Negotiation Techniques for Consensus Building

Why Attend this Training?

• Senior managers and managers need to have the skills of building and maintaining trust across a range of stakeholders.

• This course provides a learning environment in which participants can acquire, and practice, the mindsets and skillsets of developing productive relationships with stakeholders, especially when agendas and concerns come into conflict.

• Lacking these skills, management will often find itself in conflict with stakeholders, without

Training Objectives

At the end of the course, participants are expected to improve their skills to:

• Successfully advocate positions on complex issues
• Lead team to identify opportunities, gather data, address issues and manage risks
• Able to reach / achieve consensus with key stakeholders despite adversity
• Help participants understand alternatives, can stop negotiations when needed
• Develop negotiation strategy and stakeholder engagement plan

What is it Like?

• This workshop employs a demanding, scenario-driven simulation based on actual challenges that participants may encounter in the course of their work.
• The simulation is highly engaging, demanding that people think on their feet—in collaboration with other team members—experiencing the range of processes needed to develop a winning approach to stakeholder engagement.
• In this program, participants will actively experience both sides of the issues, giving them a sense of what it is like to be on the “other” side of the fence.

The Program/Key Topics

• Issue Analysis, including stakeholder analysis

• Deep Listening

• Establishing and Maintaining Rapport

• Model of Partnerships and Collaboration

• Principles of Negotiating and Consensus Building

• Using Inquiry to Understand Different Positions

• How to Find and Expand Common Ground

• Consensus as a Process, Not an Event

How Does it Work?

• The session begins with principles, mindsets and tools of negotiating and consensus building

• Round One: Two teams play the roles of Internal Agenda and External Agenda. Using a well-formed scenario, players will use the tools, process and mindsets given to them to develop an aligned position on the issues and be able to articulate their position in a collaborative, consensus-building mode.

• Presentations: Each team first present its position and then receive questions from the other team to clarify understanding.

• Negotiating Consensus: Representatives from both teams will meet in “fishbowl” discussions and work towards an operating consensus including areas of agreement, areas of disagreement, and opportunities to expand common ground.

• Observer Feedback: both teams will listen to feedback and suggestions from the observers who have been acting as “the fly on the wall,” providing a meta-perspective.

• Debrief: facilitated debrief to summarize results and provide coaching, insights and opportunities for improvement.

• Round Two: Using a new scenario ( or building on previous scenario, this needs to be discussed in the planning phase) the above process is repeated. Those who were observers in Round One now take an active role.

• Final Debrief: participants will be asked to share what they have learned, connect the dots between the two sessions and work on Action Plans for further development of these skills.

Who Should Attend?

Senior managers, managers and their key supports who will need to work as team leaders or participants in building consensus / common ground with important stakeholders.

What Will this Training Do for You?

• Gain a deeper understanding of what is involved in developing consensus / common ground to increase the ability to collaborate with stakeholders whose values or positions are in conflict with your operating objectives.

• Increase confidence in the ability to productively engage stakeholders holding diverse and sometimes challenging positions.

• Be able to see an issue from multiple perspectives at the same time and to recognize opportunities to build consensus and common ground in partnership with important stakeholders.

• Rather than working from a “win-lose” framework, work to expand common ground, over time, building trust and opportunities for collaboration.

Your Facilitators