FTMBA 2024 Workshop Communicating as a business woman: crafting deals, facilitating cooperation, resolving conflicts, and reaching your goals

Negotiation is moving towards goals we can’t reach on our own.
Whenever depending on somebody’s consent to reach desired results, we find
ourselves in the middle of a negotiation. Communicating with clarity and fostering
cooperation is essential in those situations.
At work, we negotiate salary, business strategy, tasks and deadlines.
We negotiate to shape contracts or to resolve conflicts.
We negotiate our place at the table or to lead organizations towards ideas.
At home, we strike deals around how to spend weekends, holidays, rooms, money,
attention. If there are kids, we stumble over their natural talent to haggle.
If we are parents, we negotiate roles, future, parental responsibilities.
What to value and what direction to choose are negotiations we lead with ourselves.

How can we create lasting, beneficial and solid deals?

Negotiation is the constructive and creative search for interest-based solutions.
It is about considering yourself and others deeply: what is important to you and to
me and how could we shape an agreement from that?

Women – generally speaking – are well-equipped to explore interests and apply
cooperative behaviors during challenging conversations and negotiations. However,
they experience common hurdles reducing their slice of the cake. Research indicates
hindering female tendencies in negotiations such as increased fear,
overaccommodating, less risk-taking, less self-confidence, challenges when facing
male networks/competitiveness/rhetorics/body language/micropolitics.... Oftentimes
women don’t ask for what they want, need, and deserve, thus missing unclaimed
potential at the negotiation table.

This workshop is designed to train women to strategically and flexibly steer
through the wavy waters of communication and negotiation to reach solid,
successful deals.
It combines theory and exercises to equip female leaders for creating AND claiming
value in challenging conversations and interactions at work.

Course Content:

• Fundamentals of effective communication (active listening, paraphrasing, ...)
• Preparation of challenging conversations
• Structuring and conducting challenging conversations
• Power in organizations
• Harvard negotiation principles
• Classical pitfalls in negotiations for women
• Systematic analysis of personal negotiation tendencies
• Optimizing of personal negotiation tendencies
• Conflict management for business women
• Virtual presence in live online communication
• Tools and strategies for critical, escalating situations

Participants will learn:

• to grow one’s own confindence during challenging conversations through systematic preparation (exploring interests at stake, clarifying own goals, drawing strengths from powerful alternatives,..)
• to understand and use power games that vivify organizations as a woman
• to cultivate self-reflection that promotes self-development (communication style, negotiation tendencies, habits, guiding thoughts, body language, …)
• to practice strategies for claiming value in negotiations
• to gain confidence, ideas and strategies for difficult conversational situations as a woman (e.g. when being insulted, threatened, …)
• to communicate with clarity, empathy and strength to reach goals while creating strong ties with business partners/colleaguesIntended Learning Outcomes: Participants will learn:
• to grow one’s own confindence during challenging conversations through systematic preparation (exploring interests at stake, clarifying own goals, drawing strengths from powerful alternatives,..)
• to understand and use power games that vivify organizations as a woman
• to cultivate self-reflection that promotes self-development (communication style, negotiation tendencies, habits, guiding thoughts, body language, ...)
• to practice strategies for claiming value in negotiations
• to gain confidence, ideas and strategies for difficult conversational situations as a woman (e.g. when being insulted, threatened, ...)
• to communicate with clarity, empathy and strength to reach goals while creating strong ties with business partners/colleagues

Optional reading: “Getting to Yes” – Fisher, R. & Ury, W. (2012)“Why Women Don't Ask: The high cost of avoiding negotiation - and positive strategies for change” – Babcock, L. & Laschever, S. (2008)“Six tools for clear communication” – Schulz von Thun, F. (2018)“Learning to negotiate” – Georg Berkel (2020)“Never split the difference” – Chris Voss (2016)“Frauen und Verhandlungserfolg“ – Julia Sophia Habbe (2019)

The workshop makes use of the following methods:

• Short impulses on different topics o Discussion
• Group exercises
• Personal reflection
• Case studies
• Peer mentoring / Collegial consultation

Attendance

none

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