Collaborative Leadership Training Summary

Introduction

The following article examines a long standing collaborative leadership training program to demonstrate how vital the program is in developing negotiation skills. The article asserts how the program inspires a shared-vision of integrative or interest based negotiating, important kills in forging powerful collaboration as a mechanism for an effecting change. Grover and Lynn addressed their research question—Does collaborative leadership training provide participants with the type of negotiation skills necessary to better partner with others?—by evaluation the W.K. Kellogg Foundation collaborative leadership training program.

Summary

Grover and Lynn write that in order to become globally competitive one must find alternative

In addition, there are five key trends in the current competitive environment: globalization; organizational structure; new worker profiles; collective advances/communication technology; and knowledge of management (6). Based on these dimensions and trends, Grover and Lynn state that leadership is no longer viewed as top-down practice. There is a need to challenge conventional thinking by elevating the importance of dynamics between people engaged in a collective relationship. Collaboration, according to Grover and Lynn, requires “leaders of organizations who can cut across professional, personal and ideological boundaries and work through networks, partnerships and collaborations” (6). Collaboration stresses representation or direct participation in decision making. Although, the competitive leader is viewed as approaching negotiation with “aggressive, confrontational, win-lose, and zero-sum” tactics, Grover and Lynn uses two negotiation concepts found in negotiation literature to describe how collaborative leaders can redefine the win-lose and zero-sum competitive

Kellogg Foundation collaborative training program to address its impact on negotiation skill development among its participants. The Kellogg Foundation Leadership Program (KFLP) began in 1980, over time, the program moved from leadership development to “leadership as a process in a community with other” (7). Individual selected for the program are engaged in activities to equip them with skills to build organizational capacity, network with other individuals and share ideas, information and opportunities to promote collaboration and partnerships (8). Research performed by Grover and Lynn studied alumni from the collaborative training program between 1994 and 2009. The target population was between 20 to 30 members for a total of 394 participants. The target population participated in focus groups, design to solicit program feedback; in-depth interview it the program executive director and surveys, distributed electronically to all alumni. Both the focus groups and surveys were meant to gather data on what ways the collaborative training program impacted the participants’ negation and conflict resolutions skills.