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For the first negotiation you are assigned to a two-person group to form a negotiation dyad. You will have access to your part of the negotiation documentation. Your part will contain some information that is confidential to your situation and which is different from the information provided to your negotiation partner.

This exercise involves a negotiation between parties that have never met in person and are negotiating an important transaction (originally set up for email). This exercise is designed to stimulate thought and discussion around the role of communication channels, negotiation skills, cultural differences, and ideology through which negotiation occurs.

Read your part carefully and plan your negotiation strategy, setting your goals and aspirations.

Submit a brief statement of your aspirations privately to the instructor. Then commence negotiations. The exercise description may suggest who is to initiate the next contact, but either party could start.

This negotiation exercise is to be done entirely via discussion board—you are not to communicate in any other way. You are only to communicate with your negotiation partner about this case.

You will usually have one thread for each day. After one person writes, the other will reply to that message, retaining the original message text, and so on, back and forth for the day. Thus, at any time, one can review all that has transpired so far.

Occasionally the current message thread from each team may be checked by the instructor reviewing your progress, but no comments should be expected during the course of the negotiation.

Within the same discussion group, you may start a new thread whenever the accumulated replies make the list so long that it is awkward.

Agreement must be reached as indicated on the schedule. The instructor will review the negotiation exchanges up to that point to determine the results of the negotiation for an achievement score. No messages beyond that point will be considered in that score.

If you do not reach agreement the instructor will review the progress that has been made, but, unlike many real-life situations there is no possibility for extension, and failure to reach agreement is a serious fault for the course (and the grades of both parties).

Following the instructor’s review, negotiation results for each team will be posted and you will be asked to join the discussion on the process and outcome of your negotiation. Treat this as an opportunity to draft an entry for your lifelong negotiation journal, highlighting what went especially well and what did not work well at all.