An approach is provided for collaboratively synchronizing devices in an ad hoc network. Responsive to a transmission of a map by a first device to other device(s) listening to the first device, a second device determines the map, which allocates time slots to devices, indicates a conflict by which a same time slot is allocated to the second device and another device. The transmission is responsive to a determination that a Boolean value is true with a probability p if the first device is in an alive mode or a probability q if the first device is in a dormant mode, where p>q and q>0, and where p and q indicate respective likelihoods of performing the transmission. The second device resolves the conflict by allocating another time slot to the second device.