Adam Kahane, Juan Manuel Santos (Foreword by), Collaborating with the Enemy, Second Edition: How to Work with People You Don't Agree with or Like or Trust, 2nd Edition, 2025

Excerpt from the foreword

We can work together even across deep differences

In our increasingly polarized world, collaboration has become both more important and more difficult. To tackle the issues that matter most—from climate change to workplace conflict—we often must work with people we disagree with, dislike, or distrust. With new frameworks, practical exercises, and a discussion guide, this bestselling book returns with updated strategies for working across deepening divides. But strategy alone isn’t enough—we need a fundamental shift in how we think about and approach collaboration. Drawing on over thirty years of global experience, Adam Kahane challenges the myth of harmonious teamwork and offers a revolutionary approach that embraces discord, experimentation, and genuine cocreation.

When conventional collaboration fails, transformational collaboration begins.

“Peace, progress, and justice are only possible when we find ways to work with those we do not agree with, do not like, and do not trust. . . . That is why this book matters. Adam Kahane has spent decades helping people navigate the most intractable challenges by doing what seems counterintuitive: collaborating with the ‘enemy.’ His approach does not rely on harmony or consensus. Instead, it embraces complexity, uncertainty, and disagreement as essential ingredients of meaningful change. This is not the traditional model of collaboration: it is a deeper, more courageous, and ultimately more effective one.”

—from the foreword by Juan Manuel Santos, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

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