Blog Topic 9: Geography of Thought

Last week, we talked about rationality and irrationality. I asked you how you might use "irrational" thinking as a leader and still manage and create change and progress towards goals. This week, we talked about different ways of thinking - that cognitive processes are not universal but may also be affected by culture. So, now leaders not only have to deal with appearing irrational, but also have to deal with ways of thought (mind bugs) that may vary by country, ethnicity, religion, etc. This could easily be overwhelming. But, we've sought to make this manageable by describing the principals that underlie cultures (Hofstede's 5 characteristics), and the principals that underlie rationality.

In this post, think back to a time when you have had interactions where you experienced a "(mis)meeting of the minds." Have you had experiences which, in retrospect, didn't go well because you had different assumptions about causality or use of logic than your interaction partner? What is the geography of your thought and can how does it affect you in your interactions with others? What are the elements of your cultural mindset?

Predictably Irrational (Eric Dodge)

I work for the research department at a biotechnology company, so I am always dealing with science-based work and discussions, which are very rational. But at the same time the way that we decide to attack a given situation could be considered irrational by a lot of people. This makes my job very interesting because you have to understand the science and be able to apply that knowledge to determine a rational plan of action. Sometimes I feel like some of my superiors do not do a very good job of this.

This may be a case of the leaders having a plan that is predictably irrational, but they are unable to convince everyone that it is a good idea because it is not rational. I have had a number of conversations with leaders at my company where they explain their predictably irrational ideas to me, trying to convince me that it is "the obvious answer." These conversations are fun for me because I can tell that their ideas make perfect sense in their head, but they are unable to get others to feel the same way. They have not figured out a way to explain and defend their ideas in a way that will help them to gain support. This is one of the hardest parts of being a leader, and one that I hope to become better at. As a leader it is very important to be able to explain your ideas to others so that they will support you and your plans.

I cannot think of a specific time when someone presented information in a way that substantially influenced my decision-making. I am usually pretty good at weighing the facts and making an informed decision, rather than being swayed by the way someone presents an idea. I like to know both sides of an argument before I make a decision. But I know that there are a lot of people that are easily influenced by the way that something is presented. This means that it is important to learn to use these tactics to your advantage. I need to get better at learning how to present information in ways that will significantly influence decision making. People that are good at this can gain a lot of support based solely on this.

Predictably Rational- Josh Malament

There are times where i've experienced both situations. My current job is based around rational thinking and precise knowledge of certain equipment with very little room for creativity. The equipment works a certain way and that's the way it needs to function. pretty black and white. I also manage a video production company where we work with actors, musicians, and writers where there is a lot more room for irrationality and creativity. Every shoot and script has a format and template, but there is always predicable irrational decisions and situations. Without this, creativity in the industry is completely lost. And more often than not it is very hard to explain or defend your decisions or ideas.... the experience and creative thinking are what lead to these irrational spur of the moment decisions to try a new shot, or improvise a line or a scene. It's about trusting the person making the decision. If the decision is successful there is no need for an explanation... but when it doesn't that's where you may need to explain yourself. Especially if there are negative outcomes such as lost time, lost money or wages, and or a negative effect on a reputation.

As a follower i always try to learn as much as possible from the individual in the leadership role. I think an easy way to influence the decision making process is by asking questions not to challenge the current logic but to give a different perspective on the current situation or problem. If you are able to bring up valid points, a good leader will address the issue by him doing that you have already started to influence process. Looking back at many situations, you can always think what you could have done better, and what ideas you may have been able to contribute to make the process more successful or efficient.

Predictably Irrational - Christine Cho

I work at a biotechnology company where we are taught to be science based in our decisions. The Vice President of our site, a former Commodore in the US Navy would probably be described as predictably irrational. Every month, all the managers at our site are required to present performance metrics at our Site Management Review. All of us dread these meetings because we never know when he is going to burst. No one can predict what will set him off each month. There is no obvious pattern to his behavior. All we know is that when he has decided to pick on someone, everyone else should run and hide. Once he has selected his target, the room fills with awkward silence and sympathy for his victim of the day.

In a company that places such importance on science based decisions, our VP tends to be bothered by the most trivial things and ignores the obvious issues. When the topic of employee morale was brought up recently at a staff meeting and someone alluded to his volatile temper as the cause, he simply said, "Some call it fear, I call it accountability." I'm sure he is being rational in his own mind, but we're not on a submarine. (By the way he was a Commodore of a fleet of submarines).

As a follower, it is difficult to deal with a personality like his. No matter how much we prepare to discuss issues at Management Reviews or other meetings, our VP will manage to find an opportunity to knock you off your A-game. Through observing his actions, I've identified qualities that I would want to avoid if I was ever in his place.

When dealing with people who are predictably irrational, all you can do is prepare and ready to deal with whatever will be dealt with you. As a person who has been at the other end of our VP's irrational behavior, I know that being prepared with facts helps to avoid any more pain than

As leaders, we have to be aware of irrational behavior and understand that it makes it difficult for employees to understand why you want to do the things you do.

TOPIC 8: PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL by Onder

Last week I was complaining about our inadequate sensory capabilities.  Now we are adding our cognitive capabilities to the list.  Even if our senses do not deceive us, our brains might!  Not a comfortable feeling, but it is true.

If I am being rational as a leader and I fear that the irrational followers may not understand my rationality, I would have to engage in bi-directional communication with my followers.  I would have to explain to them my actions and decisions clearly and in a most simple, straightforward manner.  Then I would have to seek their feedback or response, to check if we are on the same “wavelength.”  Through an iterative process, or dialog, a leader must be able to convince its traditionally irrational followers that his actions and decisions are indeed rational.

 A common example of predictable irrationality that comes to my mind is the “glass half full” vs. “glass half empty” comparison.  We can terribly depress (and demotivate) people by talking about how bad things are, while we may not depress them so much, or even motivate them, by talking about how things are not so bad, how things could be worse, or how things are going to be better.  The lesson for leaders I see here is that 1) they should have a positive outlook (or be optimists) and stress the positive aspects of events and ideas; 2) simplify the problems and processes so that the choices need to be made between few and clear alternatives; 3) communicate clearly with the followers and engage in a dialog with them so that there are no uncertainties about the choices and decisions they have to make.

I think the decision processes involved in selecting schools for our daughter were examples of predictable irrationalities.  When we were looking for a high school for her, we visited several schools and listened to their presentations.  We really did not check carefully into their curricula, qualifications of the teachers, quality of their facilities, and their track record for their graduates entering the various colleges, all of which should have been part of the information for rationally assessing the schools and making a choice.  But of course, such an assessment is a very difficult process, and the decision making based on facts would have been quite a challenging process for the family.  Instead, we thought the school that was most difficult to get into must be a good one.  Sure enough, we were very impressed with the way the staff and faculty “looked and talked.”  It was a Catholic school and I had to tell them that we were not religious at all, but our family values closely matched theirs.  Lo and behold, she was accepted as the “token Christian/Moslem/Nonnreligious” student.  It did turn out well and we are very happy that she went to that school.

When time came for choosing a college, we went on several trips across the Country to visit all the colleges that our daughter could be interested in.  She did not apply to Harvard, because the buildings in the town were old and they looked depressing, and the people on the streets were the worst kind of “dorks.”  She turned down a good scholarship from USC, because she was not happy with all the girls in bikinis sun tanning on the grass on school grounds.  And, so on.  She finally chose Duke, because it had the “best-looking student body.”  Although our reasoning was quite different than hers, we were very happy with the selection.  It turned out to be a good school for her from many points of view and none of us regretted the decision.  Funny thing is that she found a California boy during her first year in Durham, North Carolina, who is now her husband!

Blog Topic: Predictably Irrational

We are continuing our discussion of the human brain with last week's topic of irrationality. These findings suggest that humans are not rational, but are still predictable. This idea has two implications for you as a leader. First, people tend to expect leaders to be rational, to obey certain laws of physics, so to speak, yet, they themselves may act in ways that are not rational. This presents leaders with a conundrum: when you know your actions and decisions make sense, in the predictably irrational sense, but that they do not make sense in the traditionally rational sense, what do you do? How do you explain your decisions? How to defend them?

The second implication has to do with followers and their decision-making strategies. Following on the heels of our discussion of social influence, it seems that you could present information in ways to influence decision-making. Can you think of specific times that this has been done to you, or that, if you had known about it, you'd have changed how you presented information prior to a decision-making situation?

Perceptions (Eric Dodge)

None of the things that we talked about relating to perceptions really surprised me. I had already heard most of these things before, so they were not surprising to hear again. But I tend to forget about how strongly perceptions influence the way that we see the world. Last class reminded me how important perceptions are to the way that different people view others.

Learning about the perceptual processes does not really change the way I think about my views and behaviors, it just made me think about them a little more. Sometimes I forget that many people behave the way that they do based on perceptions they have made, rather than actual facts they have discovered. This can upset me because I am unable to understand why someone is acting the way that they are. But when I stop and think about how a person's perceptions can affect their actions, I am better able to understand why they are acting in a specific way. I need to remember how big a role perceptions play in the way that people act. This will allow me to better understand situations where a person is acting differently than expected.

I feel like I am usually pretty good about not letting perceptions change the way I feel about someone or something. I really like to have more information about a person or thing before I make any strong judgments about them. This has worked pretty well for me because I am willing to try a lot of new things, and a lot of them turn out really well. If I let first impressions dictate the way I live my life I would have a lot fewer people to talk to, and a lot fewer things to experience.

Although I think I do not let perceptions get the best of me, I feel like there have been situations where others' perceptions of me have been harmful to me. I don't really know how people perceive me, but I have had different experiences with different groups of people. When I started taking classes for my undergraduate degree in biochemistry I think most of the other students had the wrong impression of me. Whenever I talked to them or worked in groups I felt like they were talking down to me. They acted like I was a slacker that didn't do any work. I don't know why they thought this of me, but it affected the way that they treated me. Eventually the ones that I interacted with saw that I actually worked hard and was a good team member. At this point they started to treat me differently, but only because I had shown them that their initial impression was incorrect.

The way that I handled this situation is the same way that I like to handle all situations involving wrong perceptions. I show the people the way that I really am with my actions. After that they can make judgments for themselves. This is the way that I think about the perceptions that I have as well. I let other people show me how they really are with their actions before I make any judgments about them.

Thinking about perceptions reminds me that I need to be more mindful of them. Perceptions affect the way everyone interacts, so it is important to think about them when analyzing a situation. After thinking about perceptions, I now believe that the two tables have the same surface area. But it's still hard for my eyes to understand.

Perceptions - Josh Malament

Well, i'd like to first comment on how everyone in my group thought i would be the best liar....what was that all about? I admit, i like to talk, i like to get everyone involved, i like being outgoing, laugh and im quite animated when i tell stories. Apparently people's perceptions of a liar are distorted, or maybe i do posses traits and qualities that a good liar would have, such as a salesman or a lawyer.

Mind bugs are tricky and although they are very common, finally becoming aware of them I've noticed how common and often deceiving they are. Its hard to look past a first impression or initial perception of someone or something because many times that's the only one you get. I try to never "judge a book by its cover" and try to look past initial perceptions. Although i can read people and situations well, when there is time to look further i definitely take advantage of that.

Just recently i have been a victim of misperceptions which harmed my professional career. Because of my out going and very social personality, a client decided that i would not be a good candidate to manage a job in Japan citing my demeaner as being a characteristic that would not mesh well with the Japanese culture. I took this as a slap in the face, i have a lot of experience with the japanese culture from playing on a japanese baseball team and housing two young japanese players. I also pride myself openness and respect to all cultures, and as being able to adapt to fit situations out of my comfort zone. This situations still upsets me, for someone to take an opportunity to experience an amazing and culture filled country away from me that i may not ever be able to have again in my life because of a misperception they have of me, really tears me up. Unfortunately i will not forget about this, and it affects the way i look at the client. Of course i put on my smile and still show them the excellent customer service they have always received from me, but deep down on the inside... i want them to know that they have lost a lot of respect from me, and they are lucky its not social acceptable or legal to slap people in public.

Usually a misperception when harmless doesn't affect me, because i know that if that person were to spend some time with me their perceptions would change dramatically. but, if the misperceptions affect me negatively, there is no room for that person in my life, i wont give them the time a day. I have friends and family that love me for who i am, and if others don't want to be a part of that, I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it. Unfortunately with the example above, i have to see this person on a regular basis, so it reminds me about the mistreatment and misperception.

After the measurements were done on the two tables, i was convinced that they were the same...

TOPIC 7: PERCEPTIONS by Onder

As much as we would like to think that we humans are so superior to all other creatures, I think we are terribly limited in our sensory capabilities.  We do not have the vision of eagles or sense of smell of dogs, and we cannot find our way home as well as the birds and the bees if we were dropped in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles away.  Even though we live in a five-dimensional space (yes, we do), we can only sense four.  We are not capable of perceiving zero or infinity (try to imagine what 10^-33 second, which is how long it took for the universe to collapse from ten dimensions at the “big-bang” to five dimensions that we have now, or think about what “nothingness” really means).  It is no wonder, then, that we are not able to perceive accurately what is around us.

At the beginning of my career, when I had to do surveying for a road project, I quickly learned that I cannot even come close to accurately guessing where the “horizon” or the horizontal plane is when I am in a hilly territory.  It is similar to the phenomenon where pilots cannot tell that they are flying upside-down when they are in the clouds.  So, when I was surveying in hilly territory I made sure to use instruments to determine what point on the other hill was at the same elevation as I was.

The “tables” was a good example of how our senses can be fooled to give us a distorted perception of objects.  I have spent a lifetime (at least that of most students in the class) describing three-dimensional objects with two-dimensional drawings, and visualizing three dimensional objects from two dimensional drawings.  Yet, I was still fooled by the two tables.  They indeed had the same dimensions on a two-dimensional space.  However, at the risk of appearing as “stubborn,” I will dare say that the answer to “Are these two tables same or different size (or surface area)?” is “I do not know.”  A drawing of an object on the board or on paper is a projection of that object onto a two-dimensional plane from a certain distance and angle of view.  By changing the distance and/or angle of view, we can change the dimensions of the projection of the object.  Hence, it is entirely possible to pick the distance and viewing angle for two objects with similar shape but different dimensions such that their projections on a piece of paper are identical.  There is a good reason why we have two eyes.  With one eye we would lose the perception of depth and could not tell that what we see as two objects of identical size may in fact be two objects of different size at different distances from us. 

One obvious lesson from last week’s mind bugs exercises is that we can perceive identical objects or situations differently under different contexts or environments, and that we should be aware of how wrong our perceptions can be.  Another not-so-obvious lesson is that it is possible to learn or be trained to recognize under what circumstances and in what fashion our perceptions may be distorted.  Those who know how to see and how to listen would have a significant advantage over those who don’t.

In my professional life, I have learned not to rely on appearances and check out things closely and carefully, when a misperception could have significant consequences.  In one case, I was inspecting a construction, where the contractor was supposed to epoxy (glue) reinforcing bars into a concrete beam.  I walked by the bars that were sticking out of the beam, and assumed that they were indeed epoxied into the concrete.  This conclusion was obviously based on the fact that, in the past, if the bars stuck out of the beam they were always epoxied, and I had no reason to believe that the contractor was a crook who was trying to fool me.  So, I told the building inspector who had come to do his inspection that I checked the bars and they were epoxied into the concrete.  The inspector proceeded to go and pull on one of the bars, and to my horror, it came out.   The bars were just stuck into the holes, and they were not epoxied.  My credibility in the eyes of the inspector must have gone down to zero, and I was terribly embarrassed.  I did give hell to the contractor, and I now always go and pull on the bars before I decide that they are indeed properly installed.

I try to “check things out” before I come to conclusions in my personal life too.  Of course I don't do it all the time, and I am not prejudice-free.  This class is definitely helping me improve in the right direction in many ways, including not to be “fooled by appearances.”  As for the perceptions of others’ of me, I think their perceptions will change as my opinion of myself changes and it shows.

Perception - Christine Cho

I don't think anything that was uncovered in class surprised me last week, but I do believe it reminded us all how quickly we pass judgment on others before getting to know them. I think these insights into human perceptual processes have reminded me that I shouldn't be so quick to judge people based on first impressions. After being reminded how our minds are programmed to see things a certain way, I know that I've allowed my mind bugs to influence decisions or judgments about other people.

There have been times in my life when perceptions have led me astray. In my professional life, there have been people I have trusted who have used me by taking credit for work I did. When you are young and naive in the business world, you quickly learn that you have to choose your friends carefully. This reluctance to trust others has caused me to become a control freak. I'm slowly beginning to learn to trust others again.

There have been many times where people's perceptions of me have been wrong. When I first started my career, people thought I was too young and wasn't able to be a good leader because of my age. Through hard work and gradually showing others the leadership skills I possess, I have quickly moved past that misconception of me. Another misconception that people had of me was that because I have a concentration in Marketing, I'm not smart. I still had to take the same core business courses as other business graduates, so I don't think it's a fair argument. All I can do is work hard and prove myself.

There are always people who are going to talk about you based on how they perceive you. Some of the perceptions are true, but the only thing you can do is ignore it and prove them wrong. The best revenge I've gotten is that people who used to talk smack about me when I first started at my company because they didn't think I was qualified are now several levels lower than me.

I trust that the two tables have the same surface areas now. :)

Blog Topic 7: Perceptions

In class we talked about how mind bugs can alter our focus and lead us down the wrong path. We also realized that sometimes we use these mind bugs to our own advantage (such as when crafting our 2 truths and a lie) and sometimes these mind bugs led to errors. Did anything covered in class surprise you? How does these insights into human perceptual processes change your views of your own behavior, past and present? Have there been times in your life when your perceptions have led you astray? Or times when others perceptions of you have been erroneous and perhaps harmful to you? How do you deal with other's misperceptions of you? Do you still think those two tables did not have the same surface area?

POWER (josh Malament)

Do you think about yourself as a powerful person? Do you think of yourself as someone who empowers others? We talked about how to be powerful, how to look powerful, and how to exercise power over the past few weeks...and many of you will be graduating in a couple of months...what kind of power do you feel ready to exert and what kinds of power would you like to cultivate? How are going you to meet these power goals?

I think of myself as a powerful person. I believe that power comes from knowledge and respect. The knowledge and the ability to use knowledge appropriately demands respect by others. I think of myself as having useful knowledge in both my professional and social life and coupled with an outgoing charismatic personality results in power in both places. I like to share the useful knowledge i have as well as learn as much as possible from others in all situations of life. This is a good way to empower others. Sharing knowledge while being a productive leader gives the ability to empower others in life. Empowering others does not just come from the transference of power, it is the product of all the leadership skills and techniques we have discussed throughout this semester as well. Without the appropriate leadership skills, power is useless. or, can one even exist without the other?

I have had quite a bit of experience being in a power position. Managing others and delegating responsibility shows power as well as the ability to empower others. In my current profession, I have hit somewhat of a ceiling as to my position of power, but practicing and experiencing different situations utilizing my position of power is priceless. I have power goals of managing media outlets across multinational platforms. In order to attain this long term power goal i will need to gain experience in the media field and develop my knowledge, network base, professional relationships, and diversifying my cultural knowledge. I look forward to challenging myself in order to work towards these long term power goals.

Power (Eric Dodge)

I don't usually think of myself as a powerful person, but I do feel like I have enough power to get the things I want. I guess I think of myself as powerful, but I rarely decide to use this power. I do think of myself as someone that empowers other people. I think that I am pretty good at figuring out ways to motivate others so that they feel empowered. This involves understanding people and the way that their minds work. This allows me to figure out what types of things will motivate them and get them to do their best.

I feel like I have the ability to be a powerful person, but a lot of the time I do not act in this way. In most situations I defer to others and don't worry about trying to use my power. I feel like this makes it more difficult for others to see me as a powerful person, even though I use my power effectively in other situations. I need to focus on being perceived as powerful, even in situations where I am deferring to others. This will make it easier for others to see me as a powerful person in all types of situations.

At this point in my career it is not that important for others to see me as powerful because I am still learning a lot and don't really have any people below me. But it is important for me to start building my credibility as a powerful person right now. I know that in the future there will be more situations where I will need to use my power to get the things that I want. I need to lay the foundations for that right now and start showing people that I do have power and I know how to use it effectively. People do not change their original perceptions very often, so I need to make sure that no one gets the wrong initial impression of me.

Right now my biggest power goal is to have others perceive me as a more powerful person. This will be very important for my future advancement in my career, as well as in other aspects of my life. One way that I can probably do this is to act a little more serious at work. I feel like I have built good relationships with the people that I work with, but some of them probably still think of me as a "kid" in some respects. I can probably change this a little by being a little more assertive with my work and my ideas. I should also try to look a little more professional at work. The dress code is very casual, but I still feel like it would help me exude power a little more if I dressed a little more professional.

TOPIC 6: POWER by Onder

I feel that I have been powerful in the context of my profession, based on my knowledge, experience, expertise, hard-work, and creativity.  Due to these qualities, I had many opportunities to participate in projects that made significant contributions to the advancement of structural/earthquake engineering.  I feel that because of my work fewer people will die or be injured in a future earthquake somewhere in the World, and there will be less of a social/financial impact on societies from disastrous earthquakes.  I feel that the structures I personally designed will perform better than most others in future earthquakes.  I have reviewed others people’s projects and have helped them to improve their projects, and have trained several good engineers over the years.  From these, I derive a feeling of accomplishment.

I also feel that I have not fully achieved my power potential.  I have not built a network and form meaningful relationships with others; I have not made an effort to be charismatic, learn how to stand in “power posture,” and learn how to be a good public speaker; and, I have not learned how to earn and trade “currencies” in the influence market.

Looking to the future, I am interested in expanding my business activities into real estate brokerage and development.  I realize that the skill set required for these new activities are significantly different than for engineering.  These include building personal relationships, social and professional networking, being charismatic, spending time and energy to get involved in community affairs, public speaking, and carrying on a conversation with someone on the telephone that lasts more than thirty seconds.  I do not expect that I will have a personality change overnight.  However, I feel that I have taken the first step in the right direction by taking this course.  I know now what I need to do and I will start doing it one-step-at-a-time.  Having learned that success can be achieved in small increments, I think the one-step-at-a-time will work just fine.

Power - Christine Cho

I think I am a powerful situation in most situations. I believe I exert referent and expert power at work. I am a personable person and am able to get people to do things for me because they like me (or because they think I'm cute). Either way, I am able to use my power in order to get the job done. I also thing that I have expert power at work. I am able to travel to places that others never get the chance to visit because of my knowledge and expertise in Risk Management. I believe I empower people and encourage people to go outside of their comfort zone and do things they wouldn't have tried in the past. I am ready to exert these two powers, but there are other types of power I would like to cultivate.

I would really like to exert legitimate power. In order to meet this power goal, I will have to gain more experience in my job and respect in my position. I believe I'm on my way there and believe that as I can more experience as a leader I will be able to improve in this area. Another type of power I would really like to exert is charisma. Although I know that most charismatic leaders are naturally born with it, I believe that I can really work towards this type of power. My boss, Barry, is one of the most charismatic leaders that I have ever met. When he enters a room, the whole room lights up and he easily gains the attention of everyone in the room. He's able to convince people to support his programs effortlessly. Last week, I had to attend an all-day training on Good Manufacturing Practices. It was the most boring morning ever, until Barry came up to the stage and started talking. He energized the room and really got people to pay attention to what he had to say. I'm fortunate to be around someone who's so magnetizing and hope that one day I can be as good as he is. Fortunately, he's my boss and as part of my development we've been working on improving my skills in this area. Practice makes perfect. Appearing powerful when you present is something that gets better with practice. My boss has given me numerous opportunities to present to different groups, so that I become better at it. By the time I graduate, I hope to be a polished and powerful person.

Blogging Topic 6: Power

Do you think about yourself as a powerful person? Do you think of yourself as someone who empowers others? We talked about how to be powerful, how to look powerful, and how to exercise power over the past few weeks...and many of you will be graduating in a couple of months...what kind of power do you feel ready to exert and what kinds of power would you like to cultivate? How are going you to meet these power goals?

Negotiation and Conflict (Eric Dodge)

I did an ok job in the negotiation activity, but I definitely feel like I could have done better. When I started the activity my main goal was to make sure that I ended up with positive points. But while doing this I forgot to try to get the maximum number of points possibe. I just focused on making sure I got more points than I lost. At first I was a little surprised about how high my partner's score was, but then I thought back on the activity and realized that I had given him way too much. I was willing to accept deals that were not as good for me because I just wanted to make a deal that left me with positive points. When I looked at the scores of other people in the class I saw that I did not do a very good job individually. As a team our collective score was relatively high, but I was not very happy with my individual score.

I definitely should have done a better job trying to influence my partner during the negotiation. But once we settled on a deal that left me with positive points, I was happy. I should have been trying to get the maximum points out of every situation possible, but I did not. The main type of influence I used was bartering, by offering him a better deal in one category, so that I could get something I wanted in a different category. I did not do as good a job as I could have using this technique either. I know that if I had pushed harder and did not give in so easily, I could have gotten a much higher score for the activity.

Looking back I don't think I really had any preconceive notions of my partner in the activity. This made the activity easier in some ways, but also more difficult in others. I did not know what types of influence may work on him, as a result of not knowing him very well. But this also worked in my favor because I didn't have any pre-existing ideas about him that could have confused my judgement. I think overall it was a disadvantage not knowing much about my partner in the negotiation activity. In most negotiations I feel like it is important to know the person that you are dealing with.

I do think that my performance in this activity is very similar to the way that I handle conflicts in the rest of my life. I make sure that I am not getting screwed in the situation. But at the same time I am willing to let the other person get a little bit more out of the situation. This is partly because there are very few situations where I really care about the outcome and what I get out of it. Most of the time I am happy to let the other person get what they want, as long as it does not hurt me.

I was not especially happy with my performance in this exercise. When I think about it, I performed the same way in this exercise as I do in real-life conflict situations. I would like to change my approach to these situations and start to stand up for what I want a little more. It is good to be accomodating in some situations, but I probably do that more often than I should. I am going to work harder to try and get what I really want out of conflict situations, instead of always allowing the other person to always get what they want.

Negotiation and Conflict - Christine Cho

Last week I was the candidate during the negotiation. I think I did well in the negotiation. I wasn't surprised with my actual score on the negotiation compared to the score of my partner. When I went into the negotiation, I actually thought about my own situation and what it would take for me to leave my company. By setting goals on negotiable and non-negotiable items, I felt that the negotiation was successful. One of the things I used were comparisons to my current benefits package. I have three weeks of vacation, two weeks of paid shutdown, and two weeks of personal (sick) days. In addition, when we were negotiating pay I asked the recruiter to consider my current pay structure of a salary and bonus. In order to negotiation a higher bonus, I mentioned that I would demonstrate my worth by the time bonuses were paid out. Going into the negotiation, I didn't have any pre-conceived notions of my partner other than that I knew there were some benefits that the recruiter would gain points on if I would accept.

I think my performance in the negotiation reflects my general approach to conflicts in life. My goal was not to one-up the recruiter, but to get a fair deal out of the negotiation. In this exercise, I'm working with someone who represents a company I plan to work for in the future. Do I really want to have a reputation of being money driven? In reality, the goal of negotiation is to find a compromise that both team are happy with. Sometimes this is not possible, but if both parties understand why the decision was made, I believe the negotiation is still a success. Interestingly, I wrote a paper of negotiation for the MBA program, and Asians tend to reach a compromise in negotiations because of the strong values towards group harmony.

In comparison to some of my classmates, I'm happy with my score in the exercise. As an outsider, what perception do others have of someone who negotiates the best package? In the same spirit, how does a candidate feel about a company that doesn't pay them what they feel they are worth? Some of the other topics we have already discussed play into this exercise, such as self-awareness. People participating in this exercise should be aware of how they are being perceived. In the workplace, negotiation is about balancing what you want and what you are willing to give up. People need to be willing accept that everything will not go their way.

TOPIC 5: NEGOTIATION & CONFLICT by Onder

I was the “recruiter” in this exercise, and I was happy with our negotiation and the scores.  My score was average or slightly above it, and the candidate’s score was somewhat less than mine.  I think the scores reflected what I was targeting.  I was a bit surprised by the extreme scoring by Anish and Adam and wondered how it happened and what it meant for the personality or the negotiating talent of the parties.

Even though the instruction was to do the best for myself, I did not set my target too high.  A result like that of Anish and Adam’s would have conflicted with my core value of fairness.  I would see that not as a victory, but taking unfair advantage of someone.  This approach does not always work well for me in real-life negotiations.  Usually, I put on the table what I think is fair for everyone or what I am willing to offer, and try to explain my reasons why it is a fair offer.  If I decide that the other side is not being “straight,” I get upset and walk away.  Sometimes I get upset afterwards, when I discover that I was lied to or I was manipulated.  In the past I have always sent my wife and brother-in-law to purchase a car, as I have found that I just could not deal with car salesmen.  I guess, I just confessed to not having been a good negotiator.

Here is how I went about the negotiation in this exercise:  I first studied the scores and ordered the negotiation points from the highest point value to the lowest.  This order gave me a basis for deciding where I could make concessions without losing too many points, and what I needed to concentrate on.  The tactics I used were reasoning, friendliness, and bargaining.  I tried to frame myself as a “friendly recruiter.”  I blamed the “company policies” for not being able to give him what he was asking for, and became the “good guy” when I made a concession.  Before I made a commitment to any of the negotiation topics, I went down the list (with the order of point significance) and tried to establish what the applicant was asking for and what he might be willing to accept.  Then, I bargained for each item by giving up something in exchange for something else.  I started my offers at a point below the average scores and below what the candidate was asking for.  I explained what I was willing to exchange for something else.  All the while, I was trying to keep a running calculator in my mind to make sure that I came up with a positive score in each deal.  At the end, I was happy with the results as I did not settle for extremely high or low points.  The candidate seemed to be happy with what he got, as everything was settled in the spirit of “fair exchange” and within reason.

I did not have any preconceived notions about my partner, as I did not know him before.  However, I observed that he carefully studied the point values, and seemed to be deciding on his targets.  This told me that he was not likely to be a “door mat” and we would have to bargain for points.

What I am learning from this exercise (and the other ones in this class) that I can improve my behavior and social skills by reading and learning; reflecting and self-evaluating; and, by practice.  In the future I will be looking at negotiation as a business process, where parties are using certain tactics and framing the situation to favor themselves, rather than just playing games.

Negotiations and Conflict- Josh Malament

I felt i did pretty well in the negotiation exercise, although my score suggested otherwise. I was very surprised at the low score i received. It partially had to do with my lack of understanding of the point distribution, but it mainly had to do with making the game too realistic. In doing so, i became too accommodating to the recruit. There wasn't a lot of direction as to the state of the situation. How bad did we want this recruit? Did we have other recruits? Was this recruit the most qualified? and so on. This information would have factored into the negotiation process and determined who really had the power.

Since there wasnt much information to play off, i felt that playing the role of the recruiter, coming to a conclusion, and having a little fun in doing so was the main objectives of the exercise. I didn't have much of a preconceived notion towards my negotiation partners strategy or mine for that matter, which may have been handicapped my chances at success from the beginning.

My performance in the exercise partially reflects my approach to conflicts in the rest of my life. In the exercise i was very passive and accommodating. In real life i find myself to be accommodating, but much more aggressive when it comes to my needs and wants. I aggressively pursue a win-win outcome and try to be as efficient as possible while achieving that outcome.

I was satisfied with the outcome before i found that my score revealed i was a complete push over. After, i believe i could have been more aggressive in order to come to a more even outcome. From this exercise i was able to learn and practice a simple negotiation process, but more importantly i learned that despite the situation, i should use my personal approach to the conflict to prevent the chance of being too accommodating and passive, which may leaving you feeling like your outcome was win-win, but in actuality you gave too much and gained not enough.