Transformational Process Design for Dispute Resolution

Here is the bind at the heart of designing any dispute resolution process. Without a plan, there is no direction to move toward, no way to prioritize scarce resources, no sense of whether you are making progress at all. So you plan. And then implementation begins, and you immediately discover that you cannot predict everything — that the moment real people enter the process, you have to adjust, adapt, and course-correct in response to things no plan foresaw.

That is not a flaw in your planning. It is the nature of the system you are working with. Human beings perceive, think, and react in countless ways, generating new possibilities at every turn and rendering yesterday’s careful plan ineffective by this afternoon. A good process design has to hold both truths at once: enough structure to give direction, enough flex to survive contact with people.

This article explores what complex systems are actually like, and proposes a framework for designing dispute resolution processes that takes the dynamic, ever-shifting nature of human systems seriously rather than wishing it away.

Our tendency toward stepwise models

Whatever framework you reach for, designing a dispute resolution process starts in the same place: the designer making sense of the conflict. Grasping the dynamics between the people involved, understanding the context the conflict grew in, getting clear on the desired objectives, and building the foundation the system will stand on.

– Read more: Canadian Arbitration and Mediation Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1, p. 20