Improving Contracts Through Expanding Perspectives of Understanding

Understanding contracts generally through a legal perspective has systemic influences on how companies are organized; how personnel communicate internally and externally; how and by whom strategic planning proceeds; what is identified as a contract problem, and the conceived structure of that problem; the procedures with which problem should be addressed; and what counts as success or failure in resolving the problem.If one were to change or expand the basic perspective by which contracts are understood, then suddenly all of those associated concepts and structures could also become more open to new ideas. The purpose of this article is to make more explicit the basic assumptions by which we understand contracts and suggest how the many connected functions are influenced by those core assumptions. The article also explores how our basic perceptions about contracting might change, and how the associated business ideas and structures might also change, if we were to imagine contracts from two alternative perspectives: the economic exchange that is the substance and basic purpose of contracts, and the personal relationships that go into making and implementing an agreement