{"id":8,"date":"2007-02-09T17:51:12","date_gmt":"2007-02-09T21:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/pon1\/2007\/02\/09\/some-self-reflection-for-the-weekend\/"},"modified":"2007-02-16T10:58:44","modified_gmt":"2007-02-16T14:58:44","slug":"some-self-reflection-for-the-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/2007\/02\/09\/some-self-reflection-for-the-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Some self-reflection for the weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

So my first simulated negotiations are complete \u2013 and they were just as exciting and educational as I had hoped (and less scary).\u00a0 This entry could go on at nauseum<\/em> as I sift through all the emotions and reflections that these simulations provoked.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll just pick a few.<\/p>\n

One thing that struck me related to preparing for the negotiation.\u00a0 I knew that prep was important; in fact, I probably went a little overboard.\u00a0 The night before, I pored over my instruction sheets, trying to identify all interests on both sides and looking for common goals and listing all possible arguments for and against each option.\u00a0 I also wrote everything down in (what I thought was) an organized fashion.\u00a0 Well, this process probably helped me, but really what I was left with at the end of my individual prep was a big jumbled mess.\u00a0 I might have had the right information, but it just wasn\u2019t organized well.<\/p>\n

The prep-by-side session in Gillien Todd\u2019s<\/a> working group was a complete paradigm shift.\u00a0 Using the \u201cSeven Elements\u201d<\/a> worksheet, we separated the facts of the case into alternatives, options, and interests, and considered how they affected each party\u2019s legitimacy, communication, relationship, and ability to commit.\u00a0 I was astounded by how many creative ideas we came up with as a group \u2013 there was no way I could have thought of everything on my own.\u00a0 I really did feel much more confident after this session, and I feel sure that it was because of the collaborative and \u201cbrainstorm\u201d-style way that our group prepared.<\/p>\n

Another realization (which was almost a total revelation to me) had to do with my own personal style of negotiating.\u00a0 My approach to most things in general is very listening-based; I like to hear the other point of view, and respond accordingly.\u00a0 In that order.\u00a0 This approach worked for me in formal mediation, and it works for me in lots of other everyday situations, so I definitely assumed that it would also get me a good outcome in a negotiation scenario.\u00a0 But after having acted this way in at least two negotiations over the past few days, I\u2019m unsure.\u00a0 I was never the one to start<\/em> the negotiation; this would have felt very unnatural to me, and overly assertive \u2013 bossy, even.\u00a0 But a couple of my partners surprised me in the way they started their negotiations in an assertive but open way.\u00a0 I realized:\u00a0 it is possible!\u00a0 I think it will be a big challenge for me to get comfortable with being assertive and firm without feeling like I\u2019m alienating the opposing party.\u00a0 I guess this is what I meant in my last entry when I predicted that being in a third party facilitating role feels different than negotiating on behalf of interests.<\/p>\n

For similar reasons, the value-creation exercise that we did in working groups after negotiating was intriguing.\u00a0 I found that it was quite easy for me to identify shared interests and develop creative options that created value.\u00a0 In fact, I had done some of this in my negotiation on Thursday, when I represented an opera singer interested in a leading role.\u00a0 But this also made me worry a bit \u2013 is there some sort of tension between creating value and protecting your own interests?\u00a0 During the negotiations, sometimes it felt as though I was creating options that were good<\/em> for my client, but perhaps I could have found better<\/em> options.\u00a0\u00a0 I was so eager to identify common goals that once we found them in the negotiation, I stopped pushing to see if I could get even more.\u00a0 It seemed like a combination of the winner\u2019s curse and simply forgetting about my own interests that the other party might not<\/em> share.\u00a0 Is it possible to be too agreement-happy as a negotiator?<\/p>\n

These tough questions \u2013 and startling realizations about myself! – will probably come up again and again as I continue to negotiate in my daily life.\u00a0 But now that I\u2019ve been exposed to my own challenges, it would be great fill in again at the Workshop and participate in more simulations.\u00a0 In the nicest way possible, I\u2019m hoping for some more absences!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So my first simulated negotiations are complete \u2013 and they were just as exciting and educational as I had hoped (and less scary).\u00a0 This entry could go on at nauseum as I sift through all the emotions and reflections that these simulations provoked.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll just pick a few. One thing that struck me related […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":920,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1287],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pon-intern"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}