On the road to negotiate..

1st September is a day that announce lots of change in my life of exchange student in Tampere University of Technology from France. Let me tell you why ! As as student of management I've choose a course called "International Negotiation". Don't be afraid, those 2 words will become normal words at the end of this article. I've chosen this course because I think that as a future manager I've to improve my negotiate skills, or just discover the part of me which is able to do that.

I signed up the course, but I saw that this course gives priorities to non exchange student, because it's part of their grade (to bad for me).
As a novice negotiator I sent an email to one of the big negotiator in Finlande : Mrs O'Neill. I tried to tell her how I was determine to participe to this course. And she told me to come and then we will see how students will be present.
Phew.. I will can participate to this course this semester ! Good new to start this new month.
Moreover, I understood that Mrs O'Neill will give us all the secret keys to become good negotiator.. Let's become a NegoCiator..
I didn't follow a course that the main was to improve our negotiate skills during my studies in France. I don't really know what I want to become and which job I want to do in the future, but I know that I want to work on business and think that this course will help me getting clearing the woman I want to be-become.

When the word "negotiation" sounds I imagine : disparity, going to a meet trying to save our idea/deal.. loosely speaking not a win-win thing. I was thinking that it's the meet of two people who wants to find a golden mean but in which one wins and one loses. I can't imagine, in business, people finding a real golden mean..
Maybe it's because I don't have any negotiation skills, and the only negotiation I've try to get were with my mom, asking her if I can go out with my friends, if she cans give me more money, if i can tidy my room later..


In the Management field I know that I will be confront to negotiation and to people who will knows more about me in this subject. But 'impossible' it's not a french word, so I don't want to think that I will not become as good as them or better than them.
Let's Mrs O'Neill introduce the course with few presentation of it, of her, of the grade and of negotiation.
But then, I understood that the best way to negotiate is to know more about the person with which we will negotiate (and of course try to "won").
That's why she prepare a really funny game that consists in present ourselves giving our first name and a thing that we like and that it begin by the same letter of our first name (ex : I am Louiza and I like Lapland..)
Now I know that Miam likes Mango, Ibrahim likes Ice skating, Vanessa likes videos, Lucie likes Lion.. ! How funny was it. We all have to remember the name and what all people with passed before us likes.
Let's continue with an other game with is consists to ask questions about the hobbies, the trip..

Everything that could be simplify the negotiation. In fact, when you find a commun point with the other people, it make the negotiation easy. Because it create trust, confidence..

One of the thing I fell in those 3hours courses are that it will be lots of interactions because all students are from around the word, and cultures are very different on the field of negotiation.
I really look forward to know more about Chinese, Spanish, Finnish, German.. negotiation cultures. Because I am curious,because of the globalization and all it create in the business world & because I really want to know more about other cultures and I think that my Erasmus year in Tampere will help me with that !

So let's wait for the next course !