CHESTNUT VILLAGE NEGOTIATION

This simulation was opposing two groups of people. The residents of Chestnut drive and the members of Bunyon Construction a very well-known construction company. I was playing the role of a lawyers, member of the neighborhood of Chestnut drive. The two groups were negotiating about the ongoing construction of a residential complex.

            We starting by a quite long preparation time. With the other members of the neighbourhood we defined our proprieties, what deals we wanted to get out of the negotiation coming, we also planned a strategy and tried to imagine how the negotiation simulation would go.

            Every member of the village shared his/her complaints related with the construction. Indeed, by reading the instructions we only knew our own problems and not all the problems caused by the construction process. After sharing these information, we began to rank and define our priorities. Our number one priority was safety for our families, then came the problem related with the behaviour of the workforce, after that we mentioned the noise caused by the construction process and at the end we talked about the possibility to create another access for the construction site so the trucks would no cross our properties and we won’t even have to deal with the rude workforce.

            We knew that we were on a quite strong position knowing that the construction company’s reputation had already tarnished by a scandal not so long ago, therefore they would do anything not to be exposed again. Moreover, our complaints were totally normal and the unbearable situation could not last any longer. Kids narrowly escaped from death and we were willing to go to court if the members of the company would not have taken compromises to better our lives.

            In our strategy we also thought about “value creation”. Indeed, when we would talk about the safety of the neighbours during the construction process, we would ask for fences. One of our neighbours is a carpenters, he had all the prices and could be the one who would build and install it is the company agreed to pay for it.

            We also though about the possibility that the members of the construction company would refuse all our propositions, therefore we would go on a strike and block the access to the site day and night, then go to court. This would delay the end on the construction which is always really bad for a construction company and if the case went to court, this would have a negative impact on the society’s reputation. 

           

            We were quite optimistic about the negotiation coming. We even finished to prepare in advance in comparison to the other groups. Also, we agreed that everyone would not talk at the same time. I was the one in charge to “lead” the negotiation by addressing all the problems one after another and after I would have exposed the situation, each neighbour would testify and share all the problems he had met since the beginning of the construction process. We also knew that the carpenter’s testimony would move the member of the company since a lot of sad events happened in his life lately.

            The negotiation started and our counterparts were also very organized but everyone managed to stay calm and it was a quite successful negotiation for both parts.  Indeed, in the end, both parties wrote up an informal agreement on which we agreed to the following:

-       Bunyon Company committed to build fences with lights around the construction site's perimeter, to avoid people and specially children from wandering in and injuring themselves or worse. This would be built by the village's carpenter, and it will cost $1,500. It will need to be built in two-weeks time.

-       The company also agreed to improve its recruitment and screening process, because the residents complained that construction workers were rude and uncivilized (they peed in the woods and swore a lot), truck drivers drove above the legal speed limit for a residential area putting children at risk. The company committed to fire the workers who didn't follow the company's security guidelines.

-        In exchange, the residents promised to schedule a meeting in order to inform the other residents about these decisions and to warn them not to vandalize the site, or we would press legal charges. They will make sure the company's reputation doesn't suffer from bad press. We also agreed to not block the project, so there would be no delays.

            During the negotiation, we didn’t even ask for the alternative access to the construction site because we got everything we wanted out of the deal. The members of the company showed their good faith and respected us, therefore there was no need to be greedy. We all felt quite satisfied after the negotiation which enables to say that is was a successful negotiation. We managed to work all together for the good of everyone.