Real-World Negotiation
As the task is to plan a negotiation in an interesting setting, the idea is to select a library as a setting. The rationale for this choice is having an experience of bad cooperation, but failing to react to it properly. During one of my previous courses, I had to become a part of a team for completing a project. However, all of the team members turned out ineffective. So, I was forced to complete the task by myself because the mark was collective. As a result, I had to stay up two nights and do work for three people, who did not want to conduct research and write the paper. Therefore, this negotiation planning is an attempt to describe what I should have done to avoid extra work that was unnecessary and know how to react to similar situations in the future. This one is not a spontaneous negotiation because teamwork is a common aspect of learning.
The idea of this planning is to be prepared for negotiating with team members so that everyone is responsible for their part of work and no one procrastinates during completing the project. The motivation is to reach an initial agreement that we will meet in the library on a timely basis (once a week) and work together on the paper, reporting on the progress and checking it so that nobody is forced to complete others’ parts to meet the requirements of the task. My interest is that I am responsible for my part only and all work is completed in time. The best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA) is that we meet at least once in two weeks (online or phone conference is an acceptable option) so that everyone is confident that other team members are conducting research and developing their parts of the project.
In this case, those involved may demonstrate no interest in such a plan and have an aggressive stance because they do not want to spend time on library meetings. Therefore, the idea is to deploy a technique known as negotiation jujitsu. It means that I will not criticize or reject others’ opinions. Instead, I will look behind them and analyze their positions by asking enough questions to understand them so that it is possible to reach my BATNA (Fisher & Ury, 2011). The main feature of the method is to ask questions for understanding their positions. That being said, my negotiation plan includes the following steps:
- Organize an initial meeting in the library, divide roles, and determine responsibilities;
- Inform everyone on the criticality of timely meetings in the library with a special focus on benefits, such as being confident in the quality of the completed paper and avoiding the risks of being forced to complete others’ work;
- Listen to their opinions and make sure that they support me;
- Offer meetings once in two weeks if the rest of the team members reject my initial idea of meeting once in a week;
- Introduce the option of online (Skype) or telephone conferences once a week (or two weeks based on their reaction) if they still reject my opinion as well as exchanging files for sharing the progress.
In the case of conducting this negotiation, class materials can be integrated for concluding whether negotiation was jujitsu and all possible techniques were deployed to reach BATNA. As for myself, during planning the negotiation, I have learned that there is nothing wrong with sharing my opinion and protecting it, especially when working in a team with everyone being equally responsible for completing their parts of work.
Reference
Fisher, R., & Ury, W. (2011). Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in (3rd ed.). London, England: Penguin Books.