Positioning for a Position Paper

“Positioning for a position paper” is a short simulation to introduce basic techniques of preparation and negotiation to effectively trade across issues. Participants practice managing the complexity that arises by negotiating several issues. They first need to understand how important various issues are to the different negotiators and then practice making mutually beneficial trades by leveraging the fact that different parties want things with different importance.

In the short exercise, participants play the role of either Andrea or Brianna. Brianna, the lead negotiator for a small country delegation, has asked Andrea, a former climate delegate and a current activist, to draft a paper on a technical issue. They have to negotiate three issues: 1) whether or how much Andrea will be paid, 2) whether there is a commitment to involve Andrea in future work, and 3) whether Andrea will receive support from a Research Assistant.

For each issue, they can only choose between three pre-agreed options. Andrea and Brianna give different priorities to the three issues ranging from “very important” to “not important”.

Despite the fact that the parties have very different priorities—one cares much more about pay, than about involvement in future projects and vice versa—many participants in this exercise will end up negotiating for a middle ground solution on each issue. However, by focusing on how important different issues are, participants could do better for themselves and for the other by conceding fully on the issue that is the least important to them, and in return getting their preferred outcome on the issue that is most important to them.

The exercise can be used to introduce basic techniques of such value creating negotiating like making package offers or making contingent offers. The exercise also invites reflections on how to manage value creation across issues in complex settings, such as international climate negotiations, where different issues are frequently negotiated by different people in different rooms, with another person overseeing the coordinated effort across the entire team.