30 October 2012

Day +40 - Negotiating Cont.. "Biases"

Biases & Perceptions Affect Everyone's Approach to Negotiations

This exercise is based on negotiations in research, so go ahead skip over it if ya like...

(For each hypothetical item, discuss or think about the potential biases and perceptions from both a Sponsor and Site perspective)
  1. A Sponsor has developed a new online contract portal;  all future negotiations will be conducted over it
  2. To comply with Institutional Policies prohibiting Consent Forms from mentioning contraceptive interventions, a Site revises every consent template the Sponsor provides to exclude reference to most contraceptive measures referenced in the Study
What did my Team come up with?
  1. The Site and Sponsor bias to this is that you lose a personal on on one relationship
    From the Sponsor perception it is saving time and money
  2. My team was really Bias on this as we felt it was un-ethical and irresponsible to take this out of the consent forms as it is important to make the patient understand that they must not conceive while on a study drug (I think we were all Regulatory folks)

Recognize Bias & Perception (yours and theirs)

How do you get outside of yourself in order to do this?   
- Learn their story   
- Get in their shoes   
- List their pros and cons

The Benefit of doing this are:  
- You identify other approaches to your problem 
- You avoid thinking "they" are always wrong     
- You work together more effectively
Tomorrow I will share the Proper Role of Emotion in Negotiating (yeah, something I have difficulties with)

Night...

29 October 2012

Day +40: The Art of Negotiations

As promised..... I'm sharing my Negotiation Workshop with you :) yeah..

Promoting Constructive Relationships for Negotiations

Remember: "The people are not THE problem, but they can be A problem"

Distinguish between Negotiations and Negotiators
- Two aspects of every negotiation:
1. Substantive issues (the meat of it)
2. Relationship issues (soft aspects of interactions with people)
- Address each, but don't link them
- Benefits
1. Negotiate with a "partner" not an "opponent"
2. Navigate disagreements better
3. Avoid 2 pitfalls
- Pitfall 1: Sacrificing the relationship for short-term substantive gains
- Pitfall 2: Giving on substance expecting a better relationship

Again, separate the people from the problem.

Remember the negotiation and the negotiator have something in common.

More to come...

Live Long & Get what you Need!!