Participants in important negotiations often need the assistance of an advocate or coach. However, when parties pick separate advocates, these professionals are incentivized to act competitively, even though negotiation is a voluntary coming together of both sides.

An optimal negotiation would involve two advocates who reliably cooperate with each other and loyally support their assigned disputants. Co-resolution creates these incentives by employing a team of coaches who approach the dispute as a single service but help separate disputants to best listen to and convince the other side.

Here's how co-resolution works: The negotiation coaches are incentivized to negotiate collaboratively because they share an ongoing working relationship. Both coaches will protect their relationship by avoiding combative or unfair tactics, and this dynamic affects the parties who each benefit from having cooperation-focused assistance. Furthermore, because this process is a voluntary negotiation, each disputant can terminate both coaches by walking away. Thus, both coaches face ongoing incentives to loyally assist their assigned disputants, within the bounds of their cooperative relationship.

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We have trained 50+ attorneys and mental health professionals in this process and ran a pilot project. Email us at nate@outsideinnovation.org for more.