Lessons Learned - Class 3: Negotiations

(Note: this post is late, I know, but there's no sense in not doing the work)

Negotiations is actually something I learned intimately in my life. My father worked as a state labor negotiations lawyer for Wisconsin all through my childhood, and it showed in much of his parenting. This isn't to say he did a bad job as a father, but there is something surreal in sitting down at the age of 10 to negotiate your allowance contract with the various duties and even clauses.

So, sitting in class, it was actually most informative to listen to how others viewed the process of negotiating between people than it was to do the reading. Actually... let me correct that; having read definitions and confirmation of the text book's views, it was enlightening to see how other people viewed negotiating. For so many it was a way to settle disagreements or to gain what they needed. However, to me, negotiating has always been more of a way to know how best to coexist with others. It's a way to know where the boundaries lay in mutual need and what to expect in reciprocation of favors.

Now, there were some definite finer points that spoke to me as I worked through the text and listened to the lecture. Understanding the different methods of questioning to reach a win-win situation has made me re-examine my own methods, and it's also made me look closer at how others approach.