Internnational Negotiations Reflective Essay
Final Reflective Essay To begin with, I would like to say that the course of International Negotiations was very important for me. It lasted only two weeks but this time was enough to understand many things, to have good lessons and real negotiations that changed my life. It is not “loud words”; it is what I feel like now. First of all, the course began with meeting people of the group, learning nationalities and understanding what is real international negotiations are. In different tasks of lesson I tried to know more about the way of doing negotiations with different people.
I am convinced that different ways of thinking and cultures make negotiations special. You can know rules of doing negotiations but it is not all. You also need to know a person, sometimes his culture and set of mind. These two weeks showed me that different cultural sets of mind are very difficult to overcome. In some moments I could not do it and I lost because of it. However, this is the point of international negotiations when you are dealing with different people from other countries. First negotiations in this class showed me that I was not prepared well for them.
It was difficult for me, because I was not sure if I was negotiating in the right way or not. I think that when you have real negotiations you have more time to do your homework, to set up your goals and results which you want to get. It is always easier when you know your target, points which you can lose or gain. In my case, I realized how to do it after the third lesson when we tried to negotiate about multiple issues. Negotiations are not simple things. Sometimes you need to lose in some moments to gain in main one.
Now I can see it, I can feel when it is important something for a person or not. In negotiations you always have a chance to know it. If somebody gives up very quickly it means that this issue or moment does not play a great role for him. Moreover, in the beginning of this course I thought that I am a risk-averse person. I did not like to take a risk because of fear of losing more. However, after this course I realized that I can be risk-seeking and I want to take a risk in some moment, but it is very ifficult to negotiate with a person with opposite opinion, especially when you are in one team. Difference in risk attitudes can fail your negotiations. It happened to me after the course. I had the negotiations with the person from other country. I thought that we were in one team, I wanted to take a risk, but he did not. Our negotiations failed, especially for me. I tried to make it works but I could not. I think that we had such kind of negotiations when our bargaining zones did not cross.
We could not to find solutions and ways to make a deal, so it failed. Maybe, if it was more important for us and we could not refuse of it we would make a deal. In conclusion I would like to say that the success of negotiations is in ability to understand the problem in your negotiations. You also need to find ways of solving the problem that are suitable for all partners. It is the most difficult part. To implement your decision you need to know your partner, to know his goals, main issues or moments that he does not care about.
It is very important for me in negotiations to know the person, sometimes his way of thinking, his set of mind. Moreover, after the course I realized that in some moments I want to take risk, I want to be risk-seeking. However, there are situations when negotiations fail. I am convinced that in such cases I need to try more to make it happens, to make a deal. However, sometimes it does not work not because of you, but because of your partner. All partners should put efforts into the negotiations and they will reach the solution.
