What practical techniques do you implement to motivate and enable your collaborators to find solutions to a defined problem?

All of us are involved in some kind of problem solving every day, both in our personal and professional lives. One of the most effective is a model for collaborative problem solving.

The advantages of working collaboratively to solve problems:

- Working with interests often results in the identification of more possible solutions than were originally considered;

-  By "expanding the pie", we end up with fair agreements that potentially meet more of our needs and are "win-win" rather than "win-lose"

-  Creates greater satisfaction for all of the parties and promotes a foundation for future problem solving that is respectful and energizing rather than negative and depleting.

A Model for Collaborative Problem Solving:

1. Share Perspectives

- Use our communication skills to understand the other’s perception of the situation and their needs

2. Define the Issues

- Clarify the topics for discussion

3. Identify the Interests

- Go beyond the stated positions or solutions to figure out what the parties really need to have satisfied in order to reach agreement

- Look for the common ground between all parties

4. Generate Options - brainstorm and generate ideas, looking at the problem from all angles and considering as many different ideas as possible

5. Develop a Fair Standard or Objective Criteria for Deciding

-Using an agreed upon criteria, combine and reduce options

-Strive to "expand the pie" and create agreements for mutual gain.

6. Evaluate Options and Reach Agreement

agree with eliza................