This session provides students with a deep understanding of negotiation structures. Students learn about the three kinds of preferences negotiators can have and how they can use these three types of preferences to negotiate agreements that make everyone better off. Students also learn why compromising, or meeting in the middle, systematically destroys value in most negotiations.
What is it like to teach this session?
What is it like to teach this session?
- Students find this session very valuable because it provides them with a deep foundation from which they can understand complex negotiation structures. They feel well-prepared to choose the right negotiation strategy depending on the specific situation they’re in. They also enjoy hearing about job negotiation strategies and are highly motivated to improve their own outcomes even by just a few percentage points.
- Instructors like teaching this session because it is quite dense in content, but also offers two negotiation exercises. The session is packed with valuable insights and learnings for students, helping instructors teach the session.
Students in this session:
- negotiate “The Job Negotiation” exercise
- learn about three different kinds of preferences negotiators can have on any negotiation issue and how to approach each of these
- learn why meeting in the middle destroys value on most negotiation issues
- complete a simple step-by-step guide to help them prepare for their own job negotiations
- (Can complete an additional negotiation exercise, time permitting “The Dublin Case”)
- can apply their deep understanding of negotiation structures to be confident in even complex negotiation situations
- should avoid lazy compromises on most negotiation issues and instead seek value-maximising negotiated agreements
- are better prepared to negotiate and improve their own job offers. Knowing that even a few percentage points adds up to huge differences over time is motivating students
- The Job Case is a simple exercise that helps students understand complex negotiations. The Job Case is simple because it’s short text-wise, and complex in terms of the underlying negotiation structure: there are 8 different issues, distributed across three different kinds of preferences.
- The Job Case takes 40 minutes (short version) – 70 minutes (long version) to complete.
- (Short version): 10 minutes to read the materials + 20 minutes to negotiate
- (Long version): 15 minutes to read the materials, 45 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 “Candidate” to read and prepare. Give the other student the role materials of “Recruiter” 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. The extra student should form a team with the Recruiter so that there are 2 recruiters negotiating against 1 candidate. Recruiting committees are common and so it makes sense for 2 students to play the role of the recruiters. – 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”. We have only made good experiences with this approach.
- Time permitting, students can also complete another negotiation in this session, called “The Dublin Case”. This exercise is not mandatory but can help students develop a deeper understanding and more experience with job negotiations. This negotiation should take (short version) 40 minutes (10 minutes to read the materials, 30 minutes to negotiate) to (long version) 50 minutes (15 minutes to read the materials, 35 minutes to negotiate) to complete. The negotiation has 2 roles and students either receive the materials for “Kristin” (recruiting) or “Graham” (seeking a job). If there is 1 student left over because there is an uneven number of students, that student should form a team with “Kristin” (it’s common for companies to have recruiting committees).
Session Length:
xx - xx minutes
Objective:
Students learn how to develop a deep understanding of negotiation structures that can be applied to even complex negotiations
Negotiation Exercise:
The Job Case exercise teaches students practically...
Exercise Length:
xx (short version) - xx minutes (long version)
