Seeking quality, not volume

On my way home last Friday I ran into an old school mate in the airport lounge.

After reverting to some school boy banter [me; what's a farmer like you doing in a lounge full of suits like this? him; do you still do that thing where you sit around a lot?] we caught up on family and work.

He had a number of penetrating questions about mediation - a foreign concept to a man who spends his life on the land - one of which inevitably related to resolution rates.

I found myself giving the usual spiel, 75% to 85% for any self respecting mediator blah... blah..., but then, once he had gone to his plane, I reflected upon his enquiry.

To be honest, much of my business-to-business stuff almost settles itself these days. What's not to settle when you have commercial parties who are all about creating value in their daily life and suddenly find themselves with an unwelcome problem in need of a solution?

Add to that; the longer they can't find an answer to their collective predicament, the more it costs them. Yep, that would do it. They are going to want out.

So, more and more, I find I am looking for quality and elegance of solution - not taking the solution for granted by any means, but very much doing my thinking before and on the day with an assumption that we will get one.

I find that kind of thinking frees me up to over reach and look for the gold plate that otherwise might go untapped.

You know, not just can we - but how well can we - make two previously dependent halves function together again. I mean, why not build a better mouse trap?

Make sense?