This session introduces students to the second fundamental aspects of negotiations: claiming value. Creating value (covered in the previous session) is all about negotiating to reach win-win agreements. In this session, students learn how to claim that value for themselves. If the previous session was all about cooperation, this session’s focus is on competing with the counterpart.
What is it like to teach this session?
What is it like to teach this session?
- Students like this session because the focus is on “getting value for themselves”. Students can immediately see how what they learn can help them secure better prices, higher salaries, and other benefits. Students also feel relieved after the exercise because they realise that seemingly confrontational negotiations (mostly over price in this session’s exercise) can be enjoyable as well.
- Instructors appreciate the no-nonsense, clear and obvious benefits they can share with students. The content of this session is easy to grasp and communicate.
Students in this session:
- negotiate “The Art Case” exercise, a simple negotiation between a buyer and a seller
- learn about the three fundamental keys to negotiation success
- learn about how to claim value for themselves, for example by negotiating better prices, a higher salary, or more time off
- learn how making the first offer can anchor the negotiation to their advantage
- Students how have also completed the previous session now have covered the fundamentals of creating and claiming value in negotiations
- are able to prepare their fundamentals for negotiation success
- can distinguish between their BATNA, their aspiration price, and their reservation price
- know when and how to make the first offer to anchor the negotiation to their advantage
- are more comfortable negotiating confrontational, single-issue negotiations
- The Art Case is a very simple exercise that takes about 50 minutes (short version) to 90 minutes (long version) to complete.
- The Art Case contains a lot of information and numbers. Students have to choose: which of these numbers and information should they really pay attention to to help them in their negotiation?
- The structure of The Art Case exercise is very simple, part of the challenge for students is to decide which information they should pay attention to.
- (Short version) 50 minutes: 20 minutes to read the materials + 30 minutes to negotiate
- (Long version) 90 minutes: 35 minutes to read the materials, 40 minutes to negotiate, 15 minutes to give the counterpart feedback and to have a break
- There are 2 students in each negotiation. Give one student the role materials of “Museum Director” (trying to buy an art piece) to read and prepare. Give the other student the role materials of “Gallery Owner” (trying to sell an art piece) to read and prepare.
- If there is one student “left over” because you have an uneven number of students, that student can: – join an existing negotiation and build a team with one of the negotiators. This negotiation then consists of 3 students where 2 negotiations form a team, negotiating with one other student. It doesn’t matter which side the extra student joins, although it might be better for 2 “Museum Directors” to negotiate against 1 “Gallery Owner” – observe one or several ongoing negotiations. Thus, the extra student can read the role materials for both parties (and so know about the negotiation structure) and then go from one negotiation to the next and learn more than they could ever learn in real world negotiations where they would never have this insight
- You can distribute the role materials by printing them out and handing them to students. We have also shared pdfs with all students and just told them to only look at their copies before the negotiation begins. This requires the students to “not look at the counterpart’s materials”. In our experience, students generally don’t cheat.
Session Length:
90 - 180 minutes
Objective:
Students learn to claim value for themselves in a negotiation (negotiating for better salary, better prices, more time off)
Negotiation Exercise:
The Art Case teaches students practically which information to pay attention to (the three fundamentals to negotiation success), and helps them become comfortable with confrontational, single-issue negotiations
Exercise Length:
50 (short version) - 90 minutes (long version)
