I was discussing this topic with someone the other day and this person expressed the following thoughts (paraphrased):

The context that you are dealing with is built on trust – yes, trust. The only way in that part of the world that one builds trust is through constant tea drinking until the local person believes that you are trustworthy. That “trustworthiness” will be demonstrated by your willingness to patiently wait through endless meetings until the time is deemed correct to start the “trust” relationship. Further time has a different meaning to us westerners than those you are dealing with currently. We are all about get right to it, let’s “getter” done and on to the next challenge. For the part of the world you are in now, where there has been a civilization of some form for 6,000 years, time is not so important. Next, you are in a culture of traders where success may be had by being cleverer than the next person. Team work is not the norm unless it is in the tribal context. Finally, failure is as painful to the people in the Middle East as it is in Asia and many other parts of the world. Saving face is key.

So I guess my thought is that for collaborative approach to work in that part of the world; trust must be present and trust takes time and is very fragile. There are millions of examples of misplaced trust in the Middle East over the centuries and that makes me believe that it will be a long time before collaboration becomes the norm there.

Having said all that, I believe that the approach you are advocating has more of a chance in the US, UK and Australia. These are cultures in my opinion are more willing to try new approaches, take risks and persevere until an approach is deemed successful or not. Once the collaborative approach catches hold (and it will) progress will be stupefying in my opinion. It seems that it is more likely going to take hold in Governmental organizations and company like BearingPoint where collaboration can bring success quickly. The one major barrier I see is that for the older generation, information is power and job security; so you may just have to wait until some of the dinosaurs are gone.