Role Play: Smith vs. Patel

From Peacebuilding

Contents 1 Purpose 2 Time 3 Materials 4 Process 5 Debriefing 6 Handout 1: Role for A. Smith 7 Handout 2: Role for P. Patel

Purpose

To provide an opportunity to practice negotiation.

Time

At least 20 minutes.

Materials

Copies of Handout 1 (Role for A. Smith) for half the participants, and copies of Handout 2 (Role for P. Patel) for the rest.

Process

I) Advise the students today that the purpose of the activity is to practice communication, conflict resolution, and negotiating.

II) Put students in groups of three.

III) Distribute A. Smith role to one person in each pair. Distribute P. Patel role to one person in each pair. Assign the 3rd person the role of R Rodriguez (they do not have a sheet but their job will be to listen to the other two people in their group and decide who should get the bananas.

IV) Ask participants to read their role and then negotiate. Allow sufficient time for the role play (at least 10-15 minutes).

Debriefing

Ask for several negotiation outcomes from the group. What kind of outcome did they reach? Ask if others reached a different outcome, or a comparable outcome. The responses are likely to vary greatly.

Did anybody realize that win-win solution was possible. (A. Smith needs the peel, and P. Patel needs the flesh). Both parties could have gotten what they wanted without taking away from the other person.

Other questions include:

• How could this skill be applied to real life activites. Conflicts with peers, parents, teachers, or etc.

• Did you ever experience a disagreement with another person to later realize that it could of been resolved very quickly.

Handout 1: Role for A. Smith

You are Dr A. Smith, a chemist employed by a large multinational corporation. You are a scientist in the division that is in charge of developing technologies to deal with the hazardous environmental and health effects of oil spills on surroundings communities.

Recently, there was a major oil spill in a community of 50,000 people in a region known for its agricultural productivity. In fact, this region is the “bread basket” of the country. The oil spill has contaminated the ground water and the soil, threatening the upcoming planting season and destroying the community’s water supply. The president is contemplating declaring a state of emergency and evacuating the region, and has already appealed to NGOs and international organisations for emergency food supplies for his country.

Your division has developed a synthetic chemical that is capable of neutralising the hazardous effects of oil spills. The chemical was tested previously in a community where an oil spill contaminated the soil. One of the crucial ingredients used in this synthetic chemical is the peel of the extremely rare Blue Banana.

Unfortunately, the Blue Banana harvest this year was extremely poor due to an infestation, and only 3,000 Blue Bananas were harvested. Manufacturing the chemical requires the peel of the Blue Banana – your tests with other banana peels have not had the same results.

You recently discovered that R. Rodriguez, a Latin American fruit exporter, has 2,000 of these bananas, in good condition, for sale. The peels from these 2,000 bananas would be enough to produce a substantial amount of the chemical; enough to salvage the upcoming planting season and to de-contaminate the ground water supply. You have also discovered that Dr P. Patel is also urgently seeking to buy these bananas from R. Rodriguez.

Dr Patel works for a rival pharmaceutical company that has refused to work with your division on matters of mutual scientific interest. In fact, their refusal to cooperate with your division delayed crucial research on this chemical.

The president has approached your company for assistance. Your company has authorised you to approach Rodriguez to purchase 2,000 Blue Bananas. You have been informed Rodriguez will sell them to the highest bidder. You can bid as high as US$250,000 to obtain the peels of the 2,000 available bananas.

Before approaching Rodriguez, you have decided to talk with Dr Patel so that you will not be prevented from purchasing the bananas.

(Adapted from Ugli Orange Exercise from the Harvard Programme on Negotiation)

Handout 2: Role for P. Patel

You are P. Patel, a research scientist working for a pharmaceutical firm. After many years of research, you have developed a promising vaccine for AIDS. It is still in the testing phase, but trials in small numbers of volunteers have produced very promising results. The AIDS pandemic affects millions each year, and your vaccine, although still relatively secret, is gaining publicity. Several governments of countries devastated by the effects of AIDS have contacted the company you work for about doing trials in their countries.

Unfortunately, the vaccine is made from the flesh of the extremely rare Blue Banana. Only a small quantity (approximately 3,000) of these bananas were harvested last season, due to an infestation of bugs that destroyed much of the crop. No additional Blue Bananas will be available until the next season’s harvest, and agricultural experts are again predicting a poor harvest.

Delaying further trials on your vaccine means that your vaccine cannot undergo further testing, and delays the approval required for widespread distribution of the vaccine by several years. Preliminary trials have demonstrated your vaccine has no side effects for those that are vaccinated. Your company holds the patent on the vaccine, which is expected to be profitable when it is available to the public. Despite this, your company has already begun to develop a policy for distributing the vaccine to those who need it most but will not be able to afford the vaccine.

You recently discovered that R. Rodriguez, a Latin American fruit exporter, has 2,000 of these bananas, in good condition, for sale. The flesh from these 2,000 bananas would be enough to produce a substantial amount of the vaccine; enough to make the vaccine available for further testing and make it possible to have approval for widespread distribution in one year, provided further trials go well.

You have also discovered that Dr A. Smith is also urgently seeking to buy these bananas from R. Rodriguez. Dr Smith works for a rival company that has refused to work with your company on matters of mutual scientific interest. In fact, their refusal to cooperate with you delayed crucial research on this vaccine.

Your company has authorised you to approach Rodriguez to purchase 2,000 Blue Bananas. You have been informed Rodriguez will sell them to the highest bidder. You can bid as high as US$250,000 to obtain the flesh of the 2,000 available bananas.

Before approaching Rodriguez, you have decided to talk with Dr Smith so that you will not be prevented from purchasing the bananas.

(Adapted from Ugli Orange Exercise from the Harvard Programme on Negotiation)