The Third Side or a New Approach

from Gunter Pauli Torino Italy

Gunter Pauli, Founder and Director of the Global ZERI Network and Professor Systems Design at the Science University of Torino, Italy has provided us with a draft article on his work with systems and conflict resolution.  He compares his perspective with the Third Side focusing on the need for individuals to design new systems for conflicting parties to meet their needs and dreams without meeting.  The article includes several case studies.  Here are some excerpts from his article and a link to download the whole article.  Enjoy and please share your reflections on this approach.

Conflict Resolution within a System

Ways and means to respond to everyone’s needs and someday achieve everyone’s dreams

The Earth can respond to everyone’s needs  However, not to one persons greed! -- Mahatma Gandhi

Introduction

The capacity to respond to everyone’s needs seems to be a precondition for eliminating numerous root causes of violence. Indeed how can one ever expect someone, or a community, to live in peace with neighbors when their most elementary needs for water, food, housing, health care, energy and/or jobs are not being met. The observation that those who have more than they need for themselves and their siblings are stealing is not difficult to understand if basic conditions for escaping from this predicament of poverty are not available. Whereas violence cannot be justified, poverty and the injustice related to the unequal access to natural resources do create conflict. The control of water in the Middle East, the lack of food in Sudan, and the absence of education and sanitation in Latin America are some of the well-documented cases. If this is compounded with greed and power it can only affect the people more adversely.

In addition to the basic needs, people also have their beliefs and paradigms; in short everyone has a dream. The main hypothesis of this article is that when people are pursuing their basic needs, and aim to reach their dreams, it is bound to lead to conflict since there is a perceived shortage of material wealth and energy to respond to everyone’s desires on this world. Worse, when people are to pursue their dreams, it leads to immediate conflicts since the coming true of one person’s dream all too often seems only possible at the detriment of the other’s. This is true if one is only imagining the present and the future as a single target, which you either achieve or not. However, if you are able to think, design and operate the pursuit of your basic needs and your higher goals in life which we simply call dreams, within a system then it will soon become obvious that many - perhaps even all- can meet all their basic needs, and so many can achieve their -at first sight- opposing dreams.

We live in an interconnected world

The realization that it is possible to “have it all” is only a reality if we accept that we live in a world that is interdependent and interconnected. We are connected to each other, but at the same time we are part of and connected to the ecosystems that offer the services on which life depends. All life in the diverse climates and environments in which we live depend on the interactions and relations amongst bacteria, algae, fungus, plants and animals. Once we understand the interconnected world in which we live, then it is quite easy to imagine a world that will continue to have conflicts, but where each conflict that arises will be used to reach a higher level of understanding amongst all.

On the basis of the above, projects that have been monitored and in some cases designed by the Global ZERI Network have converted the one target approach, or sometimes known as linear thinking, into a multi-target approach, or better referred to as a systems approach. Without ever considering that this leads to strategies for conflict resolution, we concluded after more than a decade of field work and project analysis that the successful implementation of systems-based initiatives, will greatly reduce the risk of conflict, and in some circumstances the existing antagonism has subsided. It is therefore possible to claim that the target of reaching a “no waste society”, where everything is considered important, where everything gets re-used with added value, and where the hidden connections amongst all animate and inanimate life create such a wealth of opportunities for each and everyone that conflict simply does not make sense anymore.

Going for half or a complete dream

Traditional conflict resolution as proposed by William Ury and well known as The Third Side, have a proven conflict resolution methodology based on the approach whereby -in the end- people have to give up part of their dream in order to achieve a common good in which all have an interest. It has been rightly argued that reaching higher goals known as the common good motivates individuals to limit their personal wish list. All parties to the conflict reach an understanding that jointly one can achieve more than by simply pursuing personal targets. This is a very valid argument. However, the following brief case studies highlight the grand chance offered by an innovative approach, which will permit each to fully respond to their basic needs, or completely fulfill their dreams and still achieve the best possible attainment of the common good.

From zero waste to zero conflict

The three examples selected for this purpose are by no means perfect and detailed cases, but these studies rather offer an inspiration for further research, and a broader analysis on how a systems approach could eventually revolutionize conflict resolution in the years to come. Just as the “zero waste” approach that was pioneered by ZERI in the early 90s did not imply that there is no waste, but rather that whatever was considered useless by one was converted into something of value for another. We are not claiming that this approach described below will lead to “zero conflict”, but rather that conflicts are an important occurrence which eventually will lead to a better understanding how one can respond to basic needs and achieve dreams of all without any form of compromise. It is the conflict itself that unveils the numerous hidden connections and unrealized opportunities which would never have emerged unless a higher level of discomfort would have catalyzed a process towards understanding the real world in which we can thrive.

For more including three case studies download the complete article

The Global ZERI Network comprises scientist, vigorous operators, scholars, and entrepreneurs. There are teams around the world focusing on research, project development, and education: Santa Fe New Mexico, Durango Colorado, Chappaqua New York, Santa Monica California - USA, Curitiba, Porto Alegre - Brazil, Cape Town - South Africa, Kamakura, Tokyo - Japan, Manizales, Bogotá, Medellin and Marandua - Colombia, Bauchi - Nigeria, Sundsvall, Gotland - Sweden, Torino - Italy, New Delhi - India, Suva - Fiji.

Comments

[Katia]

When I first read through this paper I thought a lot about the role of the provider seeking to meet the needs of each party. I do believe that there are some relationships that can be healed without the two parties "meeting" and I do believe that sometimes the tension is due to the need for two very different parties to work together. It reminded me as well of the need/challenge of implementing solutions and changes needed to support a community to go beyond conflict.

[Michael]

"Role of Healer"
I agree with Katia comments the role of provider is central in Gunter Pauli's article -- I also thought about the importance of healing (Healer)--

Gunter say's" The control of water in the Middle East, the lack of food in Sudan, and the absence of education and sanitation in Latin America are some of the well-documented cases. If this is compounded with greed and power it can only affect the people more adversely."

I believe it is compounded also with "Wounds" -- both current and generational that need to be healed. I think we have only begun to understand the role of "healer" and the different ways it can manifest. Without healing these energetic wounds in addition to the physical needs -- conflict will ultimately reoccur. I would invite a conversation about the role of the Healer -- what it looks like to different people and examples.