Shopping for Dispute Resolution Services in the Year 2025

We’re amok in information.  We know it.  We feel it.   “90% of data in the world today has been created in the last two years.” (source: IBM)  Yet, with intention and considerable effort, you can curate and make sense of information, connect conversations in the data “stream”, and get a feel for what lies ahead.  In the field of conflict and dispute resolution, I periodically try do that.   Let’s go to the future…

photo by cadencrawford (flickr)

Here’s five trends I see emerging.  I see these as much with my gut, as my head.  They are the move to personal, appropriate, feminine, visual and singular resolutions.

By 2025, I sense  dispute resolution services will be much more:

1. personal:  people, all peoples, will have choice, real choice; the customer will be in charge, assisted by agents (human and/or virtual), who help the customer navigate the vendor/service maze…think vendor (vs. customer) relationship management.
2. appropriate: service options will be arranged along various continuums: traditional/emergent, immediate/reflective, public/private…  The essence of each will be transparently and clearly communicated.  Caveat venditor.  Seller beware.  And, best yet, the customer’s experience will be negotiated.
3. feminine: services will favour the feminine: collaboration, empathy, sustainable…  hope you’re ok with that.
4. visual: as problem complexity increases, so will reliance on the visual; visual languages (e.g., icons) for communicating conflict concepts and ideas, visual solutions design (a boon for dealing with cross-culture/language conflicts), virtual simulations of problems and resolutions, visual conceptualizing of a service ‘brand’… barcoded?
5. singular:  imagine yourself not having to navigate service stovepipes… sounds good, right! … instead, your customer experience will be choreographed across communication channels, face-to-face and virtual, and unified across your devices.  It’ll have a feel to it, which we can barely imagine, now.

That’s my take.   It’s the direction I’m going.   And, I hope to arrive there, before 2025!   What path are you on?