Business Conflict Blog

On the second morning of the ABA Dispute Resolution meeting in Denver, attendees were privileged to hear remarks by Prof. Temple Grandin of Colorado State University’s Animal Science Department.  The subject of a fabulous BBC documentary and a recent HBO biopic, Dr. Grandin is broadly recognized as an innovator in handling animals and as a highly achieving and articulate sufferer from autism.  Her presentation covered both topics, with surprising and inspirational relevance for conflict professionals.

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Tags: Public Policy, systems design

Collaboration — a practice so often touted by the world’s leading ADR organizations — is too seldom practiced by those organizations themselves. 

Therefore it is with great pleasure that I note a conference in February being jointly conducted by the ICC and the CPR Institute. Read more »

Tags: ADR Institutions, conflict management, systems design

Hans Peter Frick, General Counsel of Nestlé, once offered this guidance for business mediators:  You can either make what you think is a good candy bar and convince people that they “ought to” buy it, or you could go out and ask people what kind of candy bar they want, and go back and make it.

At the IBA in Vancouver, Jane Player of Bird & Bird gave attendees a chance to learn from global companies what kind of candy bar they like: How they consider ADR to add value (or not) in their businesses.  Representatives of General Electric, Swiss Re, Coca-Cola and E.I. duPont spent three hours in conversation among themselves and a the audience of a packed hall discussing relationship management, conflict avoidance, mediation, risk assessment, early case assessment and litigation management as ways to add value to their shareholders.

Candy, anyone?                                  Read more »

Tags: conflict management, Employment, Mediation, systems design

James F. Ring and some colleagues gave a fascinating talk at the recent ABA Dispute Resolution Section on Game Theory.  Where it started was cutting a cake.  Where it ended was cutting out the lawyers, at least by implication.

In addition to his law practice, Mr. Ring runs an enterprise called Fair Outcomes, Inc.  His talk was not so much a “sell job” for his company as it was a discourse on the reasons why conventional approaches to negotiation may have serious limitations.

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Tags: Negotiation, systems design