NSPN Members Learn Negotiation Skills in Virtual Workshop
by Lauren Wagner. Reposted from the National Science Policy Network
On March 25 and April 1, NSPN’s Science Diplomacy Committee hosted a workshop on negotiation skills and their use in diplomatic relations. Lauren Wagner, a member of the committee, shares the key insights from the workshop.
Early-career researchers receive an awful lot of training in skills like literature review, statistics, experimental design, and manuscript writing. But what about the so-called “soft skills” required for a career in policy, diplomacy, and foreign affairs? It’s quite rare for STEM trainees to receive formal training in skills like negotiation, networking, and cultural sensitivity, which are critical for a career in policy. As a result, scientists who make their way to the policy world often find those skills relatively underdeveloped.
To fill this need, the NSPN Science Diplomacy Committee hosted a two-part workshop on Negotiation Skills on March 25 and April 1 with Dr. Janet Martinez, a career negotiations expert, as the workshop’s instructor. Dr. Martinez is a specialist in negotiation, mediation, and arbitration and currently serves as the Director of Stanford’s Gould Negotiation and Mediation Program and a senior lecturer at Stanford Law School.
The two-part workshop gave participants the opportunity to reflect on their own negotiation experience and style, consider what strategies are most effective, and test practice against negotiation theory. Dr. Martinez began by introducing the five principal negotiation styles: Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding, and Accommodating. In a pseudo-personality quiz, participants were able to discover their tendencies for a particular negotiation style!
As it turns out, no one negotiation style is truly the “best” or the “worst” - rather, each style has strengths and weaknesses that make it advantageous in certain situations, with certain individuals, and even at certain stages of a negotiation. Dr. Martinez underscored that, regardless of the results of the personality quiz, we need not be hemmed in by our stylistic tendencies. Rather, a good negotiator is able to recognize their tendencies and adjust to the context and the style of their interlocutor. A more assertive, or “competing” style might work well in the beginning to establish expectations and goals. Meanwhile, a “compromising” style is typically advantageous in the end stages of a negotiation when the most important issues have already been decided.
Most of the workshop sessions focused on hands-on practice via role-play scenarios, including negotiating shared lab space and even a rather complex job negotiation – both of which hit close to home for the attendees! Throughout the workshop sessions, Dr. Martinez emphasized that preparation will be the #1 predictor of your success in any negotiation. Before you walk into that room to hash out details, first consider:
What do you care about?
What does the other party care about?
What are your goals?
What is your “best alternative to a negotiated agreement” (BATNA)? In other words, what option will you fall back on if the negotiation fails entirely?
At what point in the negotiation would you walk away?
Firmly understanding this negotiation framework will not only give you the best possible chance of meeting your goals - it will also help you cultivate a mutually beneficial relationship with the other party, which is often just as valuable.
Do you have an idea for the Science Diplomacy Committee’s next skills workshop? If so, let us know at diplomacy@scipolnetwork.org!
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Learn more about NSPN’s Science Diplomacy Committee on our website.
