Iker Dieguez
O
ne individual’s truth is not an absolute.
Change is inevitable because without change there is no life. Effective communication is difficult, but essential.
Winning does not mean imposing. These aphorisms encapsulate a foundational philosophy attorney Iker Dieguez employs when it comes to resolving conflict. As a bilingual business lawyer working on cross-border ventures, Dieguez has given a lot of time and thought to how best to navigate through conflict in order to attain an end goal.
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“Every single contract is a result of a conflict between two positions that resolve into a middle ground,” he said. “Contracts would not exist if people were not able to reach an agreement. That’s my work.”
Success, he said, lies in finding common ground.
One of the first steps in that direction is arriving at the understanding that no one person’s view is an absolute representation of reality. “What we are really talking about is our vision — the way that we see reality,” he said. “My interpretation of reality is a construct that only exists in me and that
T H E P R I M E R U S P A R A D I G M™
is a result of either what I learned or was taught from childhood on.” Each person’s vision of reality is the result of a multitude of familial, cultural, religious, and economic factors, he explained. Any expectation that a conflict can be resolved by the domination of one view of reality over another is short-sighted and will only lead to future conflict.
“We need to be aware that our beliefs were taught to us and understand then that we may question them,” Dieguez added. “Whatever you believe, it might be true today, but it may not be true tomorrow. Similarly, what you believe may
