Building a Collaborative Infrastructure

The tools a Massachusetts district applied to advance labor-management relations to productive ends

In recent decades, the United States has experienced an increase in political polarization, particularly affective or emotional polarization.

Emotional polarization reflects how members of one group view members of an opposing group and often results in demonizing those with whom we disagree. In a 2022 Pew Research Center report, “As Partisan Hostility Grows, Signs of Frustration with the Two-Party System,” growing numbers of Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. described members of the other party as “more close-minded, dishonest, immoral and unintelligent than other Americans.” This type of polarization produces high conflict.

Individuals and organizations entrenched in high conflict see only win-lose approaches to problem solving in which winning demands complete concession from the other side. Each side wants to persuade the “opposition” rather than listen and compromise. In high conflict, groups cannot move forward.