One Red Hot Country Mama!

I went to a Negotiation Course at York University‘s Schulich School of Business for a couple of days sponsored by my biggest contract – I negotiate on behalf of them with various independent contractors and agencies. It was a very good opportunity to hear about different negotiating strategies and tactics, and the instructor Dr. David Whitehead was very good. 

York is a commuter school in the North end of Toronto. The parking and layout of the buildings are frustratingly Kafkaesque, but once you get there, it is rather beautiful even though it is cold and awful out. The class was filled with a variety of business people, mostly men in their 30s and 40s and most of them in Purchasing or Sales from what I gathered through their personal style our lunch break chats. 

At one point in the course we were asked to examine what our natural style of negotiation was: dominating, collaborative, obliging or avoiding. I found that mine tends to be collaborative and obliging which is fine for some situations but not for others. For example, if there is a direct conflict of interest (eg. an argument over price) this style does not work.  Also, the more dominant technique does not work when people have a common interest, because if you are very dominating, you might not be able to uncover your common ground.

So – like many situations, the key is to analyze the situation, then respond in a way that is appropriate. It is the quick analysis (the space between action and reaction) that cues you not to react in the automatic or natural way, but act in a strategic one instead.

We did a number of different simulations during the course. In one at the end, we were to simulate a cross-cultural negotiation, where my opposing team was asked to act very aggressive (Western-style) and informal and my team asked to act politely and formal (Asian-style). During the time that we played those roles, we got absolutely nothing resolved – so it was obvious how challenging it is for people to negotiate when there are true cultural differences.

Classes like that (and being crestfallen back at work) make me wish I could be a student forever!