Final negotiation simulation

 Photo: Mybusinesssuccess.com

Our final negotiation was a lot of fun for me, as we had a quite complicated case given the variables and the scoring for each variable. We took our time and took three timeouts during the negotiation, but in the end the willingness of both teams to reach a deal paid off.

What comes to teamwork, I think our team stayed very united and tried to find creative solutions to reach a deal and therefore the last simulation was a success for us. At times it seemed hard for us to find a way to convince the other team why our proposal would benefit them, and we should have slowed down a bit to give them more time to think it over.

After the simulation it was time for some snacks and reviewing our performances. After Easter holidays we will do some reflection on the whole course and our blogs. At this point we have already come up with a conclusion stating that this course was not a complete failure ;)

Yesterday we went through the assessment criteria negotiation simulation (quite a word monster if you ask me!). We ended up discussing also what kind of feedback is useful. Personally I think feedback is useless if there is no catch how to change your behaviour or improve your performance in the future. Preferably these suggestions are written in a polite manner and positive approach.

                                                                 Photo pcrest2.com

The final team negotiation is scheduled for next class. For some useful instructions how to prepare you can read further here.

Team negotiation exercise

Negotiating can be even more fun in teams, as there more opinions on the subject! Today we had some time to prepare for team negotiating exercise to form some kind of strategy and to decide which role every member of our group takes. First we tried to think what would be optimal outcome of the negotiation for our group and listed the parameters that have significant impact on the outcome. This gives a solid foundation for arguments.

Choosing roles for negotiation is not so simple though. There are some common tactics to use in role-taking, but it is much easier to choose the members of the group so that they can naturally take the desired roles (if it's possible to choose the members). 

                                                      Photo personalityspirituality.net

What comes to moving other people, it maybe a bit surprising that the ambiverts (people that are in the middle) have the edge compared to introverts and extroverts from a scientific point of view. They happen to have the right balance for listening and speaking up.

If you want to learn more about team negotiation skills, you can read further from here.

Observations from Skype simulations

Last time we conducted simulations with Skype. Each simulation included 4 participants responsible of different areas in a building project in a specific country. As we expected, there were numerous technical problems we encountered during the simulations, but they didn't prevent us from achieving the goals for the simulation. Actually most of us came out from simulations happy and smiling!

                                          Photo Amazon.com, Logitech TV Cam HD

In our group a consensus seemed to be achieved pretty effortless in my opinion. My personal view on the issue was to aim for a result that everyone else is happy to go with without sacrificing too much from a fair share of our 'company'. A strategy that aims for higher value than the expected share of the project I would not use unless there is no future business to be conducted. Vice versa, I would not be inclined to do future projects with other participants if their strategy revealed they would not settle for their expected share of the project. Of course choosing this strategy requires the assumption that there is a fixed amount of resources needed from each participant to achieve a minimum viable product or project. If the decision-making situation would involve more information asymmetry then it would be easier to justify greedier strategies.

In real-life negotiations it's useful to have at least some kind of understanding how participants from different cultures might behave even if you don't have a chance to meet them beforehand. To become more familiar with behaviour of different cultures in negotiations please click here.

Presentations

Last time was time to share what each project group had learned from their project. To be honest, our group had no idea what to expect from other groups! There were so many topics you could choose from and also numerous ways how to present the topic. To our positive surprise, each group seemed to have taken a different approach in their topic and also in their way of demonstration instead of choosing to do a traditional PP presentation. For example, while we chose to show and analyse some videos from Youtube embedded in a Prezi presentation, other groups did illustrative acting, small group discusssions and even showing video material of interviews they had conducted during their project!

It seemed to me that there wasn't too much pressure in presenting your thing as by now everybody has gotten familiar with each other and informal interaction was the norm rather than exception. For learning and active participation of audience the atmosphere was just right in my opinion. Also thanks to Sarina we did a written review of each presentation besides giving feedback right after the presentations.

Since I noticed Prezi is was not familiar to all of us, I encourage everybody to try it out. You can get a free license by registering with TUT email address.

A tip for preparing for tomorrow Skype simulation: If you call somebody by phone or somebody calls you today or tomorrow forenoon, you can already start to try out at least these tricks for better communication:

1) Active listening, give periodic clues you're still there!

2) Remember to smile, this is very good for your voice and expression and might break the ice

3) Address tech problems immediately if they occur, and redial if needed

See you guys tomorrow!

Hi guys!

Last meeting we had some time to analyse recordings of negotiation simulations. Our group watched two videos and reviewed the negotiators based on their performance. We also went trough some theory with topics of BATNA and different negotiating styles. BATNA also known as best alternative negotiated agreement plays a key role in defining whether a negotiator can afford to 'stand up from the table' and leave without a deal being made.  If there are no alternative options available and the issue is very important to you, you usually have to take the deal even if the terms are for bad yourself. For preparing to negotiations it's very beneficial to know what kind of negotiation styles you are going to encounter. If you don't have this information available beforehand, you can try to recognize the style of the other side as soon as possible when the negotiation starts.

Next week our team of 3 members is going to work on informal assignment, which we are going to present visually with Prezi and attached video clips. Looking forward to our team meeting on Monday, same time but different place :)

Nonverbal communication

Today our topic was nonverbal communication. This is a topic I'm pretty interested in because everything you learn about nonverbal communication you can instantly put into use. The exercises we went trough were a bit challenging but fun at the same time. To get your message trough without speaking needs a bit of creativity. When I told one of my schoolmates who is not attending to this course what we did today in class he was like 'oh boy, I wish more courses would be like that'!

I am glad many of you have attached educational videos to your blog posts! Nowadays Youtube is quite useful for learning more just about any topic you can imagine. You could actually prepare for our next class searching for material on Youtube with keywords 'preparing negotiations', for example. You can also use videos for recapping the topics from the previous lesson. Here is something to get you started:

Hi there,

last class was all about language of persuasion. I think the most important thing about persuasion you can apply in communicating (besides mastering the techniques of persuasion yourself) is to recognize when somebody is trying to persuade you. When you recognize this, you are able to consciously take the appropriate action and choose right. Continuing the series of funny exercises, I will try turning on my persuasion radar in every conversation I am going have before next class and see, if this has any effect on my behaviour or decision making.

We did some simulations in debates with relatively easy topics, which actually mostly turned into conversations with two different points of view. To access the video I recorded, please drop me an email to forename.surename@tut.fi (name can be found from participant list of the course moodle page).

I don't really mind that we didn't try to 'out-argument' each other in the simulations, sometimes it's much better to look at the issue with open eyes and not judge some particular point of view. From my own experience I can say that Dale Carnegie, Author of How To Win Friends & Influence People, is perfectly right when he states that ''The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it''. The reason is simple: you can't win an argument, because if you lose it, you lose it, and if you happen to win it, you lose it as you are calling someone wrong and their resentment towards you and your ideas grows, therefore resulting in contradictory views.

There are also many other invaluable lessons to be learned from Dale concerning debates and negotiations. Just to shortly list a few ideas:

1. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "You're wrong."
2. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
3. Begin in a friendly way.
4. Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.


If you want to learn more from Dale, feel free to search for a book looking like this:

Looking forward to see you next week!

During the second lesson we got right into action, simulating a negotiation on a large oil trade in groups of 4 students. The premises were pretty strict and during the second phase of negotiation there was new information appeared for both parties. In a real life situation I guess there would not have been a way to find a deal between the seller and the buyer. This simulation though was more about learning to share and gather information. We had an open and kind atmosphere during the simulation, and I would not mind negotiating with our counterparty in the future :)

From theoretical point of view, an integrative approach should have been used, since the negotiables were valued differently by the buyer and the seller in the simulation. Integrative approach allows value creation by deciding on the negotiables according to preferences and priorities of both parties. Distributive approach is used when it's possible only to divide a cake of certain size between the parties. However, in business-to-business negotiations, one must take into account that there might be (and usually will be) business to conduct with the counterpart in the future. Therefore it is often beneficial for both parties to make deals in a way that allows the growth for both businesses in the long term.

For effective negotiating, one needs to be good at pitching and presenting his ideas and opinions. Listening is a key skill: the more information you can grab the better you can adjust your negotiating strategy and form the content of your proposals. Reflecting on my own performance yesterday, my view on my greatest weakness in negotiating was confirmed: I'm easily persuaded out of the boundaries I've decided to be the absolute minimum I'm willing to accept. I might overvalue pleasing other people in negotiations, or fear that I am going to lose a friend if I don't agree to his or her terms. Well, as I am now on the right course to become a better negotiator, I will set a goal to eliminate this weakness :) One way to do that would be turning into this kind of object:

                                          (Sheela Sharma/National Geographic)

At least I imagine it would be hard to persuade a rock!

For the next lesson, I am planning to prepare by observing body language of the people I will meet during the rest of the week. Every time there is a situation that even slightly resembles a negotiation I will carefully watch what kind of posture the other person takes, how he moves his hands, how intense eye-contact he takes etc. By doing this consciously I might learn a trick or two and even if I can't immediately make useful conclusions, this exercise is going to be pretty fun!

                                         Image from www.theartofliving.com.au

Greetings!

This blog will work as my reflective learning diary during my journey to mastering negotiation skills. I will also share some useful resources that I (hopefully) find during this journey, and before each contact lesson I'm going to describe how I'm planning to prepare for the next topic. I encourage my fellow students doing the same, or alternatively finding their own preparation method!

Bearing in mind that negotiation skills will come handy in any walk of life, I will constantly trying to apply new skills that I learn in my everyday communication. Besides studying this topic in University I'm taking on a project on the area of personal development, in which I will try a slightly different approach (getting better at communicating with people in general). Since being truly enthusiastic about the topic you're trying to get better at will help immensely in learning, I might as well start consciously observing myself in negotiation situations I find myself in all the time!

The first preparation plan for the next contact lesson comes here: Take a look at the topic of the lesson, and think what would you like to learn about that topic. Then set ONE goal for learning, and see if you can achieve it during the next contact lesson. Actually this plan could apply to all of the forthcoming contact lessons ;)

And since I fancy reading inspirational books, here comes book tip of the day:

See you next week!