NEGOTIATING SKILLS AND COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOUR
IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS

„Negotiation is not a battle-field“

What’s it about?

Most seminars for executive staff concentrate on negotiating techniques, speech techniques and the origins of conflict. In doing so, they target the understanding of conflict rather than its resolution. They therefore rarely provide operational value-added in the form of experiences which can be quickly and effectively implemented in every-day business life. Actual experience can only be transferred into business life by means of concrete examples taken from every-day business and private situations.

All management seminars have behavioural change as their objective, However, long-lasting behavioural change can only be achieved by a
change in attitudes. Our attitudes determine our communicative behaviour including (and especially) in conflict situations. And changes in attitude are only possible if they are preceded by changes in consciousness.

If I, as a team member, am not conscious of the benefits of win-win situations and have no clear experience of them, I will never be able to achieve win-win as my objective in my negotiation strategy.

Unchanging ways of thinking and acting often lead to a type of paralysis in the actions of decision-makers. This is particularly dramatic in situations involving the leadership of negotiations where there is no direct face to face communication, in other words when the negotiators are not sitting around the same table.

The seminar uses exercises involving unusual experiences and “experiments” to make participants aware of their attitudes to other people and situations so that they can gain insights into the fundamentals of communicative behaviour in difficult negotiating situations.

How do we go about it?

Alternative modes of behaviour which target self-reliance in communicative behaviour and the development of trust and openness in the negotiating process are born from the development of concrete principals of conflict management.

The participant’s own development of strategies for conflict management forms an important part of the seminar. At the same time methods of leadership are prepared and taught by feedback.

The significance of trust and openness as the basis for true communication between people also becomes clear, as does its use for the avoidance, or at least the reduction, of conflict situations.

Seminar contents:

  • experience the meaning and importance of preparatory processes in conflict management, especially in negotiating situations
  • learn about questions and the technique of leadership through questions
  • learn how you can use both dimensions of the negotiation process as part of the preparation for the process and for controlling the conversation
  • differentiate hand between the detailed, factual aspects on the one and the emotional and communicative dimensions of the speech process on the other hand
  • make yourself aware of your own thought and behavioural processes which influence your ability to deal with conflict
  • use practical exercises to enable you to abandon old thought processes so that you can control your “personal destructive discharge”
  • you will work out the conditions under which initiative and personal responsibility can be enhanced in a goal-oriented sales process

The seminar helps individuals to access answers to questions such as the following:

  • how does conflict arise in the opening conversational phases of negotiations?
  • why do my conflict resolution strategies not work?
  • why do I keep on putting off the requirements analysis and the benefit arguments?
  • how can I reconcile factual and emotional criteria?
  • how can I fully develop my own communication potential in order to display the benefit arguments properly?

The methodology

  • group and individual work
  • short presentations
  • case studies
  • structured discussions
  • practical exercises

The result

The seminar enables you to achieve:

  • a much broader view of your ability to deal with conflict and how to use this in a goal-oriented sales process
  • success by finding the middle way between preparation and spontaneity
  • safe and sure use of tools for dealing with difficult situations
  • the use of justification and allocation of blame without endangering what has already been achieved in a negotiation
  • ways of improving self-motivation, self-organisation and self-control in face to face negotiations
  • better use of your creative potential, including when discussing and setting objectives with your staff
  • the reconciliation of the company’s interests with the needs and values of your staff

Duration/participants:

3 days plus 1 follow-up day
Maximum 12 participants