Crisis & Conflict

Shepherd - "SupaClean Chemicals? My sheep are thirsty and if they can't drink the water from the river because of your factory leakage, where can they get water?"

SupaClean - "We'll be able to confirm the safety of the river within 2 hours. Can they wait?"

Shepherd - "You don't understand, they are not like human beings, they just can't wait."

SupaClean - "What about you and your family, where do you get drinking water?"

Shepherd - "We only drink alcohol!"

....

That's just one of the telephone calls we've received last Monday (28 July) after coming back from summer holiday. Nice surprise! It's part of the Crisis Management Simulation & Workshop run by Tom Curtin and his team from Green Issues Communications as a start of the second half of our MBA program. It was so exciting & emotional that I couldn't easily forget the "silly" conversations I had with "local communities" who complained to the company after the crisis happened. However, in real life, things could get even worse and we just got a glimpse of what it takes to assume the leadership in crisis management. The next day, we had the chance to hold a press conference in front of BBC presenters to practice Public Relations after crisis, video-taped with immediate feedback.

Not to destroy us but to equip us, we had another 2.5 days of negotiation workshop following the crisis simulation, again run by globally acclaimed experts from Conflict Management (CM) Partners . To negotiate with principles, based on interests and with perseverance.

One of the questions we were asked at the beginning of this workshop was "why children are generally better negotiators?". My understanding is that children are generally fearless, more focused on the things they desire (normally no idea about options) and more persevering because they have more time than their adult counterparts. Unfortunately, as an adult, we have learned about all kinds of fears and we are too complicated to have no option.

"The correct strategy for Americans negotiating with Japanese or other foreign clients is a Japanese strategy: ask questions. When you think you understand, ask more questions. Carefully feel for pressure points. If an impasse is reached, don't pressure. Suggest a recess or another meeting.” John L. Graham, Professor of Marketing and International Business, University of California, Irvine