CPA roleplay

During the last class, we did a role play in which I had to play the role of Roo and Dana who charge with robbery one of their colleague, Sandy Brown. In order to fit well my role, I had to be very aggressive to convince by all means JT to lay off Sandy.

I wanted Sandy to be fired because we suspected her to be the culprit. To convince JT it was the right thing to do, I was using arguments such as « a manager need to punish someone to seat an example because if he lets the situation like this, other employees will do the same ». Moreover, we explained to JT that we wanted to work in a safe place, and lay off Sandy would be the only solution. Next to that, we told to JT that if Sandy stays in the company, we will leave the company because we were working here for a long time and we couldn’t accept that someone who betrays the principles of loyalty of the company stays in the company. 

It was very long because I was fixed on my ideas, I used different arguments which, in the end, expressed the same idea: fire Sandy it’s an only solution. I understood that in this way, we won’t move forward and that is really bad in a negotiation process.

For its part, JT has reacted exactly the way a manager should react: he kept calm and tried to find a sustainable solution because lay off Sandy is not one. Indeed, he highlighted to fact that us was unfair to do it without any evidence. For him, knowing who was guilty didn’t matter, because the most important was to keep the company healthy in the long term.

That is why he restored calm by suggesting a lot of different solutions. First, JT suggested improving the security system in the company with cameras, so that the employees feel safe in their working place. He has also decided to create teams in the company to help people know each other and to create a trusted environment.

To conclude, I can say that this roleplay taught me that during a negotiation, we always need to bring to the front the main problem. We need to stay focused on the real problem, which was in this case, bringing more security, and not firing Sandy. I also learned how to lead a discussion and to calm a situation. Indeed, the first thing you need to do as a manager when you face angry people is to let them vent and then you can try to provide a solution. 

Moreover, it reminds me that a good negotiator should not be led by his emotions because it leads to nothing and that exactly what we saw in the last reading about mental errors!