Mediators start by building relationships of trust. They have to be patient and leave their ego behind. Mediation isn’t an absence of conflict; it’s a creative approach to resolving it. So mediators have to come up with ideas that other people can take and own. Social connections and interdependence both enable and require this.
Cooperation,” Roosevelt continued, “which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.”
Conflict is inevitable because that’s how new ideas emerge. So great collaborators do conflict well. “Scrapping,” as the Wright brothers called it, is how we stretch, test, and develop new ideas and possibilities
Safety lies in plurality. For a collaborative mind-set to take hold, we need multiple systems—different sizes, shapes, ambitions, and goals.
Heffernan, Margaret. “A Bigger Prize.”