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.