Collaboration Problems

3. Factors That Make Conflict Intractable

The most common overlay problem preventing successful collaboration is one we have talked about already: zero-sum or win-lose framing. Disputants often believe that they cannot get what they want, unless the take it from “the enemy.”  They assume that any “win” on their side is necessarily a “loss” to the other side, and vice versa: the wins and the losses always add up to zero, hence the name “zero-sum” framing. In many cases, this means that they don’t even try collaboration, because they don’t want to take the risk they might have to give up something. Alternatively, they may try collaboration, but then work in any of a number of nefarious ways to undermine the process, such that they either “win big,” or the processes fails entirely.

Another common problem is that people assume that they cannot collaborate with “the enemy,” because they will be perceived by their own side as being weak, or being a “traitor.”  We will discuss ways around those problems in the collaboration section, below.

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