The Behavioral Architecture of Commercial Relationships
What mediators can teach contract drafters
When I first arrived in the United States from Italy, my English was very limited. German was my second language, so before beginning my LL.M. program, I enrolled in an English-as-a-second-language class in Boston. One day, the teacher asked us to explain the meaning of the expression “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” I raised my hand almost immediately. The answer seemed obvious to me: If you throw stones, you destroy the walls of your own house. A classmate from Asia saw it differently. To him, the glass was identity, and to throw a stone at it was to attack yourself. I thought his reading was clever. I was also sure it was wrong. He probably thought the same of mine.
Thirty years and more than 2,500 mediations later, in over 60 countries, I still think about my classroom experience that day. Two people had heard the same 10 words and arrived at different meanings. I did not yet know that this small, almost forgettable difference in interpretation was my first encounter with a pattern I would witness commercial parties fall into often, at far greater cost. I will come back to what that pattern is. First, here’s how I recognized it.
Full article below:
When I first arrived in the United States from Italy, my English was very limited. German was my second language, so before beginning my LL.M. program, I enrolled in an English-as-a-second-language class in Boston. One day, the teacher asked us to explain the meaning of the expression “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” I raised my hand almost immediately. The answer seemed obvious to me: If you throw stones, you destroy the walls of your own house. A classmate from Asia saw it differently. To him, the glass was identity, and to throw a stone at it was to attack yourself. I thought his reading was clever. I was also sure it was wrong. He probably thought the same of mine.
Thirty years and more than 2,500 mediations later, in over 60 countries, I still think about my classroom experience that day. Two people had heard the same 10 words and arrived at different meanings. I did not yet know that this small, almost forgettable difference in interpretation was my first encounter with a pattern I would witness commercial parties fall into often, at far greater cost. I will come back to what that pattern is. First, here’s how I recognized it.
Full article below:
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