This video features two tools presented in the Boundary Spanning Tools for Research Teams series. The tools address conflict transformation, which involves moving from unproductive fighting into creative problem solving.

Tool 1: Gradients of Agreement is presented by Hannah Love, co-founder of the US consulting firm Divergent Science LLC. The gradients of agreement provides an alternative to yes/no decision making by allowing everyone to mark their response along a continuum. This helps transform conflict from all-or-nothing into something.

Tool 2: Principled Negotiation is presented by Gabriele Bammer, Professor of Integration and Implementation Sciences, Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University. Principled negotiation a.k.a “Getting to yes” is a dialogue method that provides a way of resolving differences and conflicts in interests by finding mutually agreeable fair solutions through a problem solving approach. This helps transform conflict from a focus on mutually exclusive positions to mutually shared interests. (Correction: Principled negotiation was developed in the 1980s, not the 1970s, as stated in the video.)

The Boundary Spanning Tools for Research Teams series is hosted by Bethany Laursen, Assistant Dean of The Graduate School at Michigan State University, USA and the webinar series overall is organised and presented by Kristine Glauber, Program Director, Team Science Core, Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Duke University, North Carolina USA.

For access to the resources mentioned in the webinar see the Intereach website (link below).

The webinar was broadcast and recorded on 9 March 2021. The webinar series is a project of the Interdisciplinary Integration Research Careers Hub (Intereach) at https://www.intereach.org/, which provides mechanisms for communication, education, and collaboration among those interested in a community of practice around the interdisciplinary and integrative functions critical to team science research. Intereach is a special interest group of the International Network of the Science of Team Science.