‘Interest-based’ facilitation helps organizations mitigate risks and resolve business conflicts quickly and effectively, before they escalate. Facilitation guides complex or multi-party negotiations to a ‘win-win’ solution
Facilitated negotiations help build or repair business relationships by turning an adversarial “winner-take-all” approach into a more collaborative process that meets needs and interests of all parties. This is a proven effective risk management tool that achieves optimal results when applied to business conflicts in their early stages.
Facilitation can be used at different times, for different purposes: partnering workshops at the beginning of a new project or contract; during the project, as part of the governance structure; for mid-term contract renewals or renegotiations; or to ensure a seamless wind-down or transition at the end of a long-term contract.
Organizations can reduce the risk of a conflict escalating into a more serious legal or business dispute, which would have a negative impact on the business relationship.
Facilitation is confidential and flexible. It is less formal than mediation, but follows many of the same “interest-based” approaches to identifying issues and options for resolution.
The Facilitator is appointed and compensated by mutual agreement of all parties, creating greater transparency and objectivity in the process.
Because it enables participation and collaboration, facilitation opens the door to more innovative results than the standard “win-lose” approach to negotiation. Parties maintain full control over the facilitation process and any resulting decisions. They have the final say over any agreement or resolution – not an outside arbitrator or other decision-maker.
Our “interest-based” facilitation process encourages business partners and project teams to resolve issues quickly and effectively, in a collaborative way that improves the overall performance of the group. It provides significant benefits to organizations that wish to integrate suppliers and customers into their business and technology processes.
Facilitation can also be a transformative process that is able to take a dysfunctional governance process, project team or business relationship and help the parties develop and implement strategies to better meet all of their needs and goals.
The key is to approach the resolution of disputes from a business perspective rather than focus on legal rights and remedies.
Our proven methodology helps parties identify issues and the root causes of their conflict. It focuses on the underlying needs and interests, and explores creative options for negotiation and resolution. Participants develop a deeper understanding of their respective needs and interests, leading to a closer working relationship and more successful business results.
Partnering
Lots of technology companies talk about “partnering”, but few are really serious about doing it properly. For many, it is limited to a project kick-off meeting, to introduce the teams. Maybe there’s a technical workshop, to review or approve requirements documents. But there is usually no continuing commitment to the open communication and problem-solving needed for a true partnership.
True partnering seeks to ensure that the appropriate best practices are followed in an open, informed and documented manner. Key decisions and group understandings can be developed and confirmed. The goal is to reach a mutual understanding to continue to work together in a collaborative fashion and agree on the tools and processes to do it. This includes continuously maintaining and improving the business relationship, effective communications at all levels, timely decision-making, escalation and resolution of any disputes.
This is not a fuzzy “let’s all get along” approach to avoiding conflict and difficult decisions. It is a serious, powerful tool that turns conflict and compromise into true collaboration, to better manage the project and optimize the results for all participants.
Partnering workshops are very useful in the initial stages of a project to establish goals, responsibilities and lines of communications. They can also be used at specific checkpoints during the project, to confirm that the parties are still aligned and working effectively, or to resolves problems that have arisen along the way. And they often include completion workshops, to find out whether expectations have been met, tie up any loose ends and pave the way for future projects.