Suggested Conversation in joint sessions

(Updated for Infinity with Sessions (Build 1647 or later))

Some of the following snippets of conversation have been taken from actual users.

Greetings

Hello, my (our) name is ‘Aaron F. T. Jones III’. We are ready to negotiate with you.

Hello Aaron. I am ‘Samantha T-Rex’ representing the Claimant and am ready to negotiate. I’m looking forward to negotiating with you in a friendly and efficient manner. I expect that this will save us a lot of time and avoid the frustration and higher cost of going to court.

Sorry for my lack of creativity. I copied this greeting from the suggested conversation found on the Smartsettle website. I plan to use as much conversation as I can from that source in order to enhance my learning experience.

Preferences

I’m finished defining the shape of my satisfaction functions. I’ve also set a relative importance for each issue.

In real-life negotiations these tasks are often left for later in the process after exchanging information about various things but I don’t expect much will change for us during this short simulation.

Proposals in Session One

I’ve made an optimistic proposal (i.e., significantly in my favour) and have ended Session One.

I am waiting for you to end Session One so that can see each other’s optimistic proposals.

I hope to find a fair solution within the ranges defined by these initial proposals.

Session Two

It looks like the bargaining range that we’ve created is quite large.

I’ve generated some Suggestions and placed a hidden acceptance on at least one of them. If you do the same we might be able to reach agreement at the end of this session.

We might also consider visible concessions during this session in order to narrow the bargaining range.

I’ve made another proposal but it won’t be visible until the end of this session.

Smartsettle requires us to negotiate with packages rather than issue by issue. There is no final agreement on any issue until we find agreement on all of them. This leaves room for optimization to uncover hidden value.

Refining Preferences

This sort of discussion is very useful when it leads to creative options.

We may even influence each other’s preferences as new information comes to light.

According to the rules of this contest we are to assume that such discussion has already occurred and our preferences are fixed for the remainder of the negotiation.

It is now late in the negotiation process. The Single Negotiating Framework has already evolved and our preferences will not change any further.

When negotiating without the assistance of a mediator, it is important to have discussions that will help each party learn the preferences of the other side. Smartsettle acts like an automated mediator that knows our preferences. It keeps them confidential but can use them to generate Suggestions that will be acceptable to both of us.

Negotiators sometimes use discussions to mislead their opponent about what their true preferences are. Such tactics are obviously not conducive to relationship building and fortunately are both unnecessary and counter-productive when using Smartsettle.

So, considering all that, let’s see if Smartsettle can do it’s job and help us come to a good solution without having a lot more detailed discussion. Once we have a solution, let’s come back here and see if more discussion can help us improve our solution.

Smartsettle has a special type of Suggestion called Equivalent. It generates a Suggestion that would deliver similar satisfaction to the package that is least preferred among those you have already accepted. If you find that Smartsettle is unsuccessful, then you can fine-tune your preference representation and try again. In the early stages of negotiation, you can expect that an Equivalent Suggestion will only be equivalent to one of your packages. The other party will see the same Suggestion but it will just look like any other Suggestion. In the later stages of negotiation, if parties are close enough, the equivalent Suggestion may be equivalent to an accepted level of satisfaction for both parties and solve an impasse.

Establish Fairness

I’ve generated one or more Suggestions and accepted some of them. I may have even published some of my own Suggestions but I don’t expect that you can tell the difference.

You are welcome to generate more Suggestions if none of the ones you see are to your liking. You can also publish your own Suggestions. I would be happy to hear that you have also accepted some of these Suggestions. Smartsettle calls this a type of blind bidding in which each of us can safely accept any packages that we think are fair without giving away how much we’re willing to move. This method has been proven to help negotiators come to a solution much more quickly than with the traditional negoiation dance.

I’ve accepted some Suggestions and I hope that you have as well. I’ve ended this Session and hope that we’ll discover that we’ve agreed on a fair solution when you also end it.

Session Three (if no agreement)

Unfortunately, no agreement was reached last session. I thought that there were sufficient suggestions to find agreement with at least one of them. Let’s try some more Suggestions. Sometimes Smartsettle will be able to find a solution to impasse with Suggestions that are generated later in the process after we have each accepted some packages.

I’m thinking in particular about the power of the Equivalent Suggestion to solve impasse, but ordinary Suggestions are also more efficient towards the end of the process.

This discussion has raised my hopes for agreement. I’ve ended Session Three. I don’t want to think about what might be next if we don’t reach agreement.

Final Session (if still no agreement)

Well, it appears that we will need to resort to Final Session. This will motivate each of us to make final moves that we were reluctant to make sooner. After all, this is our last chance.

At the end of Final Session, if we don’t come to agreement, would you be willing to have Smartsettle arbitrate on the basis of the expert opinion of a Neutral that we both agree to?

Baseline

We have a deal. Congratulations! I have generated an improvement that should be better for both of us if we have both accurately represented our preferences.

No Deal

Too bad but fortunately we agreed to let Smartsettle’s Expert Neutral settle the matter. I’m willing to accept and support whatever she decides. Go well, and perhaps at least one of us will still make the top standings. If not, we can always try again or do better when we use Smartsettle in our next real-life negotiation.

Wrap up statements

Our last step is to complete the post-negotiation questionnaire.

It was great negotiating with you! Good luck in the Top Standings! I hope that we both make it in!

I hope that we meet in better circumstances some time in the future. Fortunately this was just a game. We can always try again.