How Kintsugi Works in Mediation

Ending the dispute in favor of a new relationship

Parties in a dispute are in a relationship. They are tied together until there is a legal outcome. Their destinies are tethered together for years, decades even. For the dispute to truly resolve, this “dispute relationship” will have to transform into something else.

Kintsugi teaches that even things that have been shattered can be put back together in a new way. Mediation provides a process in which the parties can take control over the dispute and envision a new reality and new homeostasis between them. This could mean a complete termination and separation; it could mean a changed kind of business arrangement; it could mean something else. What is important is that the dispute itself will end, and something new will emerge. This is what is critical in a successful mediation.

Looking forward, not backward

Successful mediation requires envisioning a new future. Sometimes, disputes become hostile because parties had envisioned a specific future for themselves, which the dispute has now destroyed. In mediation, the parties must be willing to imagine how else the future might look.

The dispute itself has also affected the future and cannot be overlooked. It becomes part of the thing that has shattered. But, perhaps something else is possible. It will be different, whatever it is. But it could be interesting and fruitful in its own way, perhaps.