Negotiation Role Play

I finally had an appointment with orthopedist today to have a look at my ankle. He was unimpressed with my healing and prescribed 6 weeks of physical therapy. I was devastated by the news, which promised several more weeks on crutches and a prolonged healing process.

However, after the morning bad news, the day got significantly better when Seisei, one of the other Fellows, gave a lunch presentation. Instead of giving a formal presentation on the week’s reading assignment, the classic Getting to Yes, she gathered myself, Rebecca, and Jeff, an Insight summer intern, and proposed that we use the time as a training session. We all thought it was a great idea and decided to do a negotiation role-play.

We brainstormed some everyday scenarios and decided to do a simple ‘problem roommate’ situation. Rebecca played the difficult roommate and I played the one who was trying to engage her and negotiate on a variety of issues. She played her role very well and was quite difficult to negotiate with, but I persisted and tried to apply all of the new skills I am learning: discussing interests rather than positions, asking questions to understand her opinion, acknowledging and rephrasing her perspective, and brainstorming for creative solutions and ways to “expand the pie.”

After several minutes of negotiation, Seisei stopped us and she and Jeff gave us some feedback and pointers. All in all, it was a hugely helpful exercise, as well as a lot of fun. Since the Insight partners and associates are working abroad so much this summer, I hope that we will have enough time this summer to continue using each other as resources in training and coaching.