Blog Post #9

After reading the article "American Strengths and Weaknesses," some observations that surprised me were when you negotiate with an American, American delegations suffer from serious interagency rivalries. I thought that Americans are straightforward and let others know what they believe in such as getting to the point and moving on. I never knew that American internal meetings would last longer than the other meetings in the conference compared to other groups. Americans tell it like it is and mean business such as informing and letting others know what they believe in and being prepared. It surprised me that Americans take longer informing others when they negotiate, which is why they act a certain way to get what they want. Another observation that surprised me was that Americans are impatient when they negotiate. Since Americans are straightforward and want everything to go a certain way if something doesn't go the way that it should then Americans question or feel irritated when it doesn't go as planned. Americans are always on the run and get frustrated when something doesn't go their way which is why it is crucial to be prepared for anything and everything.
The observation that hit home personally for me was that American people are very candid and straightforward. When I negotiate, I make sure that I start the negotiation by mentioning what is most important so that everyone in the group knows exactly what I am working toward and they might also agree with me. By being straightforward, everyone will know what you believe in and know exactly what you are trying to accomplish. It is good to be straightforward so that you can work towards what you came into the negotiation for such as drawing the line and telling the truth about the topic. During this semester, I feel like I was very straightforward and was the person to start every negotiation because when you let everyone know exactly what you want or what you are working towards, people will eventually understand what your strengths and weaknesses are. This helped my team and I get our points across by stating what side of the scenario we want and are working towards.
The observations about the American strengths and weaknesses can be brought into what I have experienced in the Bacchus case since Tucker and I were able to work together and indicate what categories were most important to us. I was able to start off the negotiation by demonstrating what we wanted and what we believed in such as letting the other two groups know our importance of each category. This was able to set the tone of the negotiation and let it keep rolling by demonstrating what we were working towards. My group for the negotiation did very well since we worked together and figured out which categories were important to everyone. We were able to make deals so that one group was satisfied for a category while the other groups got what they wanted for another category. We were able to speak clearly and come prepared into the negotiation since each group were able to identify what was most important to them. We didn't have any issues during the negotiation besides that one of the categories we had to go more in-depth and discuss why we felt towards the answer. One group wanted to fire Nikko while my group and Raven wanted to put him into a powerless position. It is important to work together or figure out a deal that will make everyone happy and satisfied. By being productive and honest during negotiations, you will be able to have a smooth and content conversation due to working together as a group and making deals with one another.

Blog Post #8

After reading the article from the Harvard Program on Negotiation regarding online negotiating, I was able to develop and understand the importance of how it is to meet and negotiate in person. You will get better results and outcomes if you meet in person, but due to the changes in the world such as the coronavirus occurring we have moved to online negotiating. When you meet face-to-face, you are able to develop eye contact, body language, and tone of voice, that will help distinguish how the person is feeling. If you don't meet in person, you won't be able to figure out the other persons understanding on how they feel about the topic. It is different when you have a phone call, text message, or email the other person especially when you don't have that person in front of you and you can't tell from their body language on how they feel about the outcomes. I can apply the advice provided in the article to my next upcoming negotiations since now that they are all online, I will be able to illustrate my understanding and interests on the negotiation by providing to the group my values of the scenario. In the article, it demonstrated five guidelines that will help the next negotiation online be more helpful such as considering the likely scope of your deal, toggle between different communication media, give counterparts the benefits of the doubt, be collaborative, and don't make this the new normal. By going through and illustrating all of these guidelines, I will be able to have a more successful negotiation due to the changes that we all have to overcome. We will all have to work through the changes that have been made and demonstrate the importance of videoconferencing with one another can make a difference. We will all provide our value of the negotiation and demonstrate how we feel about everything since we are all videoconferencing and not actually face-to-face. Even though we can still see everyone and their body language, it is still different and it may be difficult to understand how everyone is feeling due to everyone being in a different location. I have already learned from the previous online negotiations is that it is important to make sure that everyone in your group is on the same page and are able to contribute their understanding of the negotiation. Even though not everyone in your group will have on their cameras, it is hard to figure out how everyone is feeling such as demonstrating eye contact or body language since we aren't actually right in front of them. I will make sure that everyone is able to indicate their understanding of the negotiation by collaborating with one another and demonstrate the values that everyone is overseeing. By working with one another and making sure that everyone is communicating, it will make it easier for everyone in the group to figure out how they feel about the scenario. We will be able to communicate through videoconferences instead of emailing and text messages since we might interpret their opinion in the wrong way. It is beneficial to meet with everyone on videoconferences so that you can get a better understanding of what everyone is thinking.