Stab in the back, betrayal, disloyalty. That is something that we're all afraid of. Unfortunately it may happen during the group negotiations. Not because of the bad will, but rather the fact, that not everybody can endure the pressure of two parties at once.
We had to negotiate against two other parties with my teammate We had some agreements, knew our tactics and approach. Armed with our positive attitude, calculations and negotiation checklist we started the discussion.
I quickly realized that "other principal" was not so aggressive and competitive (even dough we've agreed to do it), but is rather calm and doesn't talk at all. The other two parties formed some kind of coalition, cause they had mutual objectives (new heating system) and could compromise on other, less important issues. We, on the other hand, wanted to build a new pool for the school, but we kindly got into crossfire.
The psychological situation looked more or less like that: 4 people against me and 1 neutral (my teammate). I thought that I have to do something with that, but I didn't really know what actually. I thought that I really need a helping hand there, so I asked my teammate to speak...
I regretted that as soon, as I said it, cause he agreed to our opponents demands. It was totally against our case study objectives, so I thought that I was alone.
It is very hard to think about it, even though it was just a classroom negotiation, cause the feel of being backstabbed is not nice. I know that he didn't mean anything wrong. I am not trying to accuse him, but still it was a very weird feeling. I would describe it as anxiety, cause you loose something that you two agreed to.
However, in such situations you usually come up with different and unconventional solutions. Luckily, everyone wanted to have a good feeling after the negotiation, so they really wanted to give me at least something to cheer up. I couldn't not seize my opportunity, so I proposed that we will do everything other except those two major investments (pool or heating system). This outside the box solution was actually well welcomed and all parties agreed to that.
There are some obvious pros of negotiating in the group, but not when you are alone. I really like "the good and the bad cop" tactic, cause it makes the opponent a little confused. But it won't work when there is only one cop, right?
Negotiating in pairs may work only if you really know each other and think in the same way. Once, I had a friend with whom I was attending meetings. We had some projects to do in Student Government, so we needed partners. We usually went on those meetings together and that was very effective. I think it's all about mutual relationship and similar mindset.
Nevertheless, I hope I won't get into this situation ever again.
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