Monday, December 12, 2016

Blog 10 - Reflection on the Fall 2016 Semester (LAST BLOG)

Hello Everyone!

Thanks for checking back in! This week's blog post is the last blog post of the semester! Sad to say that it went by fast, but I've had fun doing these posts and delving into various negotiation topics. This week's blog post is a reflection on the semester and what I've learned overall. I also need to discuss the most valuable concept from the semester.

This semester has been an interesting one. I never thought that I would be able to negotiate well enough to compete with my peers and other members of society. In the very beginning of the class and even before the class, I considered myself a weak negotiator. I called myself a pushover and sided with the other party quite quickly. I hadn't had to do very many negotiations before, but the few that I have done have shown this consistency.

This semester has helped me become more of an informed and adamant negotiator. I have seen myself develop through the in-class negotiations from selling the Pontiac Vibe negotiation to finishing with representing Tokyo Saki in the Bacchus Winery negotiation. I went from repeating myself and sounding overly salesy to standing my ground and using various strategies to successfully complete a negotiation.

I think learning about the Dual-Concern model (Appendix A) really helped me to visualize how to go about negotiations. Shortly after learning about the dual concern model, we learned about log rolling and the Pareto Frontier. I think that these two topics are of the most value to me from the course. Ironic enough that both of these concepts revolve around value.

Log rolling is about making concessions and exchanges in a negotiation. Offers are structured in which one must concede on items which are lower priority in order to get those which are higher priority1. I attempted to use this in many of my in-class negotiations. Some worked and some didn't, but thankfully I think that I have grasped this concept.

Another concept of extreme value is the Pareto Frontier (Appendix B). Although I do not understand the complex mathematics behind Pareto Efficiency, the general concept of value maximization is invaluable. This concept states that "Pareto optimal solutions are outcomes such that no other agreement can be found that increases the benefit to one party without decreasing the benefit to the other party" (Raiffa, 1968)2. Pareto solutions maximize value for both parties. No other solution could have greater value without decreasing the value for another party.

Well everyone, it's been real. Like I said, I've enjoyed doing these blogs and am sad that they are coming to a close. It's the end of the semester and I won't be creating any more blogs. But hey.....maybe I'll start to pick up this blogging thing as a hobby. Who knows!

Thanks again for being a reader of my content,
Bret Thomas




Sources
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/negotiation/tactics/log_rolling.htm
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.516.988&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Appendices
Appendix (A)

Appendix (B)

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