Q & A Table of Contents
Learning Games People Play
From: Chris, North Carolina
Question: I would like to hone my (and my associates') negotiating skills a
little further. At some seminars I have engaged in "negotiating games". I
wonder how effective these are, and secondly, if effective, what resources
are available to indentify some "games" for us to try? Lastly, is chess a
good game for developing strategy? any others?
Response: In my experience, there are two kinds of 'games' people use to
teach negotiation skills. There are games which may be considered as
falling into the 'touchy-feely' variety and there are role-plays in which
people play the role of a negotiating party. The role-play approach is the
one we use.
Role-plays are best employed utilizing the facilitation of a person with
experience as a negotiator and a trainer. The feedback a skilled
facilitator can offer makes all the difference in the use of games or
role-plays -- since very often the apparent point of a given exercise is not
as significant as the underlying lessons that it contains.
One could argue that board games are an interesting mechanism for practicing
negotiation. In chess, the negotiation is silent; the players are supposed
to try to figure out what's behind each other's moves. On that basis, you
could use billiards as a similar example. When I was a kid, the
negotiations that took place during Monopoly games were as significant as
any roll of the dice in influencing the outcome.
There are a variety of organizations that will sell games and role-plays for
teaching negotiation, team-building, sales, and many other skills. Many
business schools and law schools publish catalogs of role-plays. However,
choosing role-plays from a catalog is risky unless one is familiar with the
lessons they teach, how those learning points are presented or can be
derived from the exercise, and which of many choices is the best for a
particular situation. The best way to identify effective games, role-plays,
or exercises is to engage the services of an experienced professional who
understands the learning process and your particular objectives. Otherwise
it is somewhat akin to treating yourself while reading a manual entitled
"Brain Surgery Self-Taught".
Good luck with your efforts.
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