In our CSS 350 class, we had a negotiation activity were two teams had to represent different sides of a author contracting with a publishing firm. Going back to the negotiation activity, I realize how much the situation impacted on the decisions I made. When we were being pressed on certain topics we tried to not budge on. During the negotiation, trades were always two-sided. Even if the other side didn't lose anything (or almost anything), we would have to trade something they wanted for something we wanted. The biggest conflict we noticed was actually in the other group. One member agreed to something, then a second later a second member disagreed with the decision. During this I realized that my personal strength was best in logical and weighing the pros and cons of decisions and deals. Towards the end of the negotiation, when we were about to wrap everything up, I noticed we could gain 1500 points by giving up 1000. When I offered this trade, I was surprised when the other team was willing to follow through with this trade. If we had been more accommodating we definitely would have gotten less points and the whole negotiation probably would have gotten less points as well.
We started off reviewing what our team wanted. Certain traits of the contract scored us more points. My team went over the different categories and tried to figure out how we could utilize certain aspects to increase other aspects. After we had developed a plan, the negotiation began. We started out trying to 'feel the water' as we tried to prod and poke to see what the other team wanted. Once we figured out what they wanted, we tried to use that to our advantage to negotiate what we wanted.
Relating back to the course material for the class, the negotiation is best suited with compromise and problem solving skills. The stakes were high, both sides wanted money and certain traits out of the deal. Both sides also care about their future relationship. If neither side were worried about the future relationship, it should have been more competitive.
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