Assignments for self-control

1. What are the common rules of telephone communication?

2. What are the most important elements of messages?

3. How should you leave a message on an answer phone?

4. Enumerate the main rules of active listening.

5. What recommendations do you consider the most necessary in telephone conversation?

Vocabulary in need

answerphone	автоответчик
area code	код города, страны
busy, engaged	занятый
buzzing	гудок
extension	дополнительный номер
free	свободный, бесплатный
long-distance, trunk	междугородний
receiver	телефонная трубка
Expressions	Выражения
answer a call	отвечать на звонок
be in	быть на месте
be out, away, off	отсутствовать на месте
call, phone, ring up	звонить
confirm an appointment, engagement	подтвердить договоренность
connect, put through	соединить
contact someone, get in touch with someone	связаться
cut off, disconnect	разъединять
hang up, put down the receiver	положить трубку
have a word (with), speak, talk to	поговорить с
hold on, hold the line	подождать у телефона
pick up the receiver	взять трубку
sort out something	выяснить и уладить что-либо
speak over (on) the phone	говорить по телефону

NEGOTIATIONS

The word “negotiation” is from the Latin expression “negotiatus” which means “to carry on business”. “Negotium” means literally “not leisure”.

Their purpose is:

- to promote a reasonable agreement;

- to settle discords when the conflicts have risen;

- to improve or to maintain relations.

The negotiations have 2 sides: proceeding (external) and content (internal).

The proceeding part

For negotiating 2 programmes should be developed: general – for guests and detailed which includes all technical features – for the “holders”.

The general programme includes: meeting of the delegation, the programme of business part – the negotiations, receptions, cultural procedures, delegation departure.

The detailed programme contains all organizational moments: delegation reception, participation of mass media, greeting speeches, the questions for discussion, transport provision, hotel arrangement, etc.

Before negotiations begin, preparing and planning are very important.

1) Get as much information as possible about the situation. If dealing with people from another culture, find out about its etiquette and negotiating styles: the way people negotiate, what they consider to be acceptable and unacceptable behavior, and so on.

2) Work out your initial bargaining position: what are your needs and objectives (the things that you want to achieve)? Decide your priorities (the most important objectives).

3) Try to estimate the needs and objectives of the other side.

4) Prepare a fallback position: conditions that you will accept if your original objectives are not met.

5) If you are negotiating as part of a negotiating team, consult your colleagues about previous points, and allocate roles and responsibilities.

The most important moments of negotiation

- date and time;

- the participants composition;

- the selection of common language;

- the preparation of the room for the negotiations;

- the meeting at the office;

- some organizational questions.

The content part

The first stage of the negotiation process is the conversation when the subject of negotiations is elaborated, the organizational questions are discussed.

There are six main rules of relations establishment:

1. Rationality

2. Understanding

3. Communication

4. Reliability

5. Avoid the didactic tone

6. Acceptance

There are different methods of conducting negotiations. The three of them are the most wide-spread ones:

1. The mild method

- to avoid the personal conflict and to compromise for agreement;

2. The hard method

- any situation is considered as the will competition;

3. The method of principle negotiations

- presupposes the problem decision, considering the essence of the affair. It denotes the hard approach to the essence of the affair but the mild approach to the relations between the participants. The method shows how to reach the desired and do it correctly.

There are six steps common to each negotiation:

Step 1: Get to know the other, keep it friendly.

Step 2: Share goals, learn the other’s goals.

Step 3: Study all the issues beforehand, raise specific questions.

Step 4: Express areas of disagreement.

Step 5: Reassess positions.

Step 6: Affirm agreements.

Write a clear report including the following items:

1. The decision. Was there agreement?

2. If there was agreement, list everything agreed to in the negotiations.

3. If anything was not agreed upon explain the stumbling blocks that need to be overcome.

4. If there was no agreement at all and the negotiations ended in failure explain what happened to cause the failure.

5. Your assessment of the other team’s negotiating strategies, tactics and communication styles.

6. What you have learned while negotiating or communicating from this task.

What are good negotiators like?

The average negotiators think in terms of the present but the good negotiators take a long-term view.

The average negotiators set their objectives as – “We hope to get $ 2.00”. The good negotiators set their objectives as following – “We hope to get $ 2.00 but if we get $ 1.50 it’ll be all right”.

The average negotiators do not give many reasons. They just repeat the same ones. On the contrary, good negotiators always summarize and review, checking they have understood everything correctly and giving new proposals and reasons.

But cultural differences cause four kinds of problems in international business negotiations at the levels of:

• language;

• nonverbal behaviours;

• values;

• thinking and decision-making processes.

Translation problems are often substantial in international negotiations. Often the language used is English. Indeed, native speakers from England, India and the United States often have trouble understanding one another.

Anthropologist Ray L. Birdwhistell demonstrated that less than 35% of the messages in conversations is conveyed by the spoken word while the other 65% is communicated nonverbally. Albert Mehrabian, a UCLA psychologist, reports:

• 7% of the meaning is derived from the words spoken;

• 38% from paralinguistic channels, that is, tone of voice, loudness, and other aspects of how things are said;

• 55% from facial expressions.

As we know, misunderstandings are especially likely to occur when the people who are communicating have different backgrounds. We shouldn’t ignore the fact that people from other cultures differ in many ways: in their religion and values, their ideas of status, their attitude toward time, their use of space, their manners.

When faced with a complex negotiation task, most Westerners divide the large task up into a series of smaller tasks. In Asia, however, a different approach is more often taken when all the issues are discussed at once and concessions are made on all issues at the end of the discussion. The Western sequential approach and the Eastern holistic approach do not mix well.

So, when you are negotiating with people from other cultures, it’s important to think about what they consider as ‘normal’ behavior. You’ll need to think about the following:

• body language;

• physical contact;

• conversational rules;

• relationship building;

• hierarchy;

• attitudes to time.

When negotiations get stuck, and don’t progress, there are a number of things you can do:

- Underline common ground - the areas where agreement has been reached.

- Reassure the other side on key points that have been decided - confirm that you have not changed your mind.

- Be willing to compromise on your original objectives - be ready to accept less than you wanted in exchange for compromises from the other side.

- Identify the exact obstacles or sticking points - the problems that are causing negotiations to become difficult.

- Postpone discussions until later so that each side can reconsider its position.