13th of October : Styles & Group Negotiation..

Now we are all negotiators, but which type are we ?
Firstly when Mia asks I choose "Accommodation" style of negotiation : individuals who enjoy solving the other party's problems and preserving personal relationships. As I said before, in my blog, I am not that kind of people who doesn't think about relationship during a negotiation, I focus on the human aspect overtime and in negotiation too.
Therefore,  I think that there is not a good negotiation style, it will depend on different factors : the other part, the importance of the negotiation, the main of the negotiation, for who the negotiation is (for me, for my boss..) .. A good negotiator will be able to adapt.

But I want to add that for me, the best negotiating style is a mix of collaborating, competing and compromising styles. It looks like : enjoyment to negotiate + creativity + doing what is fair and equal for all parties.. That's why I want to develop my competing and collaborating style, because I think that I also have a compromising style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK7awi5LPDM
This is a short "styles of negotiation" video for people who prefers videos than images !

After this point that allows us to focus on what king of negotiation we were before the beginning of this course and what we are now, we made a group negotiation.
I was part of the Tampere Team !
The game was very exciting because it a real one, and our solutions might be used by Mia and her colleagues..
My group ideas were :
-changing the meeting place each time, Helsinki or Tampere or also others cities between both
-1 skye meeting/video conference one month, 1 face-to-face meeting (social oriented meeting) the next month


The Final negotiation (with the 3 teams) was very quick and all of us agreed with :
- Changing the meeting place each time between Tampere-Helsinki-Cities near to both cities
-1 video conference meeting one month, 1 meeting (social oriented --> family week-end : 1st day is the business meeting the 2nd day is the family day with activities..) the next month..

We managed all our personal contraints, for example one of my team member is a single mom and has responsibilities..
We also managed the "surprise" :  unfortunately the 3rd branch of the company will close in few weeks, but we are very happy to welcome our future colleagues !

After that it was time to focus on our next assessment : Group assignment !
With 2 colleagues of my team we discussed about our topic.. And I will not write about it : surprise surprise ! I really think that it will be funny !


Good luck for you Exams ! I believe in all of you ! See you the 3rd of November

6th of October : My first call negotiation.. differences between real and virtual negotiations ! 


Before this lecture, with my Bulding team we have researched informations about price per square kilometres in the different countries of our companies.. We also talk about our negotiation strategies, and how to act during the final call.


Because it missed people, I changed to Electricity group, my 2 team workers were very kindly, they introduced me what they done with their group during the week and we talked about our strategy to negotiation the electricity amount part of the project. I represented Zambia (Africa)

Electricy- Zambia : 

Expenses : 22 000€

Expected Project Share : 55 000€

Accepted Budget : 41 240€

I asked for between 55 000 & 60 000€

Africa Group : 

Electricity : 60 000€ = 14,6% 

Water : 122 500€ = 29,6%

Construction : 107 500€ = 26,2%

Road : 122 500€ = 29,6%

Schedule & Time :

1 year and 2 months project 

Road & Water : ASAP

Construction : 3 months after the beginning 

Electricity : 4 months after the beginning + 1 months at the end 

During this negotiation I asked for writing numbers and important informations on Skype, it could be good to have something write and to see if everybody has heard the same things. 

After the negotiation we watched "A Conference Call in Real Life" video. It represents very well the situation during a conference call : bad connections, noises, people talking at the same time.. 
Moreover sometimes people had similar voice/intonation, and it's difficult, without video to know how is how. 
Non-verbal communication like eye contact, are gestures, postures are very important during a negotiation, because it can help to know more about intention of the other part. 

Know more about the feeling of the other part.. 

That's why video conference can be better than conference call, but not as good as a real meeting. But video can make slow down the call because of the connection.. Technological problems, in our 21st century ! 
Today I watched : " A Video conference in real life '' ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMOOG7rWTPg) : similar problems but also images problems ! 

I think, conference call can be done only if people couldn't meet them because of their geographic situation  or schedule, but for me it's not the good option, especially if it's an important negotiation for the company, a big project.. 

During our "What would you do in (or before - to prevent) the following situations?" exercice it was very interesting to see how people from different culture and people who as different negotiating view can act face to different situation in negotiation. 
With my group we found similar counter strategies as Mia's. It's important to focus on the negotiation way of going. If any circumstances, comportements, can make the negotiation in the wrong way it's important to say about it. Because sometimes circumstances without link with the negotiation on its own can change the original strategy, original idea mostly for young negotiator.. I think..

Dear lectors, 
((Sorry I am late.. But as it says in a french quotes "better late than never"))

22th of September was a big day in my negotiation life ! In fact, it was the day of my first negotiation.

Before negotiate, we had to negotiate the criteria assesments. And as I said, about our negotiation of the % final grade, it's something new for me. I grow up with the idea that teacher choose for us, the criteria that has to be evaluated, following the criteria assessments of the school, nothing else. 
Unfortunately, we didn't remember about the criteria assessments made by the Mia's group of next year, but we kept in mind some ideas. I was agree with the fact that follow the "draft criteria for assessing the simulated task" presented by Mia, was no sense, because it was not helping us at all. So it was better to present some big sections, and after that, give 3-4 ideas per sections. 

At the end, we did it ! Good job ! It's not very easy on friday morning, but some of us have more energy and pulled the group upwards ! Thank you ;) ! 
This exercice allows me to know more on which criteria I have to turn my negotiation on. 

Watching my negotiation video allows me to see that I've used eye contact, a thing that i really try to take into account, because I don't fell very confortable with that. But when I was 18, I understood that eye contact are really important during a conversation, and it means that you are in the conversation. 

Before the negotiation we summarise some ideas with my Eurovan Government group, and we end with the idea to focus more on the quantity of oil  and the price :  more than 5M barils for less than 60$ a barrel. 
It helps me focus on this way. 
Moreover, one of the group gives us a key for the negotiation : talking about the efficient of the oil. I don't know things related to oil, but asking the question about the efficiency, can help me during the negotiation, and make me a "specialist" of the subject. 

I negotiated with Jude, he didn't attend the next lecture so he didn't know lot of things about the negotiations. That's why I wanted to make him as confortable as possible. But I think that it was not a big problem for him, because, I feel it was not his first negotiation !!

Our multicultural background make the negotiation interested, I am French with Algerian & Tunisian origins, so I am Europan-North African, and Jude is Nigerian so he's African and moreover he has lots of different experiences in Europe. 
But I think that we both used semi-direct way of negotiate. That means, between direct and indirect, the 5-10 first minutes we were indirects but at the end of the negotiation we talked more directly. 
I feel that Jude was very friendly during the negotiation, we tried to install a good climat for the negotiation, using smile, kindly eye-contact, letting me time to show my idea..

I wanted more than 5M barrel for less than 60* a barrel, and at they end we conclude with : between 5-7M barrel on the next 5-7 months, for 60$ a barrel, with advance paiement (40% in advance), with 22% reduction in airport taxes for his company. (Not too bad.. )

I was happy with my negotiation result, because I think that I can offer Onasti more than the 20% (that we found on the instructions of the "brief for negotiating") because it cost less,for the Eurovan Government, than pay more than 60$ a barrel for example. 

I talked about the efficiency of their oil, of prices of their principal competitor, and about the fact that they use our airlines. But I think that I used these points, with a friendly way of doing business, just talking about these points, without making pression on him, but showing why I made those propositions.. 

I feel that we both perceived this negotiation as a win-win one, none of us more than the other one !
During the negotiation I tried to put into practice all the things that Mia teacher us next weeks, all things that I've read on my colleagues blogs. I used some specifics negotiation words, sentences and I think that it made me more "credible". 

To conclude, after talking with others about their negotiations, I think that we are all on the road to becoming a  NegoCiator ! 

PS : I will try to upload the video of the negotiation in next days.. 
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