Mt. Sinai

· General:

The negotiation started out like one would expect. We ran through all the issues that were going to be discussed and then came back to number one. I had Mason present the issue as the MMM was ‘his baby’ in order to get the discussion started. We presented our opinions and the pros and cons of this issue before taking a vote which revealed option 3 as the tentative winner. At the end we were going to confirm each decision so that there would be some leeway to satisfy parties who might not have got what they desired. We then started speaking about the second issue, but realized that with such a rigid framework no discussion could sway a member’s opinion on an issue and attempts to frame the negotiation were futile. We decided to simply lay our cards on the table and share our unacceptables and must haves. We made a chart and were careful to make sure that no party had an unacceptable option. This created some parties with many barely acceptables, who were slightly disappointed, but came to terms considering the way the numbers worked out.

Negotiation Process: What was the process of negotiation- opening offers, sequences of offers, counteroffers, anchoring, initial offer, counteroffers? Did the other side start really high/low? What effect did this have on the negotiation?

Score yourself from 1=poor to 5=excellent

_5_ Planning and Strategy: did I have a strategy; was my walkaway right; did I estimate the other’s well?

I had a strategy, but it was for a more formal negotiation…the numbers game won out.

_4__Did I establish my own priorities and potential trade-offs

_5__First approach: were we win-win, positive; try to establish rapport; did I deal with first offers effectively?

_4__How well did I develop a plan for managing the process of negotiation?

I expected this to be a more formal negotiation in which framing and creative options would be important in an outcome. Turned out to be a math problem, which I had not planned.

_4__Did I actively shape the agenda and manage the process to my advantage?

As CEO was able to lead the meeting from the beginning and was shaping the agenda, but it didn’t make sense to do it this way in the exercise.

_5__How well did I try understand the other person:

We were all very open with our positions

_5__Exploring Interests: did I communicate my interests;

_--__Persuasion: Not very important in this negotiation. Came down to numbers

_5__The Other's Interests did I find out the other side's real interests and constraints

_--__Creating Value (integrative or win-win) vs Claiming Value (distributive or win-lose)

_--__Options: Did we explore "expand the pie" options: did we try to find ways of meeting each party’s needs

_5__Inquiry vs. advocacy: did I ask (inquiry) a lot of questions, or just advocate my position

_5__Alternatives: Was I clear on my BATNA; was I clear about what happens if there is no agreement

_5__Legitimacy: was the agreement considered fair by some external benchmark

_5__Commitments: did the agreement avoid problems in the future; were any “strings left untied?”

_5__Communication: did we practice effective two way communication…did we listen…did we rephrase…

_5__Focus on the problem, not the person: did we avoid attacking or threatening the other person

_5__Relationship: did we deal well with differences; is our relationship better off now than before

_5__Psychological factors: did outside factors (eg. emotions) affect the outcome (their efforts or ours)

_5__Did we reach an outcome that maximized potential mutual gains; did we come close to the "Pareto Frontier?"

General Conclusion:

As CEO I was excited and prepared to lead a discussion about the relevant issues. I had plans of how to frame the issues, who to have present various issues and how to appear as neutral as possible and achieve my goals. This was effective in the first issue which was discussed, negotiated and voted upon. However, given the structure of this negotiation, negotiating seemed too difficult considering the rigidity of each persons desires and the inability to invent options. Instead we decided to disclose all our information, set up a chart and solve the puzzle. When it came down to it, not much was learned from this negotiation, it really came down to a puzzle that we solved as a group.