[National Park Service Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance Program] There is hope for planners and resource managers who are trying to balance the competing interests of polarized groups. Drawing from many disciplines including community planning, mediation, facilitation, conflict resolution, social identity theory, neuroscience, and principles of non-violent communication, Joy Lujan is helping polarized communities move beyond their fears and find collaborative solutions to managing shared resources. In river management planning processes, people everywhere have the same basic needs that must be met to move beyond fear, demands, and animosity to achieve successful outcomes. Designing planning processes that meet these core needs will help people work together more effectively and result in more implementable, broadly supported plans that address people’s most pressing interests while balancing resource stewardship. When people perceive themselves as being in competition over how to use or manage a river resource much of the behavior people exhibit comes from fear that they are going to lose something they value or that something is going to be done to them. Without carefully designed processes, people become more and more entrenched in their positions. The most effective processes make it possible to for extremely polarized, deeply entrenched interests to engage in planning processes that moves them to a place of higher thinking and shared solutions. As important as well designed processes, knowing how to effectively manage difficult internal, interpersonal, and group dynamics can be the key to whether a collaborative process is successful. This session will examine some common pitfalls at an individual level, at an interpersonal level and at the group level so that participants can better understand and effectively navigate difficult situations in collaboration.

1. Moving Beyond Fear to
Collaboration in Planning for
Shared Uses of Resources
River Management Society

2. ...there’s one main
thing that makes
collaboration so
difficult...

3. People!

5. The Bad News
People behave terribly….
…..but predictably and for predictable
reasons.

6. The Good News
People, even angry people, are TOTALLY
capable of being reasonable!
It is within our capability to create
circumstances in which they can behave
reasonably.

7. “Civilitating” Colorado Land Use
Joy Lujan, TEDx Mile High Women, 2012

8. CHALLENGES TO SUCCESSFUL
COLLABORATION

9. Obstacles
Visible Obstacles:
• Organizational – mandates, authority, hierarchy
• Legal – laws, policies, regulations
• Institutional – bureaucracy, sops, technology
• Political – power, ideology, turf
• Practical – funding, budgeting, staffing, resources
• Logistical – location, distance, timing

10. Obstacles
Invisible Obstacles:
• Cognitive – how we view problems and paradoxes
• Communication – how we approach the problems
• Procedural – how we deal with conflicts
• Psychological – how we deal with change
• Institutional – how we organize ourselves
• Perceptual – how we view ourselves and others

11. • Open, Effective Communication
• Good Processes
• Effective Teams
• Clear Understanding of Roles
• Shared Vision and Purpose
• Well-Understood Interests
Elements of Successful Collaboration
• Shared Agreements
• Facilitative Behaviors
• SMART Goals
• Solid Action Agendas
• Supportive Leadership
• Trust within group

12. Core Assumptions of Collaboration
and Facilitative Behavior
• I have some information, others have other
information
• Each of us may see things that others do not;
• Differences are opportunities for learning;
• People act with integrity, given their situation
Adapted from Argyis and Schon, 1974, and Action Design, 1997 as shown in
Roger Schwarz, The Skilled Facilitator, 2002

13. Collaborative Planning and
Decision Making Processes

14. Collaborative Planning
and Decision Making Process

18. Who are the players?

19. Levels of Stakeholder Involvement
© National Policy Consensus Center

20. Perceptions and Assumptions

21. The Power of Personal Perception
How reliable is our ability to perceive
and make sense of the world?
The question is not what you
look at, but what do you see.
-Henry David Thoreau

22. Who is the tallest?

23. What do you see?

24. Does it look different now?

25. “The Ladder of Inference Creates Bad Judgment”
Ed Muzio

26. The Reality About Assumptions
• Making assumptions is normal
• Most assumptions are implicit
• The longer our assumptions are in effect, the
more likely we are to convert our assumptions
into truths (beliefs)

27. Dealing with Emotion

28. Emotion and Reason
Emotional Intensity
Ability to Reason

29. The Emotional Brain

30. The Even Worse News
Sometimes people can be REALLY
difficult….
…..and sometimes those people are us!

31. Let’s call her “Nancy”

32. Getting Past the Emotional Peak
Helping Yourself
• Taking a breath
• Taking a walk
• Count to 10
• Others?
Helping Others
•Acknowledgement
•Validation
•Vent with care
•Redirecting
•Apology

33. COMMUNICATION SKILLS
FOR COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING &
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

34. Communication Objectives
■ Be better able to surface dissent, raise concerns, and respond
with respect
■ Increase ability to have difficult and meaningful conversations
before situations escalate
■ Improve communication and conflict management skills for
more effective organizational performance

35. Communication

36. Two Parts to
Effective Communication
Listening to Understand
Speaking to Be Understood

37. “If we were supposed to talk more
than we listen, we would have two
mouths and one ear.”
-Mark Twain

38. Dilbert by Scott Adams, December 24, 2010
Listening Isn’t the Fun Part

39. Attitudes of Effective Listening
• It takes energy to listen
• We have to care about what the person is
trying to tell us
• We do not already know what the person
wants us to know
• We need to convince the person that we
heard them

40. Listening to Understand
■ Open-ended questions
■ Listen actively by paraphrasing facts and
feelings to validate the speaker

41. Speaking to Be Understood
■ Reframe your language
■ Yes/And – No Buts!
■ “I” Statements
■ Feedback Sandwich

42. Don’t Reject, Reframe
GOAL: using language to validate what is said with the focus
on capturing the underlying interests or needs and moves from:
Negative Positive
Past Future, Options
Other Speaker
Positions Interests
Blaming Contribution
Complaint Request

43. “I” Statements
■ I feel (state feeling)
■ When (describe behavior in specific)
■ Because (describe impact on your needs)
■ Make a positive behavior request
(describe what you need)

44. INTEREST-BASED COLLABORATION

45. “The best decisions result not from a superficial
consensus, but from surfacing different points of
view and searching for creative solutions.”
- William Ury, The Third Side

46. Positions & Interests
Interests our hopes, fears, wants, needs...
Positions our stand or demand
safety
security
recognition
respect
Belonging
Dignity
Fairness
Self esteem

47. Positions and Interests
Positions
• Solutions to problems
• Specific & definite
• Basis for argument
• Require justification
• End discussion
Interests
• Why a particular solution is
preferred
• Reasons underlying positions
• Require explanation not
justification
• Start discussion

48. What’s in the Box??

49. Unpacking Interests
Key questions:
•Why is that important to you?
•What would happen if you don’t get it?
•If you got that, would your needs be
completely met?

50. UNPACKING INTERESTS
EXERCISE

51. GROUP DYNAMICS IN COLLABORATION
“Great things…are never done by one person,
they’re done by a team of people….None of
us is as smart as all of us.“
Steve Jobs

52. Internal Dynamics

53. Internal Dynamics – 2 People

54. Interpersonal Dynamics

55. Group Dynamics

56. Group Process / Dynamics
• Forming, coming together, true issues or concerns are often
suppressed, while participants feel each other out
• Storming, the politeness barrier drops and participants often try to
enforce their issues or control onto the group, tempers may flare
• Norming, participants begin to understand each other, get used to
each other, trust and relationships begin to form
• Performing, the group gels and begins to work toward a common
goal on a highly efficient and cooperative basis.
Bruce Tuckman, “Developmental Sequence in Small Groups” (Psychological
Bulletin 63, vi, 1965, revised 1977)

57. Group Process / Dynamics
• Fifth Stage –
– Transforming, the group has achieved a level of
common understanding and trust that they begin
to look at the problem in new ways and develop
solutions that could not have been possible in any
other setting

58. Creating “Other”

60. CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS

61. VERBAL COMMUNICATION STYLES
Adapted from W. B. Gudykunst and Young Yun Kim, Readings on
Communicating With Strangers, An Approach to Intercultural
Communication, (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1992)
From W.B. Gudykunst and S. Ting-Toomey, Chapter 8, pp. 223 – 235

62. Verbal Communication Styles
• Direct vs. Indirect
• Elaborate vs. Succinct
• Personal vs. Contextual
• Concrete vs. Intuitive

63. TIME: MONOCHRONIC AND POLYCHRONIC
From E.T. Hall, Chapter 6, pp. 187 – 191

64. Time Differences
• Monochronic
– Events scheduled as separate items – one thing at
a time
– Structured approach to time, emphasizes
promptness
– Focus on agenda, task
– Completion of task most important

65. Time Differences
• Polychronic
– Several things at once
– Flexible approach to time
– No strict agenda
– Relationship focus

66. Inter-Cultural Interactions
• Make an effort to learn about the cultural and
social expectations of the people you will be
dealing with
• Expect different expectations
• Do not assume that what you are saying is
being understood
• Different is just different. Not necessarily right
or wrong.

67. Inter-Cultural Interactions
• Listen carefully
• Be patient, be humble, be willing to learn
• Apply interest-based negotiation principles
• Dare to do things differently
Source: J. Jung-Min Sunoo, Some Guidelines for Mediators of Intercultural
Disputes, Negotiation Journal, 1990

68. Developing an Action Agenda

69. SOMEBODY
SHOULD

70. 7 Elements of the Action Agenda
•Goals and Tasks
•Task Lead
•Support Team Members
•Estimated Time and Costs
•Resources needed (existing and not)
•Critical date due
•Measures of success/evaluation

71. GOAL AND TASKS TASK LEAD SUPPORT TEAM
MEMBERS
ESTIMATED TIME and
ESTIMATED COST
RESOURCE
NEEDS/ POTENTIAL
FUNDING
CRITICAL
DATE DUE
MEASURES OF SUCCESS (evaluation of
outcomes)
Goal 1:
Task A
Task B
Goal 2:
Task A
Task B
ACTION AGENDA

72. The Gremlins in the Matrix

73. Encouraging Leadership
When the same people are always the leaders,
others can’t develop their skills and competencies
to:
•spread the workload out
•build capacity
•grow toward sustainability

74. When People Over-Volunteer
It may be time to:
• evaluate if the schedule and deadline is realistic
or needs to be curbed back
• point out over-volunteering that could lead to
burnout or missed deadlines
• reshuffle expectations about who does what

75. Accountability
• Doing what you say you are going to do
• Holding others to their agreements
• Using the Action Agenda to track
progress

76. •Drags the group down
•Prevents things from getting done
•Others develop frustrations and/or
resentments
•Others, who are doers, may leave
the group
Why Address Broken Agreements?

77. NECESSARY BUT
DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS

78. Review

79. Collaboration is Difficult because….
….PEOPLE!
● Them
● Us
● Us and Them

80. • Effective Communication
• Good Processes
• Effective Teams
• Clear Understanding of Roles
• Shared Vision and Purpose
• Well-Understood Interests
Elements of Successful Collaboration
• Shared Agreements
• Facilitative Behaviors
• SMART Goals
• Solid Action Agendas
• Supportive Leadership
• Trust within group

81. joy_lujan@nps.gov
303-969-2853
Moving Beyond Fear
to Collaboration in Planning
for Shared Uses of Resources