Equally good alternatives to collaboration

Yesterday I posted an article that sought to give a broader frame to the idea of cross-sector nonprofit collaboration: placing collaboration within a process of negotiation to create new value. Today I will break down negotiation a little bit further to show why I think it’s important to take a broader frame of things and maybe even get semantic. Updated to add: :-)

When I’m talking about negotiation, I’m really talking about one particular piece of community engagement. Community engagement is all about self-evaluation (what can we offer the community?), communications/outreach (sending and receiving), and creating opportunities for participation—leadership, governance, programming and volunteerism all included. Negotiation is the piece where you are actively communicating with specific members of the community: individuals, groups, organizations, businesses and government.

So if collaboration is just one option within negotiation, what are the others? To that I really like the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Management Model:

Assertiveness (Y-Axis) is the extent to which you attempt to satisfy your own concerns, values, or interests.

Cooperativeness (X-Axis) is the extent to which you attempt to satisfy their conncerns, values or interests.

It’s designed specifically for individual conflict management situations, but I think it really helps to illuminate the different ways you can interact with another party that intentionally produces an outcome.

What I like about the instrument is that it’s non-judgemental; none of the strategies are intrinsically the best; instead the best is the one that is most effective or appropriate in the situation at hand. Not every situation can be collaborative because of limited time, resources, or competing values and interests.

Understanding the different approaches you can take to—as I said yesterday—create value, is important and provides a broader framework with which you can understand your organization’s place in the community, and act to positively and iteratively transform its actions.

5 comments

evden eve #permalink

very nice article thank you very much.… evden eve

More Mom #permalink

I think we are talking around rather than to something. Proving your model and our individual approaches being complementary. In my youth, I wanted everyone to just focus on the issues. I thought all the personal egos and private agendas got in the way of the process. Now I’ve learned their importance, and it’s easier to be non-judgmental when multiple points of view are not just recognized but understood. Bottom line: we’re on the same page, hope springs eternal, and have a good day, you betcha.

ben #permalink

@mom: I think talking around something rather than to it is the very definition of semantics :-) And I don’t think we’re talking at odds to each other either.

I’m not particularly interested in proving anything—there being very little outside the theoretical sciences to prove in any hard sense. Instead, I would say I’m trying to outline a connected series of definitions (and relative ones at that) upon which a meaningful understanding can be made of particular problems I face in my general life (and maybe others face in theirs too).

In regards to personal issues and egos, I completely agree as to their importance: in fact, ensuring someone’s satisfaction (or at least agreement) is probably the most concrete part of any process—much more easy to get a handle on than abstract concepts like time, resources, or “effectiveness”.

Sean Grove #permalink

Collaboration isn’t bad, but it isn’t a means to itself either. There are times when individuals are more productive on their own, and times with collaboration produces next to nothing (well, at least very little of use).

That being said, some projects will find it crucial. Many of the projects that we’re running are highly interdisciplinary, or just require hugely varying skill sets.

Your explanation adds a lot though, I think we’ll start asking project leaders to identify the area on the “Thomas-Kilman Conflict Management” graph (name’s a bit long) they feel best fits their project.

Peter Quinn #permalink

Hi. I am a long time reader. I wanted to say that I like your blog and the layout.

Peter Quinn

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