Today's Environment
Organizations
and their employees are increasingly coming to the
understanding that collaborative approaches - internally and externally - best
meet their needs. Collaborative
approaches to business typically lack the clean functional lines that we've been
used to in the past. Activity tends
to be chaotic and accelerated, frequently giving rise to changes in
specifications or expectations, misunderstandings, and conflict.
In this light, conflict can be seen as a key controller of the
collaborative organization.
Conflict,
when well managed, is a dynamic catalyst for positive change.
When mismanaged, it produces hostility, stress, and other costs to the
organization. Those costs include
not just direct financial costs, but also lost opportunities, damaged or
destroyed relationships, low satisfaction, and high probability that the
conflict will recur
In
any conflict situation, there will always be a path that will lead to a
successful conclusion. Effective
conflict management leads parties to identify and take that path, one step at a
time.
This
approach has proven effective for business-to-business interactions, for labor
relations, and for divorce situations.
Services
Hill
& Associates focuses on helping to manage conflicts constructively, through the
use of appropriate conflict management processes. Experience has shown that this approach will significantly
reduce the costs of conflict management. At
the same time, processes which emphasize negotiation, consensus building, and
collaboration tend to increase the effectiveness of all involved.
Services
provided by Hill & Associates through its partners and a network of
associates include:
-
Mediation - for commercial
disputes, for labor disputes, and in the context of divorce.
-
Domain Name Disputes -
conflicts between trademark owners and holders of Internet domain names.
-
Expert
Advice - providing experienced individuals to assist in drafting contracts
so as to minimize the risk of disputes arising and so as to ensure that
termination and dispute resolution clauses are appropriately thought out.
-
Expert
Opinions - in non-binding procedures such as mediation or binding procedures
such as litigation or arbitration, in information technology and
telecommunications, including related intellectual property, electronic
commerce, and economic issues.
-
Third
Party Neutral Services - providing trained and experienced multi-lingual
individuals to act as neutrals in a variety of processes including
mediation, neutral evaluation, advisory opinion, mini-trial, adjudication,
and arbitration.
-
Training
Services - developing and providing courses, seminars, and workshops on a
variety of conflict management topics.
-
Conflict
System Design - providing conflict management consulting services, including
design, to business, government, non-profit organizations, and individuals.
-
Partnering
- developing and facilitating partnering workshops at which stakeholders,
coming together for a particular joint venture or project, commit to a team
approach and develop a preventive plan for dispute avoidance.
Associates have extensive experience in contract
negotiation and mediation. Richard Hill,
principal, is a certified commercial and divorce mediator, accredited to the
Geneva courts. He has acted as the labor dispute mediator for the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU). He is a domain name arbitrator for both
the National Arbitration Forum and the World Intellectual Property
Organization. Short CV
Full CV
Additional information
More information on specific topics can be found in the links below: