Teamwork skills are fundamental for a successful career for every young people. In cooperation with Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Zemin Istanbul team, we organized a short negotiation skills workshop for university and high school students to help them improve their collaboration capabilities.
Building up teamwork skills through negotiation workshops
Istanbul City Lab Experience Center – Zemin Istanbul is an initiative led by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. The goal of the center is to carry out technology projects for the city of Istanbul. Zemin Istanbul also hosts activities for children and youth to get acquainted with technology and entrepreneurship.
Together with the Zemin Istanbul Team, we designed a compact training program targeted at high school and university students between the ages of 14-24. Students from all around Türkiye participated in the online program in November 2022. During the sessions, participants learned the fundamentals of negotiation through hands-on activities.
“It is really a useful and effective program where you can take the essence of the theoretical components and practice them with real-life examples to use it in your everyday life.” shared Eren Fidan, one of the students from Istanbul Technical University.
Sopu Academy’s negotiation programs are developed and tested with leading educational institutions from Finland. With that said, the training program is organized in Turkish with localized exercises to cover communication dynamics in Turkish culture as well.
Is teamwork a skill?
Teamwork is one of the most valued and demanded soft skills in business life. As work life becomes more connected, we use our communication skills more than ever. However, many students at a younger age undervalue the importance of these skills. According to World Economic Forum, soft skills will be a part of the future skills that we need for a long time.
How to improve teamwork skills?
Improving teamwork and communication skills requires an approach that combines theoretical elements with hands-on practice possibilities. Learning teamwork through negotiation programs offers a wide range of possibilities to focus on. Our program focused on several real-life conflicts as examples to introduce fundamental negotiation theories and tactics to improve teamwork skills.
Real-life simulations
You can’t learn teamwork without participating in teamwork. Although theoretical knowledge opens up different perspectives for learners, practice is a must-have component for soft skills. Negotiation simulations, inspired by real-life cases, aim to make the learning experience highly effective.
One of the goals of this program was to facilitate some behavioral changes in the long term by prioritizing hands-on learning opportunities. All learners participated in real-life simulations designed in different scenarios throughout the program. These simulations offer unique opportunities for participants to try out different communication strategies and tactics without real-life consequences.
“It is a very useful training that actively involves the participants in the process with one-to-one and group work practices. The program strengthens motivation with real-life examples, and reinforces the sense of empathy.”
Görkem Mazaca, Trainings Coordinator at Zemin Istanbul
Teamwork makes the dream work: Peer learning
As Maxwell said “Teamwork makes the dream work”, teamwork skills are very critical for success in life. The program brought participants from different ages and schools together. They worked in groups to explore their differences in the simulation exercises. These activities required role-playing according to the given roles and conditions.
At the end of each simulation, participants give and receive feedback about their performances. The final session also included self-assessment activities and group discussions to encourage participants to reflect on their personal experiences. The participants, who felt the sense of winning together after each exercise, experienced peer learning. Thus, they got to know each other better and expanded their networks.
