In a 2007 article in Alternatives (CPR, New York), five CONVENOR colleagues (Honeyman, Macfarlane, Mayer, Schneider and Seul) wrote about the need for a much more sophisticated "systems" approach to prospective conflict than is currently prevalent. They analyzed why this hasn't happened already (except in the construction industry), and suggested what might be done about it.

The article became instrumental in forming an exploratory committee at CPR (International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, New York.) Chris Honeyman and Bernie Mayer were two of the committee's six members. The committee has now published a preliminary set of working materials.

On a larger scale, the Global Corporate Governance Forum (a unit of the International Finance Corp., World Bank Group) formed a new project to design and write a Toolkit for preventing as well as resolving corporate governance disputes. Chris Honeyman is one of the principal authors. We are pleased to say that as of early 2011, the Toolkit is ready. Published by the GCGF / World Bank Group as a four-volume boxed set in English and Spanish, it is available without charge in PDF:

User Guide (20 pages, 1.5 MB)

Volume 1 (89 pages, 1.6 MB)

1. What Are Corporate Governance Disputes?
2. Why Care about Corporate Governance Disputes?
3. How Can Alternative Dispute Resolution Help?

Volume 2: Implementation (142 pages, 1.9 MB)

1. What Should be the Role of the Board?
2. How to Mainstream Corporate Governance Dispute Resolution?
3. Who Can Provide Corporate Governance Dispute Resolution Services?

Volume 3 : Training (161 pages, 8.6 MB)

1. What Skills Are Needed for Corporate Governance Dispute Resolution?
2. Dispute Resolution Training for Directors
3. Corporate Governance Training for Dispute Resolution Experts

We offer to help clients

• Anticipate conflict in time to avert it

• Design new ways to manage conflict when it's unavoidable

• Reduce the costs of conflict

• Build a team that really will follow through

• Evaluate the results.

Major organizations routinely miss opportunities and "leave money on the table" by failing to anticipate conflicts which could have been foreseen, with advice from the right source at the right time. The resulting problems then become expensive and time-consuming to unravel later. A simplified flowchart shows how this happens, and suggests an alternate approach.

• Often the failure to stay ahead of conflict involves some of those involved being wary of admitting there's a conflict.

• Getting everyone to address essential but uncomfortable issues demands real credibility in a consultant.

• Designing workable methods for anticipating conflict before it arises, or for handling streams of cases, is a specialized skill.

• The more complex situations are beyond the capacity of any one individual, and demand the ability to manage a team of highly qualified specialists.

• Convenor's consultants are among the most experienced anywhere at these critically important roles.

The biggest success story in "thinking ahead about conflict" is in major construction, where the effort over the past 25 years has been on a multinational scale. But not every undertaking of this kind has to be a massive effort (e.g. industry- or organization-wide.) Four focused examples on a more modest scale.