In my first Getting To Yes post, I described our collaborative committee model and the requirements for joining the collaborative effort. Then I described the process of defining an organization’s seemingly intractable problem and discovering a solution that satisfies previously rival stakeholders.

At this stage, we advise clients to begin testing this solution with key constituents who are not on the committee.

It is at this stage that a strange and wonderful thing happens.

The committee members, with newly found “ownership” of the possible solution, become advocates for it. And the committee of previously rival stakeholders begins to form a real team.

The larger organization takes notice: “If Joe and Jane can agree to anything, it must have some merit,” they think. And the ownership of the solution spreads throughout the organization.

A lasting benefit of this approach is that it can model collaborative problem solving throughout an entire organization. Often the original problem addressed through the collaborative committee model is just one component of a much larger organizational conflict, and the process serves as a successful strategy for leaders to address other large and complex issues facing their organization.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 4:59 pm and is filed under Consulting for Nonprofits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.