FROM BLAME TO PRODUCTIVE DIALOGUE AND RESOLUTION

A major contract was awarded to two large defense contractors who were to work jointly on the project. Each contractor was to design and build different components of the specified system. These components ultimately had to achieve perfect compatibility and work as an orchestrated whole. This required intensive collaboration and communication between the two contractors to ensure an operational and functional system.

Identifying the Challenge

The project appeared to be going well until the final stages when testing began. It soon became dismally clear that there was a flaw in the compatibility design that would require significant redesign and engineering. This would set the project back months if not years and at significant cost. A bitter dispute broke out between the two corporations as to who was at fault. Each asserted blame on the other with equally believable arguments while at the same time neither would accept responsibility.

It was decided that rather than to go to arbitration, the parties would first attempt to negotiate a resolution to the problem. After a frustrating day of negotiations during which the parties were engaged in a barrage of blame and counter-blame, we were retained to mediate the dispute.