Negotiation and Influence Techniques

Overview

The course prepares participants to successfully impact - individually or in teams - the functioning of their organisations facing technical developments; budgetary constraints; challenging legislative agendas; legitimacy issues; and continuous competition. They will be equipped with instruments and methods derived from the theory and practice of negotiation and communication; lobbying and influence; as well as persuasion and conflict resolution.

Who it's for

The two-day course is designed to empower representatives of local, regional, national or international broadcasters to communicate more effectively and better shape the results of the processes they participate in, both within and beyond their organisation. The course in particular addresses managers and experts involved in coordination, communication and legal affairs.

Course outcomes

The course should allow each participant to leave with 6 enhanced abilities:

1. Strategic thinking, consensus-building, and bargaining.
2. Negotiating arrangements and dealing with difficult interlocutors.
3. Lobbying and influencing decision-making processes.
4. Communicating and advocating with impact.
5. Managing cross-cultural differences between organisations or individuals.

Schedule

Day 1: from 13.00 to 17.00 CET

Day 2: from 9.00 to 17.00 CET

Day 3: from 9.00 to 12.00 CET

Content outline

Session 1 - Workshop: Measuring the degree of success

• Identifying the factors and elements that make up negotiations/lobby actions, whether these relate for example to power, specialist knowledge, the actors and their attitudes, and national or company interests.

Session 2 - The necessary strategic perspective

• Identifying and specifying the challenges of negotiations and sharing preliminary knowledge as well as recommendations on how to handle them with fundamental strategic calculations.

Session 3 - Simulation exercise 1 (bilateral negotiation)

• Role-playing delegates from a national public Service Media engaging with officials from the corresponding public administration department to negotiate the terms and conditions to continue providing the service in the future.

Session 4 - Battle planning and preparation

• Setting up a battle plan. This includes how to prepare positions as well as plan flexibility and make concessions; the importance of mapping the interests of the various stakeholders, identifying alternatives, and managing information in the course of a negotiation.

Session 5 - Transposition and reality check (group discussion)

• Operating a reality check and applying the learnings of the day. This session will also discuss similarities and differences between preparing negotiations and information/influencing/lobbying campaigns.

Session 6 - Simulation exercise 2 (negotiation in teams)

• Role-playing a multilateral negotiation aiming to adopt common regulatory measures for the exercise of specific missions and core values of Public Service Media.
• Preparing the necessary internal coordination, alliance building, and both formal as well as informal communication.

Session 7 - 3D negotiation lenses

• Successfully approaching and handling the 3 sets of factors that are inherent to and impacting any negotiation; namely the procedures, the processes and the persons.
• The tools and techniques pertaining to bargaining tactics, consensus-building, influence and persuasion, and how to deal with difficult interlocutors.

Session - 8 Preparing an effective communication

• Communicate with impact and retention: The golden rules of communication that involve notably argumentation and rhetoric, the preparation and delivery of a message, targeted storytelling, diplospeak, and how to interrupt someone.
• The session will also discuss when and how to say “no” and how to deal with difficult people.

Session - 10 Cultural awareness (Workshop and group work)

• The role and influence of intercultural differences in international, inter-departmental and interpersonal relations.
• The cross-cultural differences that may affect interpersonal relations and negotiations, together with concrete guidance on how to approach such differences.