Developing negotiation and influencing skills across a global engineering product, technologies and services business.
Client & Challenge
Our client, a global engineering product, technologies and services major, approached Kingsfield for support with improving their Purchasing and Supply team’s results in their supply chain negotiations. Several “pain points” came out during initial interviews with the business leaders, centring around a lack of trust in the supply team and the other business units felt the purchasing team was “too comfortable” and “afraid of making decisions”. It wasn’t that the team was unapproachable or untalented for that matter, it was simply a case of that the team did not feel empowered to take the initiative, to take action, borne out of a lack of knowledge, skills and a reliable “toolkit” from which to draw on.
Solution
Working with the Purchasing and Supply (P&S) business leaders, we developed a Negotiation Skills and Strategies program to the capability of the P&S team. The Program provided participants with a simple but dependable framework and toolkit grounded in the Harvard Law School’s ‘Program on Negotiation’ and relevant seminal sources on influencing and communication. Through a combination of group activities and skills practice sessions against the backdrop of industry-specific case studies, the participants could progressively apply their developing knowledge and skills, receive feedback and reflect on the results in a safe learning environment.
After several deliveries, the audience was widened to other project professionals within the business. At this time, the Program was revised from a 2-day in-person course to a blended “flipped classroom” format with a short elearning course, “Negotiation Essentials”, to be completed prior to the three virtual classroom sessions. The concept of the flipped classroom is to provide the grounding knowledge ahead of the virtual classroom session, providing more time for discussion, skills application and practice.
Results
Since the launch of the Negotiation Skills and Strategies program, the Program has received 100+ participants across the global business areas, receiving positive feedback from sponsors and participants alike.
“I received valuable methods and strategies that I can integrate in my daily work.”
“It was very good idea to gather colleagues from different offices to obtain views from other cultures/countries.”
“Learning of new concepts like BATNA, ZOPA, constant & variable will help in preparing well for future negotiation.”
“A clear yes, when putting this in a wider context, that this is helping the global supply organisation and further.”
“This helped me better understand how to evaluate a situation, what information to prepare ahead of time, and how to address on the spot points that may be unexpected.”
I received valuable methods and strategies that I can integrate in my daily work.
It was very good idea to gather colleagues from different offices to obtain views from other cultures/countries.
Learning of new concepts like BATNA, ZOPA, constant & variable will help in preparing well for future negotiation.
A clear yes, when putting this in a wider context, that this is helping the global supply organisation and further.
This helped me better understand how to evaluate a situation, what information to prepare ahead of time, and how to address on the spot points that may be unexpected.