5th Module - How emotions play in negotiation

From Peacebuilding

Negotiation involves both people’s head and gut. Not just their interests, but the very people are part of the negotiation, with all their emotions. Emotions can make obstacles to a mutually satisfactory agreement but can also help. Fisher and Shapiro identify and explore methods for dealing with emotions that have proved not to work. They suggest addressing the concern, not the emotion. They envision five core concerns that stimulate many emotions: appreciation, affiliation, autonomy, status and role. This module explores emotions in negotiation and how the power of concern can be used both as a lens to understand what’s happening in negotiation and as a lever to improve it.

Offline

• Fisher, Roger, Shapiro, Daniel, 'Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate', New York: Viking-Penguin, 2005.

Online

• The book’s website contains useful teaching resources, http://www.beyond-reason.net/

• Emotions and Concerns. This short article is a very concise summary of the ideas included in Fisher and Shapiro's book.

Activities you can use when working on these contents include

• Emotions in Negotiation. This is a structured brainstorming excercise. It starts in a classic way; then participants are asked to identify what emotions they see as positive and which negative in negotiation. A set of questions will then help you to boost a discussion.

• Emotions as Obstacles and Assets. The plenary gets divided in sub-groups. Half of the groups work on "emotions as obstacles in negotiation", the rest on "emotions as assets". All groups are distributed handouts with basic reference to Fisher and Shapiro's book to facilitate their work. Their task is twofold: 1) To develop and articulate 3 examples that illustrate how emotions can be obstacles towards reaching a wise agreement in negotiation. 2) To discuss and identify other ways emotions can be obstacles towards reaching a wise agreement in negotiation.

• Dealing with Emotions. This activity has three objectives: 1) To brainstorm ways of dealing with emotions in negotiation; 2) To suggest that addressing concerns - instead of dealing directly with emotions – is a more effective way to use emotions in negotiation; 3) To identify core concerns that generate emotions in negotiation.

• Role Plays and Emotions. This template can be applied to different role plays. In essence, volunteers role play scenarios involving negotiating skills. Observers look at the interaction focusing on how emotions play in negotiation and how participants have addressed - or should address - the core concerns that stimulate emotions. Observers provide feedback, you boost discussion and help investigate the issues.