Mastering the Art of Collaboration
The term "collaboration" implies a cooperative effort with an ally to achieve mutual goals. As a quick reminder, collaboration strategies are used when the outcome and your relationship with the other party are both important, and to both parties.
This is in stark contrast to competitive negotiation, where you are haggling with an opponent and both sides are fighting for their own interests. Specifically, most competitive tactics are not used in collaboration, though they may have similar counterparts.
Aligning Goals
In a collaborative effort, it is believed that the effort will result in success for both parties (win-win), so one of the earliest steps is aligning goals: both parties fully disclose what they are trying to achieve so that they can see where their interests overlap, and the task of negotiation is a matter of working out a deal that will accomplish both parties' goals.
Generally, collaboration means that goals are not mutually exclusive. There may be instances in which one party's goals are not aligned with the others, or in rare cases, instances in which goals are mutually exclusive. The majority of effort is in ironing out these differences.
First, seek a solution that will meet both sets of interests, even if those interests are different - you may go out of your way to help someone else achieve something that's not important to you in order to gain their cooperation on the things that are.
Sometimes, you must take some things off the table or accept a trade-off where interests are not aligned. The deal may not achieve everything you want, but it will do "enough" to make the deal worthwhile and seek other sources to fulfill items that got taken off the table.
Building Relationships
In collaborations, success is defined by the quality of the relationship as well as the quality of the outcome - and again, this must be a goal of both parties. Attempting to collaborate with someone who's trying to be competitive is ill-advised: they will use your interest in building a relationship to achieve their objectives, and do nothing for you in return.
This may suggest that a competitor can be successful by feigning interest in collaboration - but this can only happen once: if you sucker-punch someone who's trying to shake hands, don't expect that they will be willing to shake hands in the future. Not only will you ruin your chances of getting any future business from them, but it will damage your reputation with others with whom you might want to do business in the future. For this reason, many negotiations are a bit skeptical of overtures toward collaboration, and it may take some relationship-building to put both parties at ease.
The dissonance between collaboration and competition is also common in the workplace: some individuals try to "get ahead" by being competitive with others. They hoard information and resources, make demands of others without offering to help them in return, fail to keep confidences, and will not hesitate to go over your head or behind your back to get what they want. This is disruptive, and in an organization that values teamwork, that sort of behavior is not condoned or tolerated. Peers ostracize and avoid such a person, and management generally steers them toward an exit.
When Collaboration is Key
Collaboration is appropriate within an organization, with multiple parties attempting to work toward a common set of goals. It may also be appropriate among different organizations with common goals, or when facing a common threat.
Recently, even rival firms have begun to collaborate to expand markets or make advances that will be beneficial to the entire industry. A nifty analogy is that, rather than fighting for a larger slice, work together to make a bigger pie (or a second pie) so that there's more to go around.
Trust and Honesty
For collaboration to work, there must be a high degree of trust, openness, and honesty between those involved. Both sides must be dedicated to collaborating, particularly toward building or preserving the working relationship, and willing to help one another achieve their goals.
When parties have a history of working together, and have been successful in past collaborations, it's quite easy for them to work together on a new deal. This facility is one of the chief rewards for relationship-building. However, when parties have not worked collaboratively in the past - or worse, when their previous engagements have been competitive in nature - then there is a need to build trust.
The authors provide a list of items that are generally deemed to build trust:
- Setting expectations - Making your intentions clear before you act
- Being honest - Specifically, disclosing the truth in a way that is verifiable, and being forthcoming about your degree of accuracy
- Trustworthiness - Keeping your promises
- Reputation - Being seen by others as trustworthy
- Consideration - Acting in a way that demonstrates concern for others
- Having or developing similar interests
- Holding the other party to the same standards
- Acknowledging the value of mutual trust
They also aver (as if it needed stating), that building trust takes a lot of effort and time - undermining it can be done very quickly, and unintentionally.
Keys to Success
The authors define three keys to success:
- Understand the other party's needs and objectives
- Provide a free flow of information both ways
- Seek solutions to meet the needs of both sides
The authors elaborate a bit, but those are largely self-evident.
Obstacles to Collaboration
The authors also provide a list of things that can kill collaboration:
- One party does not believe there are mutual interests
- One party does not show interest in helping the other achieve its goals
- One party acts in a competitive manner (taking advantage)
- One party is too skittish (fears being taken advantage of)
- One or both parties are beholden to stakeholders who will push them to act competitively
- The bargaining mix includes both collaborative and competitive elements
Again, if either part decides not to collaborate, then the deal is off. If any of these obstacles arises, it's best to address it as soon as possible - and if the situation cannot be resolved, it's often best to simply withdraw from the negotiations.
Getting Serious About Collaboration
The authors aver that some negotiations think they are collaborating when, in truth, they are merely being friendly in their competitive tactics. This may be because they are flexible, do not really care about the outcome, or intent to try to use the confidence they gain to achieve advantages later.
To be serious about collaboration, one must pay attention to the intangibles - plan and act in consideration of both parties' reputation, principles, and sense of fairness.
You also have to be ready to make a lot of concessions. You may need to make concessions to help accomplish your own goals, or you may need to make them in order to help accomplish the other party's goals, or you may need to make them to maintain a positive working relationship.
The Four-Step Process
The authors suggest a four-step process to collaboration:
- Identify the Goal - In collaboration, both sides need to be in agreement on the goals they wish to achieve
- Understand the Problem - Both parties need to understand the underlying reasons that the goal must be achieved, for both themselves and their partner
- Generate Alternatives - Next, solutions must be defined to the satisfaction of both parties. There may be multiple ways to achieve an outcome, and they should all be put on the table.
- Select a Solution - Evaluate the various solutions to determine which course of action is the best; however, "the best" solution may not be the most efficient one at accomplishing the task, as it must also be acceptable to both parties.
Generally, this entire process should be documented, and that documentation should be available to everyone.
Collaborative Negotiation Strategies
The authors provide a few bullet points, which are more tips than strategies:
- Create common goals and objectives
- Maintain confidence in your ability to solve problems
- Value the other party's opinion
- Share the motivation and commitment to cooperation
The authors elaborate a bit, but these are generally self-evident (and not terribly insightful).
Troubleshooting Collaborative Negotiations
Collaborative negotiations tend to be fragile, and depend on constant reinforcement and reassurance from both parties.
When things look like they are going off the rails, it can be helpful to stop and summarize: frame the progress made to date, underscore the common goals to which you are working, and make sure everyone is still "on board."
If the situation deteriorates, you either have to seek a resolution to the conflict or break off the collaboration and switch to competitive mode. Naturally, the first is preferable - switching to competitive mode leaves bruises, and since you had been collaborating, the opponent has a lot of information about you already.
Negotiation with Superiors
In the corporate environment, it's often necessary to deal with a boss or a manger. This is generally a collaborative negotiation, as preserving your working relationship with a superior is often more important than achieving your desired goals.
Competitive tactics are generally not a good idea, as they pose a threat to the superior's authority, for which there will be repercussions; capitulation may be a safe approach (and in some cultures, the only approach), but the employee who always capitulates is seen as ineffective; and avoidance is generally not an option.
The tactic in this negotiation is to try to solve the other person's problem in a way that damages you the least: explore the goal, determine the underlying issues, brainstorm solutions, and agree upon a course of action.
the authors also suggest negotiating for concessions in return: if you work long hours to meet a rigid deadline, ask for compensatory time-off; if your resources must be burdened with an unexpected project, ask for additional budget or relief from other responsibilities; etc.
LOOSE BITS
I've collected some loose notes from this chapter, where the authors went off on a tangent that seemed interesting, but wasn't relevant to the topic they were discussing at the time.
The authors list a few ways to approach a problem arriving at common goals:
- If a problem is based on scarce resources, find a way to expand or reallocate the resources so each party can get the resources it needs
- There may be instances in which parties trade-off benefits (you get this if I get that) or desires (you don't get this if I don't get that)
- There may be substitutions - where a party can't get what it wants, but the other helps it get something else out of the deal
- It may be necessary to bring in a third party to help define solutions
The authors list some methods for generating solutions