legal sanity

In January, I wrote about conflict management and the business of law. Conflict manifests in our daily lives in many ways. And we tend to tend to it differently, depending on the context in which it arises. A dispute with a life partner or child usually triggers a different response mechanism than one with a business partner, client or adversary. However conflict germinates and plays out for us, it’s important to get a handle on how to optimize the opportunities it offers for our positive growth and transformation. One resource to help us on this path is conflict coaching, a process that professional conflict coach Cinnie Noble writes about in this recent Mediate.com article. Focusing on distinguishing it from the likes of therapy, mentoring and mediation, Noble defines conflict coaching as “an individualized method for helping people effectively engage in conflict.” She also points out that the goals of conflict coaching participants “may not only be about resolving conflict.” Instead, people engaging the process “may want to work on ways to prevent a dispute from unnecessarily escalating, to improve their competency in conflict management, to develop stronger communication skills for a difficult conversation and other objectives, that are often more about managing, than resolving.” While I appreciate the distinction Noble makes, I’ve come to see lawyer conflict management and conflict resolution skills as complementary parts of a larger skill set – problem solving. As lawyers, and human beings, we need to hone our aptitude for identifying and resolving problems. Business consultant and coach Dick Richards offers us the gift of his genius in the form of this terrific article on The Human Dimension of Problem Solving (pdf). In it, he vividly details how conscious shifts in “the four dimensions of human energy” – Physical Energy, Mental Energy, Emotional Energy and Spiritual Energy - can positively infuse and shape the problem solving process.