UNITAR
20 May 2019, San Jose Costa Rica - UNITAR New York Office traveled to Costa Rica on the 20th-21st of May to implement a course on developing leadership and strengthening negotiation techniques to the diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica. The course was held at the Diplomatic Academy Manuel Maria de Peralta of San Jose. During the welcoming remarks, the Director of the Academy, Ambassador Mr. Jorge Sanz, the Director of the Centro American Institute for Public Administration, Mr. Alexander Lopez and Mr. Pelayo Alvarez, Programme Coordinator and representative of UNITAR New York Office, welcomed the participants and encouraged their interactive participation, as well as introduced the facilitators of the training, Dr. Aldo Civico, Associate Professor at Columbia and Director of The Civico Group and Dr. Guido Bertucci, Director of Governance International Solutions.
The workshop facilitators initiated a general presentation from the participants which included their expectations about the course and their current negotiation techniques. Using brainstorming, participants shared ideas on how to conduct effective negotiations which remarked the importance of emotional control, managing boldness while negotiating, the gap between listening and reacting, the use of intuition, the development of soft skills, time managing or understanding the interests of their negotiator’s counterparts.
UNITAR
Dr. Civico, expert on conflict resolution, explained his experience during the Colombian Peace process and the importance that social change and cultural realignment had.
Before continuing the workshop, he guided the participants through a mindfulness exercise to reconnect with the creative side of the brain by focusing on the breath.
Using the analysis of a current personal conflict by the participants as an example of how to change our perspective on conflicts, Dr. Civico shifted from questions on why our problem is happening, what are our limitations or who should we blame to reframing these personal conflicts and seeing the opportunities within by asking ourselves how could we behave different, what resources and skills are available to solve this issue or how will our lives look through this new lens.
UNITAR
After lunch participants explored the 4 different levels of listening, (Level 1: Judging habit, Level 2: Observing differences, Level 3: Emotional Connection and level 4, Intuitive Listening) by pairing up and sharing childhood memories. During the exercise, they practiced how to start an effective communication, intuitively respond your body language with the person in front of you and adapt the speed and tone of the voice.
To close the day one of the workshop the participants went through the seven steps of conflict transformation:
- Take 100% responsibility.
- Manage your mental space.
- Have a clear result of what we want to obtain
- Create connection during the conflict
- Discover the positive intention
- Find the level needed to solve the conflict
- Explore different possibilities.
Once Dr. Civico, went through the seven steps, the group discussed how they would incorporate the steps in their personal and professional conflicts. Before closing the first day of the workshop, the participants shared lessons learnt and Dr. Bertucci outlined how the second day will apply all the knowledge acquired during this part of the workshop.
UNITAR
The second day of the workshop kickstarted with Dr. Guido Bertucci, who encouraged participants to come out with ideas on how to solve the issue of traffic congestion in San Jose. Every participant wrote down in cards what their ideas were to come up with a solution, if someone was stuck or could not come up with more ideas, they would choose one of their colleagues cards, and use it as a catalyst to create new ideas and perfect the ones they already had.
Participants mentioned their perspectives on how they used transportation influenced their decision while noticing that even they worked separately, they all came out with ideas in similar areas.
UNITAR
Continuing with the practical exercises, each of the participants decided the order to 15 steps of a financial acquisition for a fictional company. After deciding the order, they joined their group and negotiated the order they will choose as a group. Once the negotiated order was decided, the facilitator explained the explanation between the correct order.
The groups shared their strategies and steps followed during the negotiation, who lead the process and how did the group’s opinions influence their thoughts as individuals.
Dr. Bertucci closed the morning session with a presentation on how to conduct a negotiation in a team. In order to conduct a successful negotiation in a team, it is necessary to take time thinking what the priorities and objectives of the team are as well as share the knowledge and skills from every member of the team in order to assign everybody’s role. It is crucial to schedule a coordination meeting where topics like the agenda of the negotiation, who will serve as facilitator or stablishing the times for the negotiation in order to have clear objectives before entering the negotiation room.
UNITAR
During the afternoon session, the participants were divided into 3 different groups, representing 2 imaginary countries in conflict and a mediating organization which served as mediator between the 2 countries. Implementing the theory learnt on how to prepare for a group negotiation, the participants analyzed the positions and interest of the countries and stablished and strategy before the negotiation. Still divided as groups, the participants studied all potential consequences of the conflict, including military, domestic and international issues of the country’s politics. Using an official negotiator from each group which represented all the consensually agreed objective of each of the groups, the participants, the groups recreated a real negotiation, with statements from both sides which right before the conclusion of the workshop, came to live as an agreement document between both countries