“It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It’s that they can’t see the problem.” – C.K. Chesterton
SODR, for Families (Solution-Oriented Dispute Resolution)
20 years ago there were few, if any, specialist Family Business Mediators. Even today, most Mediators prefer to specialise on either commercial, or family/personal conflict – very few cover the whole field of legal/financial/commercial AND emotional/personal/relationship disputes.
Business Family dispute resolvers need a broad skill set and thick skins!
Normal mediation processes are sub-optimal for business family disputes, because they don’t produce results that last, even when agreements are formally documented.
We replaced regular Mediation processes with Solution-Oriented Dispute Resolution (SODR) many years ago. SODR encourages us to dive deeper into the family’s history, personalities and hidden dynamics to identify the real causes of family problems, before we make any attempt to deal with the presenting symptoms. In practice, most presenting symptoms evaporated as family members focussed on resolving the root causes of their conflicts, as they were surfaced by the process.
Most importantly, the SODR process produces final and binding results: if family members can’t agree on some or all of the outcomes they need, after being guided through a comprehensive exploration and negotiation process, a decision is imposed on them by a professional dispute resolver who’s obliged to be objective and fair, under the terms of their engagement contract.