C&K Chapter 5: designing strategy

The overwhelming thing I learned from this chapter is that a negotiator or intervener must be highly skilled in multitasking and keeping organized. There were so many little details about how to make the process reach its highest potential. I would feel so pressured if I had to make a lot of the decisions by myself, such as who would participate and when they would find out. The authors talk about a lot of the different roles that interveners can take on; it just seems stressful to manage that many negotiators and that many disputants. Reading this chapter really made me realize that I would not be happy in working in any type of large-scale negotiations; I like the mediation type set-up where there are usually only two disputants and two mediators, which is a nice ratio. I just felt that there were so many little details involved in these larger scale negotiations, like creating packets of information to give related interest groups who might not be at the table, or figuring out the news or funding. It is just very complex.

One thing that I was curious about while reading this chapter was the idea of problem-solving workshops. The authors described these by saying that it is a public meeting that people can come to to try and work out a solution to a problem. I’m confused because it is not clear if these workshops are to solve the current problem that needs intervention, or if this is just a general workshop where the public is giving related problems or scenarios just to practice team-work/brainstorming/negotiating your side. If it is the real problem that needs intervention and it is open to the public, doesn’t that discount all the work doing interviews and deciding who should come to the table? I guess I am just a little confused about how this relates to the formal negotiation settings.

All in all I thought this chapter clearly showed how complex a negotiation can be.