The SpatzAI Story

A brief chronological history of SpatzAI journey over the last 40 years.

In 1985, a pivotal moment altered the course of Desmond Sherlock’s life. After 2 and a half years immersed in what he now describes as a fundamentalist Christian religious cult, Des and a friend were expelled for asking questions—especially around Matthew 18:15, a passage that ironically calls for resolving conflicts within the community. This expulsion led them on a journey around Australia, aiming to expose the group’s beliefs and practices. However, after facing considerable hardship on this mission, Des experienced a profound moment of clarity: “I could be wrong.” This realization halted their crusade and marked the beginning of a journey that would ultimately span nearly four decades, exploring the nature of conversation, objectivity, and conflict resolution.

By 2012, Des had distilled his evolving thoughts into a book titled Rethink Perfect, which featured two pivotal chapters: “Complain Responsibly” and “Prepare for the Failure.” These concepts laid the foundation for what would become a comprehensive framework for managing human interactions. Des believed that the ultimate way to complain responsibly was to object in real-time—essentially addressing issues as they arise to prevent them from festering. Preparing for failure, another cornerstone, emphasized the need for a system to address angry or dogmatic behavioral lapses, thus integrating objecting as a key element in human accountability.

While working on Rethink Perfect, Des realized that he already possessed an essential piece of the puzzle. In 2004, an agreement with his brother on using an acceptable apology after getting angry had introduced a vital element: “Stop.” This practice of recognizing one’s misbehaviors and formally apologizing acceptably created a structured way of managing conflict in its final stages. Yet, Des sought to fill the gap between anger and an acceptable apology. When his girlfriend at the time grew frustrated with having to say sorry constantly for her anger and Des’s objections, Des was prompted to introduce an initial “Caution” phase—thus creating the triad of Caution, Objection, and Stop. This evolution was crystallized in what became Object123, a model aimed at addressing minor conflicts before they escalated into serious disputes or conflicts.

	Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3
Objection Levels	1. Caution	2. Objection	3. Stop
Accountability Levels	1. Acknowledge	2. Simple Apology	3. Acceptable Apology
Micro-Conflict Levels	1. Spats	2. Disputes	3. Conflicts

In 2017, Object123 formally took shape, and Des continued refining the process, observing how this three-step approach could improve personal and professional relationships. However, it was during this time that another phase of his journey began. Des had joined an online group dedicated to psychological safety (psychsafety), where he once again found himself clashing with the established norms. When he questioned the group’s founder—who prohibited self-promotion while paradoxically promoting his own business—Des’s inquiry was met with resistance, and he was ultimately removed from the group. The irony wasn’t lost on him: the group, supposedly dedicated to creating safe spaces for dialogue, had no process for resolving the very spats he had observed and participated in.

This experience was the spark that led to the creation of Spatz in 2021, a platform designed to moderate minor quarrels, or “spats,” before they escalated into full-blown disputes or conflicts. Des realized that no existing framework allowed people to address small behavioral issues caused by disagreements in a constructive, objective manner. Spatz introduced a model built around Des’s core principles: Caution, Objection, and Stop. In this model, each phase allowed individuals to address disagreements progressively, fostering a culture of real-time accountability and resolution.

By 2022, Spatz.ai had emerged as the culmination of these years of thinking, writing, and experimenting. By having parsed the method of resolving micro-conflicts into lots of threes Des could see how an AI could utilize the real-world and real-time data. Unlike his concepts that had come before it, Spatz.ai wasn’t just about resolving disputes; it was about creating environments where team members could challenge behaviors, object to converting rather than converging ideas, and achieve a more objective view of conflicts. The app formalized the Caution-Objection-Stop framework into a system that could be used in real-time across various communication platforms like Slack or MS Teams to achieve the final key to achieving objectivity through the Spatz Team-assist & AI Review (STAIR) platform.

Reflecting on the nearly 40 years since that first moment of doubt in 1985, Des now understood that the answer he had been seeking about the purpose of conversation had been there all along—in the very word itself. Conversation, he concluded, is meant either to convert or converge. The key to objectivity lies in learning to recognize when someone is trying to convert rather than converge and having a system in place to object to it in real-time. And in the word “objectivity,” Des saw the essence of his life’s work: the power to object. His philosophy, distilled down to the elegantly simple triad of Caution, Objection, and Stop, remains a testament to the potential of human dialogue and the pursuit of fairness in communication.

Des’s journey, embodied in Spatz.ai, continues today. As he develops and refines the platform, hoping to launch in 2025, he aims not only to moderate micro-conflicts but also to reshape the way workplace teams and team members communicate. With nearly 1.5 million words written in his journals, blog posts, and reflections, he has arrived at a system designed with the objective to help others converge through conversation and object to any attempts at converting, all in the service of achieving a more objective world.