This is the end

All things must come to an end, and this course is no exception. During the final session we had one last simulated negotiation, this time as a political(ish) roleplay between four nations of the Gaia planet. Each of the countries had certain goals and each member in a group also received an individual role. After the countries had introduced themselves to one another, we got two proposals to choose from. We got 20 minutes to lobby our proposal among the other nations. After that each proposal was presented, shortly commented and then voted.

Our group got a peace-loving non-materialistic nation, which was basically the equivalent of hippies in that planet. My personal role was to be the leader of the group. The proposal we chose was to build a temple for all of the religions so that they would be equal. Luckily another nation had a similar proposal, so it was easy to form an alliance with them. The two other groups had quite different views compared to ours, so not a whole lot could be done on that front. The lobbying was quite chaotic, but in the end we managed to get quite good results as both of the religion-themed proposals went through. The last two proposals ended up in a tie, but passed with the flip of a coin.

The roleplaying aspect made the negotiation quite fun and I could feel that everyone was a lot more relaxed during the exercise when compared to the beginning of the course. A fifth country would have made the voting and lobbying a lot more interesting, but unfortunately there really wasn't enough people for that. Nevertheless, this was a really good ending to our course. It summarized a lot of the things we have learned during the course.

Speaking of which, I think it's time to wrap up what I have gotten from this course. The most important thing during this course for me has been all of the simulations. I haven't really had to negotiate that much before this course, so getting some practice is definitely going to be useful for the future. I've also learned quite a lot about myself as a negotiator, especially after watching the video from the first assessed negotiation and getting the peer feedback. Even before the course I knew that it would be difficult for me to be aggressive in a negotiation situation, but in addition to that I also learned that I definitely should improve my eye-contact and try to get a bit more relaxed. Hopefully I can improve all of this as I get more experience in negotiating.

That's all from me. I would like to thank everyone participating in this course for making it a really fun experience. Cheers.

The second assessed simulation

The topic of team negotiations carried over from the last session before the Easter break, this time as an assessed simulation. The negotiation consisted of two parties: a truck manufacturing company and a frozen food supplier. Our team, the frozen food supplier, wanted to order six trucks from the other company. The simulation also contained a point-system, where points were obtained by getting certain parts of the deal as favourable as possible to our own company. The minimum goal was to get ten points. Once the teams had been divided, we had 30 minutes to come up with our plan for the negotiation. Our groups main focus was on the bonus points, because we knew that it would be nearly impossible to get the ten points only from the main criteria. So our plan was that we would get as many extra perks as possible by offering the other party some additional perks from our side. We spent actually quite a lot of time in thinking about what the other team would want as extra in the deal.

Then it was time for the real deal, a four-on-four negotiation between the frozen food company (me, Giambattista, Tang and Mikko) and the truck company (Nicholas, Sampo, Katri and Ferdinand). We started off with a quite cheeky offer of 75k€ per truck, delivered in 30 days to six different ports. The offer wasn't received that well by the opposing party, but at least we got the ball rolling. After some offers and counteroffers from both sides, we decided that it was beneficial to take a short break and discuss in our group how to continue. After this point, we got stuck for way too long negotiating about the price and delivery time. The tension was rising and at times it seemed that the negotiation would just fall flat on its face. After some time we managed to find an agreement on the price and delivery, and from there onwards everything was a lot calmer and easier. In the end, I think the result was quite good for both companies.

Now regarding my own performance, it can be summarized in a single word: bland. I knew beforehand that it would be difficult for me to take a turn to speak and it was. In the first part of the negotiation, before the break, I didn't say anything at all. During the break I took the initiative to present our offer, so that I would get at least something said in the negotiation. There were a couple of times where I was a bit uncomfortable because of the tension in the situation, and wanted to make a more compromising offer. However, I didn't want us to get a bad deal because of me, so I just kept my mouth shut. In my defence, I have to say that Giambattista and Mikko are really good and convincing speakers, so it was probably for the best to let them do most of the talking. On the positive side, there were a couple of things I improved from the last assessed simulation: I made better eye-contact and focused less on the paper and I didn't give in too easily (mostly because I didn't have to talk). Also, because I was silent for the most part, I could follow the conversation and negotiation really well. I made a lot of notes during the negotiation and was at all times prepared to step in to the discussion, had it been necessary.

Next time it is the last session of the course. I've definitely learned a great deal, but I'll leave summing up the course for the next blog entry.