From Conflict To Creative Collaboration

As group facilitators, we can use methods like Open Space Technology, Future Search, and World Café to reliably evoke "group magic" when working with larger groups. Yet how can we tap into the generative power of self-organization when working with smaller groups - especially ones facing complex and conflict-laden issues? In From Conflict to Creative Collaboration: A User's Guide to Dynamic Facilitation, collaboration consultant Rosa Zubizarreta describes a ground-breaking facilitation method for transforming unproductive group friction into effective teamwork and innovation. Dynamic Facilitation's agile approach draws task groups into a co-creative "flow zone" - where participants create practical and innovative solutions while building trust, empathy, and authentic community. Some of the distinctive features of this approach include welcoming solutions initially and throughout the process, as a form of rapid prototyping, and using empathic listenint to create safety for both solutions (creative thinking) and concers (critical thinking). As we create a "map" of the different perspectives that are present, we support participants' own ability to recognize patterns and create new meaning.

The increasing complexity of design projects, the greater reliance on remote team members, and the evolution of design techniques demands professionals who can cooperate effectively. Designing Together is a book for cultivating collaborative behaviors and dealing with the inevitable difficult conversations. Designing Together features: 28 collaboration techniques 46 conflict management techniques 31 difficult situation diagnoses 17 designer personality traits This book is for designers: On teams large or small Co-located, remote, or both Working in multidisciplinary groups Within an organization or consulting from outside

For organizations that care about innovation, individual creativity isn't enough anymore -- people need to be in creative, collaborative relationships. But without the knowledge and tools for building these relationships, innovation expert Michael Schrage argues, one will not be successful in the offices of today and even less so in the "virtual" offices of tomorrow. No More Teams gives readers the tools and techniques to go beyond the lazy cliches of "teamwork" to the practical benefits of collaboration. When Schrage studied the world's greatest collaborations -- including Wozniak and Jobs, Picasso and Braque, Watson and Crick -- he found that instead of relying on charisma, they all created "shared spaces" where they could play with their ideas. By effectively using technological tools available in most workplaces -- anything from a felt tip pen and a napkin to specialized computer software - -you can literally map your discussion as it is happening, making it possible to keep all the good ideas, cope with every objection, handle conflicts as they arise, and, ultimately, master the unknown.

In this volume, scholars from different disciplines join together to examine the overlapping domains of conflict and collaboration studies. It examines the relationships between ideas and practices in the fields of conflict resolution and collaboration from multiple disciplinary perspectives. The central theme is that conflict and collaboration can be good, bad, or even benign, depending on a number of factors. These include the role of power, design of the process itself, skill level and intent of the actors, social contexts, and world views. The book demonstrates that various blends of conflict and collaboration can be more or less constructively effective. It discusses specific cases, analytical methods, and interventions, and emphasizes both developing propositions and reflecting on specific cases and contexts. The book concludes with specific policy recommendations for many sets of actors—those in peacebuilding, social movements, governments, and communities—plus students of conflict studies. This book will be of much interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of peace and conflict studies, public administration, sociology, and political science.

Our current models for ending conflict don’t really work. They waste incredible amounts of time, money, and energy and take an enormous emotional toll on participants. The parties remain embittered, relationships are destroyed, and often the conflict just reappears later in a different form. In this second edition of his classic book, Stewart Levine offers a revolutionary alternative approach that goes beyond compromise and capitulation to provide a satisfactory resolution for everyone involved. Marriages run amuck, neighbors at odds with one another, business deals gone sour, and the pain and anger caused by corporate downsizing are just a few of the conflicts he addresses. The new edition has been thoroughly revised with new examples, new tools, new material about building trust and virtual collaboration, as well as a more global outlook. Levine rejects the adversarial legal model: "If both sides are unhappy, you probably have a good settlement." Resolution, he shows, provides relief and completeness for both sides. No one goes away unhappy. Effective resolution stops anger and resentment cold, drastically cutting the emotional cost and allowing both sides to return to productive, satisfying, functional relationships. Getting to Resolution outlines the ten principles underlying this new approach—what Levine calls “resolutionary thinking. Levine provides a detailed seven-step process for using this new mindset to resolve conflicts in a way that fosters dignity and integrity, optimizes resources, and allows all concerns to be voiced, honored, and woven into the resolution. Levine's model has a thirty-five-year track record. It has been developed, implemented, tested, and proven in business, personal, and governmental contexts. Getting to Resolution will enable readers to shift from thinking about problems, fighting, and breakdowns to thinking about collaboration, engagement, learning, creativity, and the opportunity for creating enduring value.

Negotiation is stuck. It's time for something new. Almost everything is negotiable. Almost every interaction is a negotiation. And in no field is this clearer than in business, where every day we work with others to get things done. But when we have real differences, is win-win always possible? Or must every negotiation be a zero-sum battle, with a winner and a loser? Over the last half century, two opposing philosophies have ruled the field of negotiation: the win-lose, tooth-and-nail approach of training guru Chester Karrass; and the win-win, "principled" creed of Getting to Yes, developed by Roger Fisher and William Ury. But neither approach fully meets the challenge of today's volatile, disruptive, ultracompetitive business environment, where strategic problem-solving is of critical importance. In Creative Conflict, negotiation experts Bill Sanders and Frank Mobus provide something new. They use a dynamic, dialectical approach to show how negotiations are driven by competition and cooperation at the same time. Counterintuitively, they reveal that conflict lies at the heart of more profitable agreements. They believe that when we tiptoe around conflict, we negotiate in a half-hearted way that limits our results. By contrast, creative negotiators probe and push until they hit a wall of disagreement, and then they figure out how to get past it. The authors construct a clear and useful framework based on three distinct negotiating contexts: Bargaining, Creative Dealmaking, and Relationship Building. They instruct readers on how to skillfully pursue their fair share while simultaneously seeking ways to expand a deal's scope and value for both sides.

Make workplace conflict resolution a game that EVERYBODY wins! Recent studies show that typical managers devote more than a quarter of their time to resolving coworker disputes. The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games offers a wealth of activities and exercises for groups of any size that let you manage your business (instead of managing personalities). Part of the acclaimed, bestselling Big Books series, this guide offers step-by-step directions and customizable tools that empower you to heal rifts arising from ineffective communication, cultural/personality clashes, and other specific problem areas—before they affect your organization's bottom line. Let The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games help you to: Build trust Foster morale Improve processes Overcome diversity issues And more Dozens of physical and verbal activities help create a safe environment for teams to explore several common forms of conflict—and their resolution. Inexpensive, easy-to-implement, and proved effective at Fortune 500 corporations and mom-and-pop businesses alike, the exercises in The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games delivers everything you need to make your workplace more efficient, effective, and engaged.

Creative collaboration makes the impossible, possible. But all too often collaboration stifles creativity. This exciting new book offers tradition-shattering advice that gives readers the tools to make any collaborative activity creative, productive, and rewarding.

What is the true nature of thinking? Can it best be understood as a solitary activity of a lone individual? This book suggests that our grasp of creativity is impoverished because we fail to recognise the vital roles that partnerships, collaborations, friendships, and communities play in our thinking, learning, and understanding.

The book is a "how-to" guide identifying leadership characteristics and practical strategies that demonstrate how leaders can constructively channel a school's inevitable conflicts and instill a school culture that promotes group problem solving while honoring diverse voices.