The second edition of the essential guide, updated with new research and observations to help twenty-first century organizations create models for effective collaboration. Collaborative skills have never been more important to a company’s success and these skills are essential for every worker today. Radical Collaboration is a how-to-manual for creating trusting, cooperative environments, and transforming groups into motivated and empowered teams. James W. Tamm and Ronald J. Luyet provide tools that will help you increase your ability to work successfully with others, learn to be more aware of colleagues, and better problem-solve and negotiate. Radical Collaboration is an eye-opener for leaders, managers, HR professionals, agents, trainers, and consultants who are seeking constructive ways of getting the results they want. What is Your Collaborative Intention? James W. Tamm and Ronald J. Luyet provide tools that will increase your ability to collaborate. You will learn to be more aware of others and how to problem-solve and negotiate. Collaborative skills have never been more important, and these skills are absolutely necessary for today's workplace. Radical Collaboration is a how-to-manual for anyone who wants to create trusting, collaborative environments, and transform groups into motivated and empowered teams. It is an eye-opener for leaders, managers, HR professionals, agents, trainers, and consultants who are seeking constructive ways of getting the results they want. James W. Tamm is a former judge and an expert on dispute resolution and building collaborative relationships. He is currently managing director of the international consulting firm Business Consultants Network, Inc. Ronald J. Luyet is a licensed psychotherapist who has advised Fortune 500 companies for more than thirty years. Ron is a vice president of consulting and training services for Business Consultants Network, Inc. Radical Collaboration Five Essential Skills to Overcome Defensiveness and Build Successful Relationships By James Tamm HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2005 James Tamm All right reserved. ISBN: 0060742518 Chapter One Attitude and Intention Staying in the Green Zone Where do you spend most of your life, in the Red Zone or the Green Zone? It's a choice. Most people don't recognize that this is a choice between two fundamental attitudes as they enter into relationships and conflicted situations with others. It's a choice that will fundamentally affect everything else you do and how you approach collaboration. Early in relationships, your attitude will either support collaboration or undermine it. Your attitude will determine how you perceive the world, whether situations are safe or threatening, and influence how you respond to those situations. The terms Red Zone and Green Zone summarize two alternative mind-sets and intentions. We must first understand our attitudes and then, if necessary, change them. The Green Zone reflects an authentic, nondefensive presence. In the Green Zone, people's actions in a relationship are not driven by fearful motives, nor are they determined by an unconscious competitive spirit. Individuals in the Green Zone seek connection from a centered place according to deeply held values and character, rather than tactical or strategic thinking. Their outer self and their inner self are congruent, meaning their conscious actions are in harmony with any unconscious motivations. When conflict arises, they seek to understand and to grow, for they desire mutual gains rather than victory. They seek to get their interests met rather than simply trying to defeat the other side. From the Green Zone, people do not perceive potential conflict as threatening, for they have tools and coping methods that allow them to deal with difficult situations in a less reactive way. Green Zone attitudes foster collaborative actions and are more receptive to overtures for collaboration from others. Green Zone attitudes also give people additional skills for responding effectively to those who don't want to be collaborative or don't know how to be collaborative. Individuals in the Green Zone are more effective when called upon to deal with others in the Red Zone. In his book Good to Great 1 , Jim Collins writes that his research team evaluated more than fourteen hundred companies to identify those that had progressed from good companies to sustained greatness and to determine the factors necessary for the transformation. Collins deliberately avoided the hypothesis that a company's greatness is a reflection of the CEO. The results of the study, however, proved otherwise. The leaders of each "great" organization have two things in common. First, they are fiercely ambitious for the long-term success of the company. Second, their personalities fit the Green Zone mold, namely, each CEO exhibits a compelling modesty and humility. They aren't boastful or egocentric. They demonstrate unders