What will you sacrifice to meet your business goals?

I discovered a weird fact this morning: apparently, F. Hollande and N. Sarkozy, French presidential candidates, have a common ancestor; and therefore, they are cousins[1]. Despite this relationship, these two candidates are rivals and publicly denigrate each other. I admit that you don’t necessarily have to get along with every member of your family. However, this specific situation is actually quite funny and even a bit absurd. In fact, only recently their relationship has been pointed out in French media; however, their hatred, or let’s say their strong opposition, against each other is quite well known in France for a couple of years now. By being from the same family we could actually expect from these 2 people to be at least a bit friendly and cordial with each other. But it seems that when business goals are involved, your own interest can be more important than your family and your friends. Conflicts can arise from everywhere.

 A few days ago, with some classmates, we ran a workshop about friendships in a business context and how conflict can arise. As we demonstrated during the workshop, friends and business goals don’t necessarily match. In fact, you may expect more from your friends in a business context than in the daily life; therefore, conflict might arise. As far as I’m concerned, I believe that friends and business partners should be differentiated. Without a high degree of assertiveness and active listening from both sides, the friendship may not survive against business goals; which is quite sad. An assertive behaviour is promoted when you express your own rights in a cordial manner, without violating the other one’s needs. Active listening can be helpful to gain an assertive behaviour. In fact, by listening actively, you show to your friend that you have understood his/her position. However, resolving conflict with these two techniques can be quite time-consuming and it demand willingness to resolve the conflict from both parties. Are you ready to make this effort? Or are you ready to lose your friends for your business or vice versa? It can be a tricky situation.

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[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/nicolas-sarkozy/9121972/Sarkozy-and-Hollande-are-cousins-descended-from-same-17th-century-peasant.html

BACK & BACK, 2005. Assertiveness at Work: A Practical Guide to Handling Awkward Situations. 3^rd ed. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill

MINDTOOLS, 2012. Conflict Resolution: Resolving Conflict Rationally and Effectively. [online] [viewed 18^th April 2012]. Available from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_81.htm

When Negotiations Are Made For The Sake And The Protection of People.

Most of us have already watched movies, which involve negotiations between the police and a killer or a hostage taker. Well, when these kind of interventions happen in real life, you actually realize that there are quite similar than the ones described in such movies. However, they may last longer…

During more than 30 hours, between Tuesday 20th March and Thursday 22th March, an anti-terrorist unit of the French national police, called Raid, has stood up in front a building in Toulouse (France). Let’s quickly summarize the situation.

Since 11th March, a young French man, Mohamed Merah, started shooting people; both soldiers and civilians. He made 7 victims in total before being “intercepted” by the police. Negotiations have lasted during more than 30 hours in order to determine the motives of the suspect, but especially to try to arrest him alive. However, the intervention did not process as the Raid hoped for. In fact, on Thursday, during an exchange of gun shots with the police, Merah jumped out of his flat while shooting policemen. However, a sniper killed him during his jump. In some way, we can say that Merah has won the negotiations as he wished to die during a firefight with the Special Forces. This last point means that, unfortunately, the Raid couldn’t achieve its objectives, which were to arrest him alive and to judge him for his crimes. However, as Merah pointed out himself during the intervention, he wouldn’t have stop fighting until his death. Collaborating with the Raid and sharing information about where some of his weapons were hidden was just an excuse to gain more time.

As Christophe Caupenne, Raid former negotiator, explained at the French television on Wednesday, during negotiations every channels of communication are offered to the suspect, in order to make him talk and to gather as much information as possible. Some elements may also be negotiated; however the context is very important and determines the whole communication process. The purposes of this kind of exchanges are to establish a trusting relationship with the suspect and to make the individual changes his mind while offering an honorable exit.  Usually, only a single person is in contact with the suspect in order to facilitate the trusting relationship. As we can notice here, the use of a single spokesperson is also used during business crisis. Moreover, the negotiation techniques used during Special Forces interventions may refer to the compromising theory used to resolve conflict. Both parties win and lose in order to finally agree on something. However, in this case, Merah stopped several times the communication with the negotiator, which made the whole process even more complex.

However, in this case, in some way the negotiations have failed, as the Special Forces couldn’t arrest Merah alive. As a result, would Merah’s death make hostile feelings rise from people who think like him? (and there are some, because unfortunately we live in a crazy world) Would these people try to avenge him? Would it be more damaging for France and its international relationships with the concerned countries? Therefore, would it make things worse?

More information about Merah and the intervention are available on the following links: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/17471313

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2012/mar/22/france-shooting-toulouse-police-suspects-jewish-school-raid?CMP=twt_gu

It Is Not Just About the Number of Camels

I wish bargaining was always as fun as in Morocco or Egypt when you are doing some shopping in the souks. I have still this memory of my trip in Egypt when I was little; my father tried to bargain in a souk, but at the end, the vendor was too good. Tourists seem to not have enough practice; maybe because haggling is specific to some countries, such as in Latin America, Africa and Asia. There, bargaining in street markets is expected and if you don't, you'll actually offend the vendor. It's considered as an art. However, there is a whole ritual to follow. In fact, all over the Internet you can find tips to improve your haggling strategy, but when you are not used to it, it can be quite challenging.

  
Bargaining in street markets in North America or in Europe is considered as inappropriate, but that actually doesn't mean that occidental people do not bargain on a regular basis. Buying a new car or negotiating a job offer are examples of bargaining situations. As I’ll graduate this summer, I will soon jump in this scary world full of sharks, where bargaining may play a valuable role if I want to survive and get my dream job. So, what are you best tips for bargaining?

Conflict = Epidemic: How do you treat yourself? Use the advice from the United Nations.

Imagine you get a cold, because you don’t treat yourself, your cold turns into flu. Flu is contagious; therefore, you are now contaminating your surroundings. As a result, a good advice is to treat your cold before it gets worse.  Conflicts are like epidemic. If you don’t deal with them at an early stage, they would probably become more damaging. Nevertheless, this example concerns only your daily life. Thus, now, imagine you are living in a country infected by conflicts like in Darfur. Conflicts can take bigger proportions if they are not taking care of. The United Nations have understood this issue. Therefore, a few years ago, the international organization has established Peacekeeping Operations in order to promote peace in countries devastated by conflicts.

Many celebrities, such as George Clooney, have joined the movement in order to make people aware of the value of peace and the work of the UN Peacekeepers.

Many celebrities, such as George Clooney, have joined the movement in order to make people aware of the value of peace and the work of the UN Peacekeepers. However, as George Clooney says it in the video, "peace is certainly more than a celebrity endorsement". That is why, in order to find a way from conflict into peace, UN Peacekeeping has highlighted 3 basic principles:

 - Consent of the parties;

- Impartiality
- Non-use of force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate.[1]

 These three basic rules could, actually, be applied by everyone on a daily basis. Of course, they have to be adapted to the situation. We do not really defend a mandate, but we certainly can reduce the amount of unnecessary conflicts. As a result, don't you believe that individuals should try to establish peace in their daily life; and then, maybe fewer countries would be torn by conflicts? The epidemic wouldn't spread anymore…

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[1] UNITED NATIONS, 2012. What is Peacekeeping ?. Available from: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/peacekeeping.shtml

About ExPRession

Being in my final year of a BA (Hons) Public Relations and Communication is actually quite challenging. People expect you to be an expert in communication, and therefore, to be able to deal with all the different communication tools. Writing a blog is new for me, but I had to give it a go as part of one of my assignment for my Persuasive Communication unit.

Through this blog, I intend to talk about the various things, which come up in life and how you get your way across them. This blog is called ExPRession for a reason. I want to hear about you and your opinions. So, feel free to comment and to share your ideas!