After my post about the importance of getting better at negotiating for anything that's important to you, I wondered if roleplaying cases would help. I then started thinking of scenarios where one had to negotiate, because of either an impending deadline or for something that seemed so important for both parties, that none wanted to concede to.
Scenario 1:
Two siblings want to watch another television program on a different channel and are both contributing arguments as to why he/she has a right to the remote.
Sibling 1:
Is the oldest of the two and feels like his/her parents always give in to the whims of the youngest. He/she was at school and had homework afterwards and now is the only free time for him/her to watch something he/she actually likes.
Sibling 2:
Is the youngest and doesn't go to school yet. He/she has to watch the older sibling leave for school, while he/she was in daycare all day. After being picked up he/she was with the parent who had to run some errands. Now is the last hour for sibling 2, before she/he has to go to bed.
Scenario 2:
It's Thursday and the client has an impending deadline for Monday, to turn in a hard copy report eightfold. The client sees some missed errors at the very last moment right before going to the copier.
Client:
The client is a regular customer at that exact copy center and asks if it is possible to reach the deadline of three days.
Copier:
The copier is in a pinch, because Friday is a National Holiday and they are usually closed on Sundays.
Some of us may have experienced both scenarios in our lives or maybe similar ones with here and there some differences. Or maybe completely different and I would like to read about it in the comments below.
And now for those who have some difficulty in negotiating for whatever it is, I encourage you to try out one of these scenarios in roleplay. Ask someone close to you to if he/she wants to help you out with this or someone you know who also has some difficulty with this. Just remember that it's not about winning per se, but to reach an understanding. For some pointers you could read my former post: @tanjakolader/an-account-of-a-negotiating-experience-method-of-principled-negotiation
