Hello Everyone!
Thanks for checking back in! This week's blog post is about 2 things that I learned from our Team Negotiation about the Newtown Schools Dispute. It's funny because I kept reading the title at Newton, which is a town close to my hometown as I was growing up called Newton, NJ, so that messed me up for a little while.
Anyway, this negotiation was a team negotiation that involved two parties on behalf of the school. The parties involved were the board of education and the teacher's union. Each party had their own distinct goals, but each party sought to provide the best place possible for students to learn in. Interests were aligned between the two parties in the fact that the teachers wanted to teach and the board of education also wanted the teachers to teach.
This negotiation proved to be more complex than any other negotiation that we have done yet due to the multiple, lengthy, complicated issues that were to be discussed. The issues were:
1. Reduction in Staff
2. Work Load
3. Evaluation of Teachers
4. Salary
5. Binding arbitration of grievances
6. Benefits
Each of these sections even had between 2 and 7 subsections. By no means did any of us think that this negotiation would be quick and everyone would leave totally satisfied.
One major thing I learned from this negotiation was how to separate my own personal feelings from the situation when acting as an agent for a party. My father was a high school teacher for 35+ years, and it proved to be quite difficult to see eye-to-eye with all of the board of education demands. The board of education was mostly concerned with budget cuts while sounding politically correct through each decision. When it came to many of the issues I found a great deal of difficulty in agreeing with the board's decisions, but I had to represent them and find some logical way to back them up. As one could imagine, this negotiation became quickly heated due to the structure of some of the proposals. It was actually quite refreshing to see this kind of passion from students that I thought were not into the whole role playing negotiation idea.
Another major thing that I learned from this negotiation is what binding arbitration of grievances is. Just kidding! Well, I did learn what binding arbitration of grievances is, but that's not the MAJOR thing that I learned.
The MAJOR thing that I took home from this negotiation was the application of log rolling. We had discussed the concept of log rolling throughout class and it was brought up in other negotiations. In this negotiation however, both teams attempted to apply log rolling to this negotiation and somehow try to maximize value. I see where it worked for some and not for others because it can prove a very difficult thing to do. Once we found a log roller or two, we finally made some ground with the negotiation and some trust and respect was gained for both parties involved. For the rest of the negotiations in class, I will try to have a better eye in finding the log rollers and try to create the maximum value for all parties. That's the ideal situation, but we will see when we get to those negotiations.
As for real life, I like to think that I will maximize value for everyone, if I can then great, but I really am only concerned with numero uno. Myself. Everyone's selfish, so what. If I can bring home more money for my family in AN ETHICAL way, then I will. Unfortunately it will be at the cost of another party. So for future reference I am saying it right now, sorry future negotiating party. I apologize for taking away some of your value for my own. Don't worry, my intentions were fair and just (I hope and like to think that they will be).
Well, that wraps it up for this week. I appreciate you all for tuning back in to my content! Thanks again! See you all for next week's post.
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