Negotiating Win-Win Solutions

Session One

Introduce symposium.

• Announce to the class that five guests, each representing a different stakeholder group, will speak the next day at a mock symposium on the Brazilian rain forest. In preparation for sending student representatives to hear each of these speakers, organize the five-person teams. Ensure that each team will have a representative at each presentation. If the class is not evenly divisible by five, add a sixth member to some teams. In these cases, teams will send two representatives to one of the visitor's presentations.
• Introduce note-taking task.

Inform students that they will be part of a press conference a day or two after the symposium to publicize the views of each stakeholder group. Explain to students that they must take detailed notes during the symposium to prepare their team for negotiations. Distribute a copy of Notes on Stakeholder Perspective to each student. Review the four kinds of summary information they are to record on this sheet:

• background information on the speaker and the stakeholder group he or she represents
• a list of the priority interests and concerns of this group
• proposed strategies or plans that the group would like implemented
• a record of the significant reasons and evidence supporting their proposals.

You may also want to suggest criteria for effective notes; e.g., focus on key ideas, record ideas in point form. Reassure students that they will receive a copy of the presenter's speech in case they cannot record all of the key information in note form at the time of the presentation.