Chesnut Village

The last class, we have experimented what is to negotiate in a group, and I have to admit that it was a bit difficult. We were divided into 2 groups and in each group, there were several bargainers. Me and my group represented the Bunyon Construction Company, in charge of the construction of a new residential complex at the end of Chestnut Drive. In front of us, there were some neighbors and a lawyer which were discontent about this project because it causes some disagreements to the neighborhood.

Before negotiating, we had an hour to prepare our action plan and to organize our speech. We even prepared in advance some compensation for the « damages » that we were sure the neighborhood will talk about. It helped us to be more comfortable during the negotiation.

The neighborhood and the lawyer explained to us that our construction project entailed a lot of disagreements and could put in danger life of the chestnut drive inhabitants. Moreover, before the construction starts, they were living in a little peaceful town, which has been impacted negatively by the construction. Thus, we had to take into consideration their concerns, but we also needed to ensure that the neighbors won’t give us a negative image in the press.

During the negotiation, we talked about the issues raised by the neighbors and how to solve them.

First, we talked about the security problem. Because our construction is in front of the school and since there are no fences, the neighbors highlighted the fact that it was dangerous for the children who played near the construction. Moreover, the workers drive very fast. We agreed on the fact that we had to install fences to delimitate the work zone in order to avoid accidents, and also that we had to establish a speed limit of 30km/h. We couldn’t disagree on that point so the negotiation was pretty easy.

Then we talked about noise pollution. We discussed several ways to reduce it for instance by working during the day when the neighbors are at work, and also by giving them a schedule of the hours worked.

We also discussed the bad behavior of the workers. Here we have explained to the neighbors that it was difficult for us to control the behavior of the workers, but we told them that we will talk with the subcontractor who employs the workers in order to fix this problem.

Moreover, in order to compensate for the damages that were already done, we offered them a special access to the facilities of the future apartments in construction with some discounts.

Then, the hardest point during the negotiation was about the parking spaces and the new road. Because our workers parked themselves just in front of the dentist, it hinders clients to park there. Thus we agreed on the fact that we had to build parking spaces. However, the neighbors also wanted us to build another road to enter the construction site, but we explained to them that we had not the money for it. So we succeed in reaching an agreement: that the city hall will pay to build this road.

To finish, we asked the neighborhood not to give our company a bad image in exchange for everything we make for them, what they have accepted as long as we fulfilled our commitments. 

To conclude, I can say I was pretty happy with the negotiation. I think each party obtained what it wanted, and no-one was disadvantaged compared to the other. Both tried to take into consideration the needs of the other one during the negotiation.

However, I can point out some difficulties, such as speech coordination, which was not always clear because we were several persons to speak at the same time, and also the defense of a common interest and not only an individual one, because sometimes members of the group were defending the problem only from their point of view. Moreover, negotiating with a group implies a good preparation of the speaking time.