Collaborative Solutions in Complex Environments: A Framework for Understanding and Action

What the paper says

Abstract The contexts in which we at the Centre on Conflict & Collaboration and our students work are marked by chronic sociopolitical tensions between citizens and authorities and identity groups with each other. They are characterized by overwhelmed institutions and ongoing contestation with respect to authority, legitimacy, and even the appropriate use of violence. Thus, “getting to yes” in the workplace, community, or civic space is not only harder, with higher stakes; it is frequently undermined by prevailing systems dynamics. To better serve those working to facilitate positive change, we have advanced a framework for understanding and action to address the challenges of collaborative solution generation in such tumultuous and conflictual places. While readily recognizable to those familiar with interest-based problem-solving, the framework is distinctive in its recognition of the inevitable influence of negative systems dynamics and its positioning of even mundane negotiations as iterative exercises in broader world building. It thus situates every collaborative endeavor within the broader web of societal relations; invites negotiators to worry less about their agreement and more about the challenges of positive progress within contested spaces; and reflects an understanding of every negotiation process as consensus-based institution building. This repositions our collaborative engagement as the building of a coalition committed to the exercise of non-dominating power. This is the story of how we came to understand the need for such a pedagogical framework, what it looks like, our experience with it, and our hopes for it.