In his book, Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, argues that the successful adoption of new ideas – and the beginning of social movements – depends on three things: the quality of the message, the credibility of the messenger, and the timing of the message.
In Collaborating with the Enemy: Working with People You Don’t Agree With, Like or Trust, author Adam Kahane may have fulfilled all three conditions for the countless people, organizations and networks working together to solve tough and complex challenges.
The timing of the book is impeccable. In a world of where many people prefer the simple world of polarized camps – where people meet only with those who share the same values, interests and opinions; demonize others; and, are willing to tolerate “alternative facts” – we all need a reminder that it is necessary and possible to work with very different values, interests and perspectives.
The messenger – Adam Kahane – is the right messenger. There are few people in the world so intimately involved in trying to solve such a broad variety of tough problems, ranging from apartheid, drug wars, separatism, etc. There are fewer still that share their insights and struggles, successes and failures, with such clarity and humility.
The implications of the message – that to find more effective ways of making progress on tough problems, we must seek to create stretch rather than conventional collaboration – are compelling. Drawing on his experiences in familiar and new change efforts across the globe, Kahane skillfully lays out three key features of stretch collaboration:
While Kahane’s exploration of stretch collaboration is compelling, he is careful to point out it is not always possible or even desirable. To this end, he explores three alternative strategies:
Would-be change makers that feel that they have too little power to collaborative effectively, or that collaboration requires too much compromise or is apt to yield too little progress over too long a period, should consider these options before they deeply commit to the difficult road of stretch collaboration.
In his earlier book, Solving Tough Problems, Kahane recounts a popular joke in South Africa that described two options - a practical option and a miraculous option - on how the country’s citizens might proceed with their difficult transition from apartheid:
In Collaborating with the Enemy, Kahane offers a miraculous framework for approaching collaboration that participants in the thousands of coalitions, collaborations, networks, collective impact initiatives in Canada – and the many more across the world – will find practical and inspiring.
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