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 »
Wilbur Hicks, Ombuds of the International Monetary Fund (and before that for Shell and Princeton) has directed our attention to the Ombuds Blog. Even a cursory review shows that this is a robust and (for me at least) hitherto overlooked resource for commercial conflict managers. Read more »
Thanksgiving is one of the most popular holidays of the year for Americans. It is also culturally becoming. We are encouraged to pause and reflect on what we have received, especially from those no longer at the table.
(There are, as always, other ways to look at it — Ayn Rand famously called it a typical American holiday because it celebrated not Pilgrims, but successful production, in a selfish and therefore commendable feast of conspicuous overconsumption.)
Might we consider an accompanying holiday — one where, instead of thinking of what we have received, we think of what we might get rid of? In particular, our resentments, our grudges, our get-back-ats, and our expensive, time-consuming claims against one another? Rather than Thanksgiving Day, what about Forgiving Day?
(No, this isn’t religious — it’s commercially rational. Read on!) Read more »
For as long as I’ve been active in conflict management, I have been confronted with a quote from Abraham Lincoln about not stirring up litigation. I first saw it on a pamphlet at CPR in 1998. Since then I have since seen it in articles, pamphlets, traning materials, mediation center literature, law school courses, PowerPoint presentations, and every other imaginable medium and context, in at least 10 different countries including China.
But there’s a better one. Read more »