I played the part of the agent for this exercise and Chloe played the role of business manager. In this case, I was trying to negotiate a deal for Sally Soprano. Basically my job was to make sure that she got the lead role of Norma. Sally did not care how much she was going to get paid; she just wanted the role because it was going to revitalize her career. This lead role would then give her momentum to get into different mediums such as movies and television.
Right off the bat in the negotiations I tried to separate the person from the problem. Instead of coming right out and telling Chloe that I wanted this, this, and this, I asked her about what she thought about Sally and how she might affect the show. I also asked her about what she felt about having Sally be the lead performer instead of telling her how great Sally would be for the part. I wanted to make sure that we talked about all of the outstanding issues at hand before we even started negotiating about who get what in the situation.
While I was using this technique I felt that Chloe was becoming much more comfortable with my approach and me. Instead of putting her on the defensive and guarding her position. I felt that she was much more willing to work with me and cooperate on the negotiations. It worked because in the end I feel like we came to a deal that worked very well for all parties involved.
I remember Chloe using the technique of generating options for mutual gain. So my main goal we discovered was to make sure that Sally Soprano could have enough publicity that would launch her into tv and movies. Chloe wanted to make sure the theatre could sustain itself and stay financially viable. So we exchanged many different ideas about how we could both mutually benefit from each other. We discussed profit sharing and different ways to split up the money. I had to relay to Chloe that Sally Soprano was a veteran who could guarantee a great show/ performance. Yet Chloe was hesitant to want to sign such an ageing star, this lead to some conflict.
A part that I could have used more would have been focusing on interest and not so much on positions. I tried to stay open and accommodating yet I had to hammer home the fact that Sally needed to get the lead role and there was no other way around it. This may have led to some roadblocks in out bargaining and may have been a poor choice on my part. Yet in the end we decided on Sally would get the main part for 18,000 and would be guaranteed three additional shows in the future to ensure that she got the kind of exposure that she wanted.
As a person who is new to the GTY method of negotiating I think that separating the people from the problems is the hardest part of negotiating with this new technique. Some people are hard wired into thinking that they must fight for what they have to get and are on the opposite team as the other person. Yet I feel like what GTY teaches most is making deals the benefit both parties involved. Which in the end is what both people want.
