resolution
...ofessionals to anticipate, analyse and manage inter-group and organisational conflict.Today, businesses, agencies, institutions and organisations face a daunting array of challenges both internally and externally. When organisations do not have appropriate procedures, or key employees lack skills, decision-making is bogged down and conflict escalates. Often leading to loss of time and energy, reduced productivity, poor morale, delays and frustration. Conflict management skills, improved collaborative decision-making processes, leadership and team-building, can minimise the costs of conflict.Today in our increasingly global economy, nearly two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies are including dispute resolution clauses in their contractual agreements. Moreover, small and medium-sized enterprises have realised the high costs of conflict and the potential of preserving future relationships. Why? The reasons are both compelling and straightforward. In choosing trading partners, corporations seek to operate in the context of a familiar, reliable and enforceable contract dispute resolution system.They have learned that when entering into agreements with their local or international counterparts as well as with government entities, incorporating ADR clauses translates into good risk management. In doing so they avoid the delays, cost and capriciousness of litigation in courts.Dispute resolution education and trainingResponding to this growing need to creatively resolve costly and lengthy disputes outside the court system requires that we place education and training at the centre of our mission.Dispute Resolution Education is a learning process that helps individuals understand conflict dynamics and empowers them to use communication and creative thinking to build relationships and to manage and resolve conflict effectively. It helps address individual, interpersonal and institutional power imbalances and unmet human needs that can feed destructive conflict.Dispute System Design [DSD]Dispute resolution systems provide structures and procedures to help people in organisations resolve a wide range of recurring conflicts. Dispute resolution systems have both preventative and conflict resolution componentsPreventive mechanisms help people handle their differences more effectively and keep destructive conflicts from escalating. Typical prevention efforts include improved communication systems, enhanced conflict management skills, and early intervention processes.Even the best conflict prevention initiatives cannot deter all disputes. When disputes inevitably arise, conflict resolution procedures help people settle their differences. Examples of collaborative procedures that promote voluntary consensus building include facilitation, conciliation and mediation. Third-party decision-making procedures such as fact-finding and arbitration provide a decision when conflicting parties are unable to achieve a voluntary settlement.To improve the regular procedures for resolving conflicts, organisations engage in Dispute Systems Design [DSD]. In the DSD process consultants work with an internal team to survey the types of disputes that arise, diagnose the causes of conflicts, and evaluate existing conflict management mechanisms. Then, the team and consultants design new, more effective procedures and structures, or suggest improvements to existing ones.Implementing dispute resolution clausesTypically, the parties` agreement to mediate, arbitrate or resolve a dispute is contained in a future-disputes clause in their contract; the clause may provide that any disagreement will be resolved under the Dispute Resolution rules of the centre or association through its high quality panels of mediators or arbitrators.Some of the more important elements a practitioner should keep in mind when drafting, adopting or recommending a dispute resolution clause are:¤ The clause might cover al...