way they live with other human beings.  And it accomplishes its goal by contrasting business and personal conflicts and showing (guess what?) that they push the same buttons, walk into the same frailties, compromise our effectiveness and happiness in the same ways, and can be managed better with the same tools. Read more »

Tags: ADR, Culture, Teaching

At the recent meeting of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section in Denver, Dai Kato of the University of Colorado and Jay Folberg of the JAMS Foundation offered stimulating — even inspirational — examples of modern-day practices of dispute resolution in Japan and Bali.  These insights test our assumptions of how dispute resolution really works — what drives the process and how success is measured. Read more »

Tags: Culture, Negotiation

Continuing with the series on models of conflict resolution that are not based on the parties’ interests, below is reproduced another chapter in a proposed book on alternatives to Western mediation methods.  This one — the Arab practice of sulha – is centuries old, pre-dating even the Prophet, and its motivating considerations are an amalgam of the community’s desire for stability, aggrieved parties’ need for restored honor, and accused parties’ need for reconciliation and regaining face.

Vindicating individuals’ particular interests is nowhere to be found. Read more »

Tags: Culture