Feedback von Seminarteilnehmer an Verhandlungsseminaren für Studenten:

One of my main personal take-aways of this seminar is the insight that – if somehow possible – you should always find time to prepare for a negotiation. This helps you to be clear on the goal of the negotiation process and to subsequently really achieve your goals in an efficient way. When it comes to walking out of a negotiation with a satisfying result, it is essential to become clear on and separate between “have tos” and things which are not necessarily a “have to” but would still be beneficial if they were achieved – intents.
Furthermore, it is powerful to think about your own and your opposite’s BATNA and how to strengthen or weaken it. One also should consider that sometimes “no deal” can be the best solution in negotiations. Still with the concept of tradables at hand, there is often much more room for solutions than one would think. I find it interesting to search for potential tradables beforehand and also to actively ask the counterparty for tradables which they could offer at low personal costs. This is another insight that will stick with me from this course, tradables are things which you can offer and are of value to someone else but do not cost you much.
Having talked about the importance of preparation, it is relevant to remember that the amount of time spent on preparing for a negotiation has to be in line with the expected benefit of this negotiation. Another powerful tool that I have come more and more familiar during the course, is the power of having an agenda, especially when it comes to not wasting much time on nothing. Not only having an own agenda but also inviting the counterparty to prepare their agenda in advance and having those agendas compared at an early stage of the negotiation process, can be really powerful – one could see that during the roleplay at the second day.
Many of the key learnings that I have taken away from this course come in at a very early stage of the negotiation process and can have a major impact on how the subsequent negotiation develops. Next, I found it interesting to keep in mind that a good negotiation team should consist of team members with different complementary tasks/skills. Also taking a short break at the right time, is something I will very likely apply more often in the future.
To sum it up, I think that this course especially will help me to not only achieve satisfying results, which I feel I have already been quite good in the past, but to achieve them within a reasonable time frame. In other words, I think I can take with me much knowledge and many tools that make me working more goal-directed and efficiently and I think that this course also further enables me to give positive guidance (to others) during negotiations.

Bernhard Mayr, Student WU

I really appreciate this course and my confidence for future negotiations has risen drastically. Before the course I did not really know what one could learn for negotiation. Now, of course, I am still not an expert but I feel that now I basically know all of the crucial things about negotiation and I have the handout to look up the important stuff before my next important negotiation.
The way the content was presented was very well structured, which made it easy for me to memorize it. Whether the sailing course has helped memorizing it even better, I will first be able to judge in a few years. Now the knowledge is still in my short-term memory. In any case, it helped create a very positive atmosphere, many good emotions, and it made everyone happy to attend the class on a Monday morning! So the least I can say is that it was a day everyone of us (participants and lecturer) has spent nicely ☺
We also had a class called “Executive Leadership” this semester, where we read Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. After the first three habits of “private victory”, the next habits to follow for “public victory” were Think Win-Win, Seek First To Understand Then To Be Understood, and Synergize. I felt reminded of that, when hearing that listening should be 80% of the negotiation, or when trying to understand the other better in order to find a solution that will benefit both (win-win).
There are some small things I would suggest to improve. Some arguments were brought forward to dogmatically in my opinion, and – as someone mentioned in the feedback round at the end of the course – sometimes the main argument against criticism was “Harvard says so”. After careful reconsideration some questions remain unclear to me, for instance “what should I do if giving away information would be necessary from a moral perspective but would hurt my position in the negotiation?” or “what to do if there is no win-win, but the situation is actually a zero-sum game?”
But those are just details and overall as I said, I would give this course 10 out of 10 possible points and I will keep it in mind as one of the best courses I had ☺

Henrik Sulz, Student WU

This short feedback paper has the aim to sum up the most important insights I have gained during the seminar. In general, I perceive both days as extremely valuable for my future life. I expect to directly apply the five steps of the Harvard negotiating method during my upcoming job interviews and I am convinced that it will help me to achieve my desired results. Moreover, I am sure that the seminar will help me also in my private life. I am faced everyday with negotiating situations with my family or friends and the seminar showed principles and methods how to gain satisfying results for both sides. Especially in negotiations in the private level it is important for me that also the negotiation partner does not feel outsmarted afterwards. The first day was important because it equipped the class with the theoretical toolkit that was needed for the second, more practical day. The highlight of the second day was definitely the applied negotiation round. The environment with two teams consisting of three people each was a complete new situation for me and the realistic design of the negotiated case gave everyone a lot of motivation to achieve the goals which were set in the HIT list during the preparation phase. Before, I also negotiated a lot but never in such a structured way. Especially the right use of Tradables is a powerful asset to leverage one’s own position in any negotiation situation in my life. To put it in a nutshell, this very practical seminar will have a strong influence on my future development and the reaching of my private and professional goals. It will help me to do so in a more efficient and less time-consuming way. Last but not least I can highly encourage the seminar facilitator to organize this event next semester again at Alte Donau. It was a great and refreshing alternative compared to the usual class room seminars.

Raffael Speitmann, Student WU

Generally, it was one of the most valuable courses in my opinion throughout the master program. When I compared invested time to return ratio with other courses this one is definitely a leader. At the beginning of the first class everybody stated his/her own expectations from the course. Mine was to get a “birds view” that included integration of the popular concepts from the literature and at the end of the course I got one. However, what I’ve missed is also a critical view on the issue; for instance, a review of Jim Camp’s approach described in his book “Start with no” might be interesting to contrast it to other concepts. Another interesting outcome could be reached through the combination of the course with some of the famous Sun Tzu quotes from his book “The Art of War” to add more drama. My key takeaway is understanding that one has to prepare to negotiate and the amount of time spent on preparation is directly proportional to success. This might be obvious, but I never thought about it in such a structured way where we can use HIT lists, BATNA, 80/20 principle, or Russian front. However, the most important learning for me was that we need to set up our have to’s and when they are not reached even with help of tradable simply “walk away”. I am more than 100% sure that my negotiation techniques are constantly improving because every time I think of them in a structured framework.

Denis Dragunov, Student WU

The subject of negotiation is a controversial topic. It is thus quite inspiring to be able to discuss it with peers as well as experienced professionals, and the untypical WU course of Negotiations presented me interesting themes which stimulated personal reflections. First of all I would like to thank you for offering us the possibility to learn about and practice negotiations in an outstanding environment, which without doubt enhanced the learning outcome of this course significantly.
I always considered myself a steady negotiator who knows what he wants. However in the proceeding of this course, I realized that my approach to negotiation was lacking some important structure and tools. The introduced “Harvard Method” was an eye opener for me; I realized that a well-structured approach would improve my negotiation skills in every situation in order to get the best results out of it. Furthermore, I spent insufficient time on the preparation of a negotiation and persuaded a little bit of the typical Austrian “schaun ma mal” attitude when it came to negotiations. In addition, the creation of a HIT list to clarify which goals are essential to me and which are just nice to have will help me improve my standing in negotiations. Moreover the concept of tradeables that can be traded at very low cost is an excellent tool that can be used for bargaining. One thing I will always keep in mind is the fact that there is no need to come to an agreement, therefore it is crucial to always have a BATNA at hand. Besides, I’m right now working on integrating a more question based negotiation style and use summarization as a negotiation technique. Finally the most important key learning for me is the fact that we ALWAYS have to prepare for the negation not just from our own point of view but also for the other party in order to get a better understanding and therefore come to a mutually beneficial result.
In particular, I am currently trying to structure all negotiations in my private as well as in my professional life according to the 5 phases. These are fundamentally my key take-away from this course and I believe that an intensive practice of the learned techniques will lead to a certain mastery of negotiation in the future.

Peter Hackl, Student WU

Feedback von Teilnehmern des Verhandlungsseminars an der Alten Donau

Mir persönlich hat die Veranstaltung sehr gut gefallen, das Thema spricht unser alltägliches Leben an und war sehr interessant und sehr gut von Ihnen erklärt. Ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass ich in den nächsten Bewerbungsgesprächen vorbereitet in die Verhandlungen eingehen werde. Mit der Harvard-Methode und dem Fünf-Phasen Modell habe ich ein Gepäck an Werkzeugen mit mir, welches ich abwechselnd und in verschiedenen Situationen anwenden kann. An der Lehrveranstaltung hat mir die interaktive Übermittlung der Informationen gut gefallen und das Thema mit Kamel werde ich nie im Leben vergessen, und den 18. Kamel werde ich immer in Tasche haben, und ihn niemals umsonst hergeben.

Herr Mag. Nekham gehört neben meinen EBC- und Arbeitsrechtprofessoren sicherlich zu den besten Lehrkörpern dieser Universität. Seine Schilderungen aus der Praxis haben das Bild eines sehr erfahrenen und kompetenten Mann der Praxis bestätigt. Er hat die Studenten oft auf humorvolle Art in den Unterricht eingebunden, ohne dabei das Thema aus den Augen zu verlieren. Leider war es mir nicht möglich die letzten Einheit an der alten Donau zu besuchen, aber alleine das Angebot im Anschluss an die Vorlesung gemeinsam segeln zu gehen sucht auf dieser Hochschule wohl seines Gleichen.
Vielen Dank für dieses interessante Seminar!

Der Kurs bot eine lockere Atmosphäre und die Inhalte wurden spielerisch vermittelt mithilfe kleiner Geschichten und Hausaufgaben, bei denen man Inhalte zusammenfassen und später in der Einheit präsentieren musste. Ich sehe das als eine sehr effektive Stoffvermittlung, denn Präsentationen anzuschauen, zusammenzufassen und wiederum wiederzugeben ist sinnvoller und bringt mir mehr, als nur einen Text zu lesen und Frontalunterricht zu erhalten. Was ich noch sehr positiv empfunden habe, war das nach draußen Verlegen des Kurses in der letzten Einheit und das Anbieten der Möglichkeit, nachher Segeln zu schnuppern.
Kleine Aufgaben an KollegInnen zu verteilen und jeden mit Namen anzusprechen fand ich ebenfalls gut, so war jeder involviert und vor allem Leute, die sonst vielleicht nicht so genau aufgepasst hätten, haben sich angesprochen gefühlt. Dass nach 50 min Pause gemacht wurde fand ich super, so konnte man konzentriert bleiben und der Kurs blieb kurzweilig.

Der Vortragende war sehr eloquent, man merkt, dass er viel Praxiserfahrung hat und der Kurs schon oft abgehalten wurde. Positiv zu erwähnen wäre die Verwendung von eher alltäglicher Sprache, die den Vortragenden nahbarer erscheinen lassen. Der Vortragende war imstande, die Aufmerksamkeit immer auf sich zu ziehen und gestaltete den Vortrag interessant. Was ich noch bemerkenswert fand, war, dass der Vortragende, wahrscheinlich, um Aufmerksamkeit auf sich zu ziehen, hin und wieder rund um das Publikum ging und dass Musik in den Pausen und am Anfang des Kurses abgespielt wurde.

Zu aller Erst möchte ich sagen, dass ich es eine überaus gute Idee fand, einen so praxisorientierten Teil in der Lehrveranstaltung Supply and Procurement Management zu offerieren. Neben vielen veranschaulichten Beispielen kamen wir auch selbst in den Genuss so manche „Verhandlungstechnik“ am eigenen Leib zu erfahren und den Unterschied zu spüren. Ich denke hierbei nur an die Musik im Hörsaal beim Eintreffen der Studenten.

Auch der Aufbau der 3 Einheiten war für mich sehr gut überlegt, strukturiert und sehr verständlich. Die Erfahrung beim Einstieg, mit einer Selbsteinschätzung (Diagramm) unseres eigenen Verhandlungsgeschicks , in die erste Einheit war sehr interessant.
Die Kombination der verschiedenen Methoden (Harvard-Methode, 5 Phasen Modell,…) war sehr gut gewählt, da wir dadurch die Ganzheitlichkeit eines Prozesses von Vorbereitung bis hin zum Abschluss kennenlernen konnten. Über die gesamten drei Einheiten wurden die Modelle aufbauend durch gearbeitet.
Besonders erwähnen möchte ich auch die vielen Beispiele aus der Praxis, die uns die Theorie mit ihren Fakten spielerisch näher brachte.

In meinen Augen finde ich es toll, wie viel wissen Sie uns in den drei Halbtagen vermitteln konnten. Ebenso sehe ich die Anwesenheit in diesem Kurs durchaus als sehr sinnvoll an und freue mich, dass ich aus diesem Seminar auch wirklich viel mitnehmen konnte, privat als auch beruflich. Persönlich besonders gut hat mir gefallen, dass Sie den Vortrag sehr frei, interaktiv und offen gestaltet haben. Ich hatte bei keiner anderen PI die Freiheit einfach aufzustehen und herumzugehen.
Ganz besonders interessant und wertvoll finde ich, dass dieses Seminar mein Bild vom Verhandeln und meinen Zugang dazu komplett geändert hat. Diese Tatsache hört sich zwar nicht sehr imposant an, es ist jedoch ein großer Mehrwert Verhandeln richtig zu verstehen und vor allem interessensbasiertes Verhandeln super begreifen zu können.

Es hat alles Sinn ergeben für mich, was Sie uns erzählt, was mich zum gewünschten Feedback über Sie führt: Mir wurde immer gesagt, ich solle kritisch bleiben, was mir erzählt wird, aber bei Ihnen hatte ich nie das Gefühl, etwas hinterfragen zu müssen, und habe Ihnen auf Anhieb alles geglaubt!! Habe noch nicht viele Menschen getroffen, die so etwas ausstrahlen!!
Schlussfazit: 11 von möglichen 10 Sternen!!