Session-1: Persuasive Communications & Negotiations

The first session of PCN started with a surprise with SKG sir bringing out Playing Cards and announcing that we will be playing a game with it. Indeed, we were expecting something fun coupled with some key take-away from the course, but cards were a bit of surprise. The game was somewhat like this: we were divided into six groups of five members each. Each of us were handed a deck. We needed to form Five Hands after taking 25 cards randomly from the deck. We could take help of two other groups located on the same side by exchanging the cards. Let's see how it turned out to be.

Group of Suyog & Joydeep finished first after they had distributed the work evenly and went to Shobhit's group and Arjit's group for a card. Shobhit's group handed them the required card and they ended up making the required formations. Finishing next was our group. We had Jatin who was very fast with cards and Vinay who could think fast. We made as many hands as possible with available cards (resources!). Then we thought that we needed two cards from other groups and in return we could give two of them. We went to the group next to us (Shubham's) and asked what they had in extra for the swap. But they were still not sure about it. Then we moved on to the next group (Vikram & Mukesh). What happened here can be interpreted in many ways; I would put it in the way we had intended (or saw) it should happen!

We told Gauraw & Vikram about the cards we needed and what we could give them in return. They also needed one of the cards we were offering. In fact Mukesh took us the card he needed. They were ready to give one of the cards to us but not the other. Vinay told him that either we would exchange both of the cards or not a single one. I also asked them to return our card if they cannot give us both of the cards. Several things happened together; someone from the group behind us started interfering which distracted their attention. Secondly, they were not ready as yet to strike a deal or to put it simply, they were not sure if the other card we were offering was entirely Useless. This gave us advantage in Negotiation and we demanded our card back. Mukesh at the other hand was completely confused and he ended up giving the two cards we needed and we made the hands.

What all we learnt from this? I would summarise in the following points:

1. When entering the Negotiation you should know your vulnerabilities and requirements.
   

   This happened to us. We knew which card we needed & we were vulnerable if we got only one of them. However, Vikarm & Co were not exactly sure if they could make it with or without a particular card. They finished last.
   

2. There is a "First-Mover's Advantage" in the Negotiation.
   

   Like we saw, both my group & Suyog's group went first for the Negotiation and ended up striking the deals. In fact we had an upper hand just because we went to them.
   

3. You have to Optimise between using your own resources to the end and Outsourcing.
   

   This one is a bit out of the way but it is my analysis. I think that we all could make all our hands entirely from our cards. But we crashed the activity to the point we could do fast. Then, we went to the other groups (Outsourcing). Arjit's group, on the other hand, had made it entirely from their cards and they finished third. Had they done it our way i.e. making as many hands possible and then going to other teams, they could have won.
   

All in all, it was a fun-filled session. I hope for more learning coupled with fun in next sessions.

Note: All the Views, Interpretations, Descriptions and Depictions in the blog are entirely from Author's View-point. Differences in terms of Actuality, Accuracy and Point of View may exist depending upon the person-to-person.