Popeye

From Peacebuilding

Contents 1 Purpose 2 Time 3 Materials 4 Process 5 Note 6 Debriefing 7 Source

Purpose

To discuss adversarial assumptions about negotiation.

Time

At least 30 minutes; more for a good debriefing.

Materials

• One long table (or more tables) where participants can sit across in pairs;
• Flip chart papers;
• Markers.
• M&M's

Process

I) Ask participants to pair up and sit down across from their partner, facing each other.

II) Ask them to place their right elbows on the table and grab their partner’s right hand. Tell them to not let go.

III) Tell them their purpose and task: “your purpose is to get as many points for yourself as possible. You will get one point by having the back of your partner’s hand touching the table. You are to be indifferent of how many points your partner gets. You must keep your eyes closed and cannot talk across the play”. Each time you score a point, you get an M&M.

IV) Start the play and let them go for 3-5 minutes – or as long as you find it useful. Then stop the play. Tell participants that they can return to their seats.

Note

Probably the majority of participants will make the assumption that they and the guy sitting across the table are adversaries. This happens despite the fact that you use the word "partner" and have explicitly said, “you are to be indifferent of how many points your partner gets”. It is normal to see almost all participants struggle, using their physical strength in order to let their partner’s hand touch the table. Though, it might happen that a minority of participants can see the cooperative potential in this activity and – by building cooperation with their partner - let their hands down the table as many times as possible in order to maximise their scores. Both of them.

If that happens, you will have some couples scoring dozens of points (those cooperating) and others scoring maximum 2-3 points (those competing).

As a facilitator you shouldn't try to convince participants that cooperation is the way; you can give a better service by helping them reflect about adversarial assumptions about negotiation - and how these can influence the outcome.

Debriefing

The following questions are not normative. You can add, delete or change as needed:

How do you feel?

• How do you feel about this activity?
• How do you feel about your partner?
• How do you feel about the relationship with your partner?
• How do you feel about your performance?
• How do you feel about your partner’s performance?
• How do you feel about the other pairs? Any pair in specific?

What happened?

• What happened during the activity?
• What happened at the beginning of the activity?
• Did anything change during the play? How?
• What worked for you?
• What got in the way – what hampered you to get as many points as possible?
• What did your partner want? And you?
• What kind of communication took place between you and your partner? What messages were conveyed?
• Whose responsibility is it that the activity turned to be competitive? Why?

What have you learned?

• What was the most important learning point from this activity for you?
• What have you learned about adversarial assumptions in negotiation?
• What have you learned about cooperation and competition?
• What are the things/factors that stimulate people to adversarial assumptions about negotiation?
• What can you take with you from this activity that will make you negotiations better?

How does this relate?

• How does this activity relate to the kind of interactions you have in real life?
• How does it relate to negotiation?
• How does it relate to cooperation and competition?
• How can you apply what you have learned here in your real life?

What if?

• What if you could talk and/or watch your partner?
• What could have happened if you were able to prepare a strategy before the play?
• What if you were much stronger than you partner?
• What if your partner was much stronger than you?
• When can cooperation maximise the outcome of a negotiation?

What next?

• What would you say to someone who is about to play the activity for the first time?
• How would you behave differently if you were to play it a second time?
• What would you change in the activity in order to make it more competitive? More cooperative?

Source

The idea for the activity comes from a book by Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro, Beyond Reason:Using Emotions as You Negotiate, New York: Viking Penguin, 2005.