Journal #2 PDF

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Journal #2...

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Sally Soprano Observations In the Sally Soprano negotiation, I was in a group of three. In this group Marley and I were the agents for Sally, and Hu played the position of the representative from the Lyric Opera House. The purpose of this negotiation had two possible results. The first could have been that Sally didn’t receive the part and the Lyric Opera still needed an opera singer to play the position of Norma. Then the other possibility was that both sides ended up satisfied, where Sally got the part as Norma as well as the Opera House filling the position they were in desperate need for. Luckily, we came to agreement on the second option. This is where the third principle from “Getting to Yes,” to “invent options for mutual gain,” was included in our negotiation. I was expecting this option my partner, Marley and I presented to not be as easily accepted as it originally was. Right at the beginning of our discussion we asked our opponent what he wanted from us in order to get Sally the position of Norma. Without question he informed us that she had the part without a battle. Our original question was asked to invent an option where we both benefitted, but it seemed that he was more interested in her salary then negotiating her position. Though the usage of this third principle isn’t difficult to include in a negotiation, I expected the discussion about different options to cause more conflict. In the end we were both happy with the result as well as the minimal conflict that was involved overall. After we came to a conclusion on what we were assigned to do, our opponent desired to continue our negotiation. He agreed to extend a three-year contract for Sally having the part as Norma, which was exactly what we wanted, but he also had another interest in opening a food court for the Opera. He successfully separated the people from the problem in this case by giving sally stake in the outcome of 40% ownership of this food court. This offer was very unusual since it had no correlation to the issue at head, but it was a very creative way for him to benefit financially and proved he wanted us to benefit as well with the inclusion of Sally in the ownership. I noticed that this offer took “separating people from the problem,” to another level that we haven’t really discussed by adding this offer knowing Sally was not a business women and giving her a chance at an opportunity she normally wouldn’t have. Our negotiation was very interesting to say the least! I would have to say that misunderstanding and miscommunication were common in our negotiation and I would have to blame this on the fact that our opponent’s first language was not English. I noticed that he was

misinformed because most of our negotiation consisted of deciding what the opera house would pay Sally to do the position. Marley and I attempted to steer clear of the topic of salary, but I felt that the negotiation kept on going back to that. Sadly, this put our opponent at a disadvantage since he offered Sally the position right off of the bat. Our opponent was a very strong negotiator and if he had been better prepared on what we were assigned to negotiate such as why Sally should get the job as to anyone else, Sally may have not have come out so successful. In the end, Sally signed a 3-year contract with the opera house holding the position of Nora with a $15,000 per year salary plus whatever the house made after they broke even at 80% house full. I believe that our negotiation went off tangent, and as a result we were unable to include the 4th strategy from "Getting to Yes", “Insisting on using objective criteria.” For example if our opponent realized that our interest was to ensure Sally had a promising future with the Opera House to gain fame and more publicity, he would not have been as easy to persuade without a battle about the three year contract. Since he was misinformed, and focused on the end goal and saving and making money, there was no discussion on what would be fair for either side. If our opponent had been better informed on the task at hand, including objective criteria would have been vital in reaching an agreement. If we had the chance to include this I would have talked about why Sally is the best for the part of Norma and included him in coming up with these points making him feel that our final decision for the Lyric Opera to hire Sally was a mutual and fair decision....