Guidelines for Collaborative Dialogue
Joint problem-solving
The collaborative approach to negotiation seeks to change the focus from individual wants and needs into a single joint problem, allowing the parties to let go of personal attachment to their requirements to take a more objective and equitable perspective.
Collaborative strategy
Being collaborative does not mean being weak and giving in. On the contrary, a collaborative approach seeks to gain the best possible solution.
Transparency and trust
It is possible to be transparent without giving away too much information. To gain trust, avoid deceptive practices. Eliminate suspicion by being open and transparent, sometimes providing information before it is requested.
When the other side is competitive
The biggest dilemma occurs when the counterpart tries to take advantage of your collaborative approach (possibly seeing it as a weakness). Be assertive and balanced, for example showing your strength while offering an olive branch. Critical for this approach is to have your BATNA ready and to show that you are prepared to use it.
Read More (optional): Collaboration, Dialogue and Negotiation
Middle Way Approach-Based Dialogue
The Middle Way approach enhances the collaborative dialogue by focusing on mutual concerns for the core conflict issues and letting go of the win-lose mentality (Dorjee, 2013).
Basic Principles
Substantive dialogue is central to resolving intergroup conflict
Dialogue consists of empathetic (mindful) listening and creative ways of dealing with difference. It is an interactional process in which participants explore and become more aware of the mutual and different frames and filters inherent to the various sides of the negotiation. Dialogue requires that the parties seriously consider each other’s concerns, even when disagreement occurs or persists. (Boulding, 2001; Saunders, 1999 in Dorjee, 2013).
Recognizing positive interdependent relationships in a conflict can lead to intergroup harmony
A competitive win-lose approach, usually adopted by the party in the conflict with the greater power, creates a negative interdependent relationship. However, parties can cultivate a positive interdependent relationship in which power is reframed from being an attribute of an individual or group, to a relational concept. The relational perspective allows power to be used for mutual benefit by recognizing power “currencies” that both sides possess: e.g., resources, strategic linkages, particular skills or expertise, etc.).
Advocating high mutual concerns is central to intergroup harmony
The concept of “face” is central of advocating high mutual concern. Face is a “precious identity resource in communication” and is “tied to the emotional significance…that we attach to our own social self-worth and the social self-worth of others” (Ting-Toomey, 2005). According to Dorjee (2013), the Middle Way approach advocates “high mutual-face concerns for promoting group harmony.” We will study Face more in the next part of this module.
Creative thinking that transcends polarized hard-line positions is essential
A positional approach to negotiation communicates and reflects differences, rather than mutual interests or benefit. Thinking creatively outside of the polarized positions reflects mutual concern, allowing negotiators to find common ground. Collaborative dialogue and the Middle Way approach can reveal underlying needs and interests and provide access to deeper symbolic meanings that lie within the parties’ frames or that can be mutually negotiated.
Middle Way Solution
The Middle Way can be a marker for finding the place in-between two extreme views. Once negotiators are no longer confined to polarized positions, exploring the in-between places, mutual needs and interests can be revealed.
Read More (optional): Intercultural and Intergroup Conflict Resolution: Nonviolence and Middle Way Approaches
References for this page
Collaborative Dialogue: L. Steven Smutko, Natural Resources Leadership Institute, NC State University. 2005, http://www.ncsu.edu/nrli/decision-making/projects/documents/NegotiationCollaborativeProblemSolving.pdf
Dorjee, Tenzin. (2013). Intercultural and intergroup conflict resolution: Nonviolence and middle way approaches. In J.G. Oetzel & S. Ting-Toomey (Eds.), The Sage handbook of conflict communication (2nd edition, pp. 687-711). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Ting-Toomey, S. (2005). The matrix of face: An updated face-negotiation theory. In W. Gudykunst (Ed.), Theorizing about intercultural communication (pp. 71-92). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
