The charities committee: multi-party negotiations
Featured in the Negotiation Skills training manual
By Dave Clarke & David Simmonds& Ian Steers
Category: Communication Skills
Credit price: 4 download credits (Single user)
In some negotiations, negotiators are faced with more than one other party, each of whom may have different objectives, different strengths and weaknesses, and different levels of power. Effective negotiators must be able to deal with all of these things at the same time. Multi-party negotiations often demand a more formal approach to the discussions. They may also require more preparation and small side-meetings to try to reach agreements which are acceptable to all parties. Some negotiations may involve the additional complication of potentially emotive issues. Effective negotiators must be able to remain professional and objective in such circumstances, otherwise they run the risk of losing tempers and losing battles. This training activity uses an exercise called the ‘charities game’ to give the participants an opportunity to try out their skills in a complex negotiating situation involving multi-party discussions and potentially emotive issues.
Participants take on the role of their organisation’s charity committee whose task is to decide how the annual charitable donations budget is to be distributed. Each person is given, or allowed to select, a particular charity which they will then represent in the committee’s meeting. After the meeting, the participants discuss the processes with the trainer. The trainer then introduces the idea of distributive and integrative strategies in negotiations. The participants apply these ideas to what happened in their committee meeting and identify the different behaviours adopted. The participants then consider the pros and cons of using the two strategies.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to enable participants to explore and give practice in negotiating in a multi-party situation, and to give practice in negotiating over potentially emotive issues.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 20 |
| Typical Duration: | 01:30:00 |
| No of Pages: | 21 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to give the participants an understanding of the skills involved in multi-party negotiations. It works well for both experienced and inexperienced negotiators.
Download the training activity, The charities committee: multi-party negotiations as featured in the Fenman training manual; Negotiation Skills