MC CONSULTING

“Quality Communication Consultations”

Consulting Team Report Form – Report # _1_

Team Name: EFN (Educate, Facilitate, Negotiate) Report Date: 9-28-2001

Meeting Dates This Week: Monday, Sept. 24 (2:00 p.m.), Tuesday, Sept. 25 (8:45 p.m.), Wednesday, Sept. 26 (8:00 p.m.) Thursday, Sept. 27 (8:00 p.m.)

Absences: NONE

Summary of What Was Discussed / Work Done: (Use additional page if necessary)

Monday, Sept. 24 the team met at 2:00 p.m. at the library for an informative session on additional library sources that was useful for our project. We were introduced to several journals, magazine articles, studies and periodicals, which we took the time to browse through and find additional material. Each team member found two to three sources that could be used for evidence to support our objectives and product demonstration-“pitch.”

Tuesday, Sept. 25 the team met at 8:45 p.m. in the library. We went over and shared the information we found on Monday with the group. We separated what was useful for us and what was not and highlighted certain parts of texts. During our meeting we decided it best to correct and expand on our objectives so the pitch would develop easier. Below one can view the changed objective list:

A. Who the trainees will be:

Adult women who have recently graduated from college, are entering the work force, and are seeking negotiating skills to overcome obstacles such as bargaining a desired position and salary.

1. PREPARATION:

At the end of this session each woman will be able to list her personal needs to reach satisfaction.

*Personal needs refers to

a) knowing the salary she expects to earn

b) knowing which company benefits she needs most and which companies offer them

c) knowing the expectations she has for her desired position, such as a casual work environment compared to business dress code or working in a cubicle or having her own office.

*To accomplish this she needs to know her self and what she wants.

2. SEPARATE INTERESTS FROM POSITIONS:

At the end of this session each woman will be able to distinguish positions (the negotiating process) from interests (personal, everyday communication) and be able to formulate interests based on observed position statements.

3. KNOW BATNA: Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement

At the end of this session each woman will be able to formulate a BATNA for a variety of personal negotiating situations by recognizing when the negotiating process has come to a close.

4. PERSONAL STRENGTHS:

At the end of this session each woman will be able to list her abilities, qualifications, and knowledge she will bring to the job that creates value to the employer.

*Based on each woman’s personal strengths one or more of the following areas may need to be focused on after this objective is complete:

a) Self esteem building- her individual strengths and past achievements

b) Goal setting- encouraging her to take more responsibility for setting her own challenging and achievable targets at home and work.

c) Positive thinking- to re-program the women’s minds if she is inclined to think or act in a negative manner.

d) Emotional control- to introduce certain stress management techniques and strategies for keeping her frustration and anger under control.

5. PERSUASIVE TACTICS:

At the end of this session each woman will be able to present her position in such a manner that it seems appealing to the other party by concentrating on improving the following areas:

*Assertiveness- to recognize the difference between assertive, passive, and aggressive styles of behavior by practicing some basic strategies. This may even include how to give and take constructive feedback.

*Self presentation and professional image- to appreciate the power of first impressions and recognize the guidelines on how to dress properly and present their image and work in a professional and confident manner.

Wednesday, Sept. 26 the group met at 8:00 p.m. in the library. We began researching statistics we could use in our product pitch on how many women are estimated to graduate in the year 2002 in the state of IL, the difference between females and males salaries, reasons why females earn less, etc. We knew we needed hard core evidence to make it clear why females need negotiation strategies in order to sell our product to Chet. We organized all the information we had in order of how we would present it in the paper and outline of the pitch, and decided the strongest quotes from professionals we could use.

Thursday, Sept. 27 the team met at 8:00 p.m. in the library, and we were ready to put the presentation together. We generated an outline of how our pitch will unfold on Monday, Oct. 1. Below one can see our outline and we also began our power point presentation, which will not be displayed on this page.

PRODUCT DEMONSTRATION (“PITCH”)

I. INTRODUCTION:

Overview of negotiating:

1. Nierenberg claims in his book The Art of Negotiating that “Nothing could be simpler in definition or broader in scope than negotiation. Every desire that demands satisfaction-and every need to be met-is at least potentially an occasion for people to initiate the negotiating process. Whenever people exchange ideas with the intention of changing relationships, whenever they confer for agreement they are negotiating.”

2. Negotiating is part of our everyday lives:

a) Try to agree on a price for a house with a stranger.

b) Settling a lawsuit arising from a car accident.

c) Trying to get a better grade on a project.

d) Settling disputes between close friends.

* This list is endless…

3. Negotiating is part of our workforce:

a) These skills are a must for communicating effectively with peers, superiors, customers, and vendors.

b) These skills are essential for working out project details, obtaining resources, negotiating contracts, and landing a new job or promotion.

c) Need these skills to get hired in the workforce, to define one’s compensation package, and influence a raise.

A. Evidence/Support that negotiating will improve individual and organizational effectiveness:

1. Dave Gartenberg Human Resource Manager for the Worldwide IT division at ROHM and HAAS, “Whatever your job it is an important skill; it’s one of the big differentiators in the success of people.”

2. Leo P. Reilly in the The Bargainer as Negotiator, Five rules for negotiating price in a competitive environment, says “When bargaining for price and terms, Americans tend to do a poor job of managing the negotiation process. We have little patience with the bargaining process, we negotiate without first gathering information, and we tend to collapse our negotiating position early. “

*This is especially true for women and later we will provide statistics to prove this point.

3. Bill Russell, supplier development manager at Raytheon Systems, claims, “To be truly effective, a person must not only find a place where they can really contribute and have the required skills, they must be able to persuade others to adopt their approach.”

4. Statistics: “On average, women earned 76.3 percent as much as men, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” (Men Still Earn More, Forcast v. 19 no. 5, May 1999; p.1-3.

5. “Even in prestigious or highly technical professions that were once the exclusive domain of men—engineering, architecture, law—women generally make less than men.” (Same as above.)

6. Companies are transforming their organizations into sharing communities and negotiating skills enhance this new marketing concept:

a) Gael Lindenfield, The power of personal development, identifies that firms “are seeking emotional and practical support for their commitment to managing organizations in which every worker has a chance of maximizing and enjoying their individual potential and making an effective contribution to society.”

b) Lindenfield: Organizations are “seeking inspiration and ideas for self-improvement programs in the hope that they can transform their organizations into more ethical, caring, sharing communities.”

c) Lindenfield: “They are investing in personal development because they know that people empowerment can increase productivity.

d) In conclusion, Lindenfield states that “On completing such courses, most participants report that not only have they received a tremendous boost of confidence and positive energy, but they have learned many practical kills and strategies,” that is beneficial in the workforce.

II. MARKET POTENTIAL:

A. EFN’s (Educate, Facilitate, Negotiate) initial target market are women. On a broad scale we will provide women the opportunity to learn and develop their negotiating skills. Our product pitch is based on this group of women: adult women who have recently graduated from college, are entering the work force, and are seeking negotiating skills to overcome obstacles such as bargaining a desired position and salary.

However, our product has the potential to adapt to different

1) To women who have already been in the work force for five years.

2) For women who are in need of raises, moving up in the company or improving their working conditions.

3) For women who are in managerial positions and would like to strengthen her negotiating skills to be effective at work.

4) For women graduating high school who are not planning on attending college and immediately entering the work force.

B. EFN’s Selling Strategy:

Since we are concentrating on targeting women at large universities or colleges in their senior year we have several selling strategies, which includes the following:

1) Contacting administrative personnel at college career development centers and offering our training program as a seminar for graduating women. The director of this department can provide mass emailing on campus to inform women as well as posting fliers and bulletins around campus. Also, we can provide an introduction seminar stating who we are and the benefits of our program.

2) We can advertise in the town and college newspapers as well. Also, other women who do not attend the college may see this and want to attend and they will be welcomed (with open arms) J

3) Considering we are going to adapt our product to other markets, for example women holding managerial positions seeking stronger negotiating skills, we are prepared to contact the human resource departments of major businesses and firms.

Also, to attract more clients we can offer group rates. These rates would be special discount prices for large groups of women who sign up together. We feel that offering an incentive such as group rates will only benefit our company. However, the group rates will NOT cut profits for MC Consulting (we still want to get paid).

III. Training Objectives:

A. Who the trainees will be:

Adult women who have recently graduated from college, are entering the work force, and are seeking negotiating skills to overcome obstacles such as bargaining a desired position and salary.

6. PREPARATION:

At the end of this session each woman will be able to list her personal needs to reach satisfaction.

*Personal needs refers to

d) knowing the salary she expects to earn

e) knowing which company benefits she needs most and which companies offer them

f) knowing the expectations she has for her desired position, such as a casual work environment compared to business dress code or working in a cubicle or having her own office.

*To accomplish this she needs to know her self and what she wants.

7. SEPARATE INTERESTS FROM POSITIONS:

8. KNOW BATNA: Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement

At the end of this session each woman will be able to formulate a BATNA for a variety of personal negotiating situations by recognizing when the negotiating process has come to a close.

9. PERSONAL STRENGTHS:

At the end of this session each woman will be able to list her abilities, qualifications, and knowledge she will bring to the job that creates value to the employer.

*Based on each woman’s personal strengths one or more of the following areas may need to be focused on after this objective is complete:

a) Self esteem building- her individual strengths and past achievements

b) Goal setting- encouraging her to take more responsibility for setting her own challenging and achievable targets at home and work.

c) Positive thinking- to re-program the women’s minds if she is inclined to think or act in a negative manner.

d) Emotional control- to introduce certain stress management techniques and strategies for keeping her frustration and anger under control.

10. PERSUASIVE TACTICS:

At the end of this session each woman will be able to present her position in such a manner that it seems appealing to the other party by concentrating on improving the following areas:

Assignments for Future Work / Deadlines:

Monday, Sept. 24 the team agreed to each read the articles we found and report to the group at the next meeting time any new information we learned and to decide collectively if the material was useful or not.

Tuesday, Sept. 25 the team agreed to figure out how we can best summarize each objective point to use in our pitch presentation and paper. We also agreed to have someone meet with McGaan after class on Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 11 a.m. to look at our corrections of the objectives. We also agreed to come up with ideas on our own to organize our training program and they days it will take place. We agreed to discuss these aspects during our next meeting time.

Wednesday, Sept. 26 the team agreed to meet at the library at 8 p.m. the next day and to stay as long as necessary until we developed a rough outline to use in the product demonstration. No homework was assigned because we had all the material organized and ready to be put into print.

Thursday, Sept. 27 the team agreed to meet on Sunday evening to rehearse for our demonstration on the following day and to fine-tune the outline and power point presentation.

Our Assessment of Team Work and Task Progress (Strengths and Weaknesses):

The teams’ strengths are as follows: each individual member continues to work well with one another through listening and understanding. Each member is taking their job seriously and even does work on their own. We are growing to trust one another, which will only benefit us in the long run.

Our weaknesses are as follows: trying to figure out the best information or material to use in our presentation. We want the demonstration to be perfect and we have a hard time trying to decipher which material is best to use.

Submitted by: _____________EFN (Educate, Facilitate, Negotiate)______________________