Sopu Academy’s Negotiation Essentials program introduces negotiation skills for youth from all around the world. The online program brings upper-secondary school students from different countries together. We decided to share some of the previous students’ stories on our blog. Check out the first article below!
Negotiation Skills for Youth
The Negotiation Essentials program helped me build and refine my speaking and negotiation skills. I signed up for the workshop because I thought it sounded interesting, though I wasn’t sure how much it would teach me, as I’ve been a debate club member for a few years. I ended up learning quite a lot! The course teaches how to use cadence, tone, and word choice to better handle different scenarios. We used these techniques in practice scenarios to learn how to approach conflicting ideas and interests while establishing a fair consensus to benefit both parties.
One useful tool I learned was how to prevent making whoever I was talking with feeling defensive since reaching an amicable conclusion becomes impossible when either party is defensive. I plan to further these skills, which will help me through university and my professional life. These tools are especially pertinent to me as I want to get involved in the business world, where communicating with people from various cultures, and negotiating in a diplomatic and fair way, will be necessary skills.
Negotiation Cases for Collaboration
Another important aspect of the course was when we took our newly learned theory and applied it in practice by simulating a debate between two parties. This exercise would teach us how to use our skills and concepts in a controlled environment. The objective of the debate was to equally allocate resources between two clubs that both wanted to host a convention simultaneously with each club having different wants and needs. The learning outcome was to teach students how to negotiate in a setting where there was limited information about what the other side wanted to promote the exploration of ideas and to seek a mutual agreement. This exercise was quite fun as it encouraged us to establish our wants and needs with another party and work out how resources should be distributed as a collaborative team.
In the end, we all came to a mutual agreement that near perfectly allocated resources to everyone equally. During this course, I made several friends who I still keep in touch with. This course had a lot of really nice students and it’s great to see so many who share a common interest with me. It’s funny how a course oriented around debating with others could have introduced me to new people who I would later become friends with.
What’s Next?
I will harbor and further this skill to ensure that it remains refined and practical to use in my professional future life. I will practice these methods and concepts whenever I have the opportunity, which includes using these methods during sessions in my debate club or finding another similar course in the future. Doing this will ensure that the Sopu Academy has served as a strong foundation for me to build upon. Additionally, I would certainly be interested in attending future courses offered by Sopu Academy as I find the platform and format offer students such as myself who are all over the world a versatile means of education.
About the Author:
This article is written by Griffin Neal, a previous participant of the Negotiation Essentials for Youth Program in 2022. Griffin is a Californian, currently living and attending high school in Portugal. When he isn’t building RC airplanes with the RC club he founded near Lisbon, playing online chess, or debating with his debate club, he enjoys sailing and paddle boarding with “Atlas”, his labrador retriever.
