Anglais - Négociation M1LAAN02 - groupe 1

The first document deals with the fact that cultural differences do influence business negotiations, and so a lack of knowledge or respect about the other party’s culture can totally ruin a negotiation process. That is why a negotiator has to be well prepared.  First of all, it is important to take into account every person who is involved directly or not in the negotiation process.  Then, it is also important to consider informal influences such as local culture or history that are very powerful and could impact all the negotiation process.  Once these points have been defined, the negotiator has to find the best approach to negotiate with the other party and so, she/he has to be compatible with her/himself specifically. This way, the negotiator will have to define a strategy.  Sometimes, even if a negotiator is aware to all these details the negotiation process can be hard since she/he could be facing a top-down authority that does not want to delegate p...

Today, the first role-play was quite hard since I had to play the Roo/Dana role, which means that I had to be tough and aggressive. It was strange since the last reading about mental errors actually deals with the fact that during a negotiation process … a negotiator should not be led by his/her emotions! I tried to fit my role and I used some arguments in order to convince JT to fire Sandy Brown. In the beginning, it was very long but it helped me realized that being fixed on an idea like Roo and Dana were is bad in a negotiation process. Indeed, every time JT tried to convince us to be rational or every time Sandy tried to prove he was not guilty, we retaliated and we stayed stuck to our guns. This way, we could not get somewhere. For his part, JT did a really good job since he wanted to be fair and not to take any hurried decision, he tried to keep the situation quiet. Unfortunately, he did something bad. Sometimes, JT seemed to say that anybody could have stolen payroll checks, ev...

This article is very interesting because it deals with 5 mental errors a negotiator can commit and that are main issues during a negotiation process. Thus, this article also offers some solutions in order to avoid that kind of errors.  The first mental error any negotiator, either beginner or experienced, can make during a difficult and competitive negotiation is « escalation ». She/he makes irrational decisions triggered by its ego or its competitiveness considering the fact that she/he is negotiating with other people’s money. The solution to avoid this behavior is to set limits. For instance, the negotiator can set a limit on the money she/he is willing to spend and then inform its colleagues so she/he will have to respect that collective decision. This will help the negotiator to stay objective in any case.  The second mental error a negotiator can do is to have « partisan perceptions ». This idea means that sometimes, a negotiator thinks that ...

Today’s negotiation was very hard since the two parties were both composed by several bargainers. I was part of the group that defended the Village’s interests, and we had an hour to talk together and highlight all the issues we wanted to deal with the representant of the complex, in order to solve them. At the end of the roleplay, the negotiation process was a bad experience because we felt like we didn’t obtain anything we wanted despite we were very flexible for the main issues and we accepted solutions that were not our best options. Our principal issues were about the security of children and the lack of respect from workmen. Initially, we wanted to close the main road and build another one, but we finally agreed on keeping the road open provided that a flagman would be hire to watch the traffic. Then we wanted them to change their workforce because the workers were not respectful and they even catcalled young girls. Finally, they only offer us to impose rules for the workers a...

First of all, this article was really useful because it brought me answers to questions I was wondering during the negotiation class. I also learned things that will be very useful for my next negotiation process. For instance, I learned that it is better to negotiate face to face than by telephone or email. Actually, I totally agree with that! I think that a big part of the analysis you do about your opponent is visual. Indeed, you can observe its facial reactions to what you say, you can see if he/she seems angry, stressed or confident. Indeed, non-verbal attitude is more meaningful than words. This analysis is important because it enables you to what behavior you need to have during the negotiation process. It is also interesting to learn how to react in case your opponent opens the negotiation with an unreasonable offer! Now, for the next negotiation classes, if the other side proposes me something unreasonable, I will have many options such as making a joke or clearly state that...

Sally Soprano and the Lyrics Opera During the last class, we played a negotiation game during which we had to negotiate the salary for an artist, Sally Soprano, who was tipped to perform the title role in an opera, Norma, a production of the Lyrics Opera.  There were two parties, the first one represented Sally’s interests and the second one represented Lyrics Opera’s interests. Ophélie and I represented Sally Soprano’s interests and Alina represented Lyric Opera’s interests.  We had 20 minutes to prepare our BATNA and build a strategy to convince our opponent and make a good deal for both of us. Considering all the information we had, we decided to use Sally’s advantages as good arguments to prove that she deserved a salary at the height of her talent. On the other hand, we prepared counter-arguments in case our opponent would highlight Sally’s weak points, such as her age or her declining reputation.  Firstly, our best arguments were the fact that Sally...