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.
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