EXPERTISE
CENAD’s DNA and life-long passion is to Teach • Equip • Empower • Coach
Our portfolio of negotiation trainings is specifically relevant to national and institutional public servants, diplomats, civil society and any business professionals and decision-makers looking to become more agile and successful negotiators.
CENAD uses powerful learning tools, techniques and provides personalised guidance through its experiential training methodology. You get negotiation performance know-how, greater self-confidence and soft skills development, immediately operational experience and implementable real-world solutions.
Negotiation at a glance
Negotiation is not rocket science. It is however fantastically endowed with the potential to “do good” when prepared, managed, conducted and experienced in a humanistic, respectful and skillful manner, tailor-made to each negotiation encounter
For CENAD, the “molecular” definition of negotiation is that of a “joint decision-making process”. The “joint” is vital when the negotiator needs to influence the outcome of a negotiation or set of interdependent negotiations.
Negotiation processes are bilateral and/or multiparty, formal and/or informal, internal, international, intercultural, interpersonal, multistakeholder, multi-level, inter-institutional and interdependent. With multiple actors, issues, processes and timelines comes greater complexity and scope of whatever decisions are reached.
The negotiation challenges are real, numerous and affect many lives directly
Our teaching methodology transcends the traditional route to embrace more human, creative and collaborative values within a learning environment.
We build on participants’ hard skills to foster their extended soft skills development, key to negotiation effectiveness. In today’s world, optimising an integrative negotiation mindset and an open and collaborative attitude is more than ever your best asset. Communication skills, interpersonal abilities and emotional intelligence are core aspects of our learning approach.
Participants gain negotiation wisdom and learn skills transferable to the workplace and home, for life. They have characterised our essence as:
Holistic, Human-centric, Humanistic, Aware, Authentic, Real
CENAD’s Learning & Development Approach
Our applied and integrative method PNA (Prepare, Negotiate, Assess) has a 3-decade track record: its “practical immersion” and “learning by doing” framework internalises the specific mind-set, concepts and techniques favorable to the efficient management of negotiation processes.
The keys to what make our teaching approach a unique and bespoke learning experience can be defined as follows:
Negotiation Soft Skills
Strategies and tactics need human software to succeed. Techniques, skills, mind-sets, emotional and cultural intelligence, empathy – even sentiment, consciousness of the effect we have on others are examples of what we highlight, practice and fine-tune.
We shun the traditional do’s & don’ts lecturing to promote personalised 360° human, creative and collaborative learning environments
Experiential/Applied
Hands-on experience. Observation. Reflection. Active participation.
This type of learning is extremely powerful. Our trainings are specifically designed to immerse participants into real-world situations allowing them to practice their newly developed abilities in context and develop alternative ways to implement their skills.
More than just applying skills, operational concepts are extracted from theoretical teachings so that participants learn how to activate critical and innovative thinking to further develop their strategies and elaborate new solutions.
Integrative
Connecting the dots. Connecting different theories & concepts to experiences & contexts to skills & knowledge.
Integrative thinking is fundamental to negotiators and at the heart of our teaching. Participants are given multiple opportunities to further develop and demonstrate this ability to manage, understand and display information from diverse sources with greater agility.
Teaching Methods & Techniques
Negotiation Simulation Role-Plays
Throughout negotiation simulations participants improve their bilateral, multiparty, formal, informal negotiating skills as well as chairing and taking (or not taking) the floor skills. Appreciation of the real-world practicalities of operating in different negotiation configurations are highlighted, deepened, mentored and learned directly as well as subliminally.
Analytical Debriefings
Each simulation is given an extensive and in-depth debriefing during which the trainer(s) and participants discuss effective actions as well as identify areas for improvement. Debriefings are furthermore used to explore “real-world” situations and modalities which are likely to confront participants in the future. Trainers share their experiences and concrete examples from numerous situations to illustrate and reinforce lessons learned.
The customised and tailor-made character of our trainings is reinforced by expert analysis and discussion (peer and trainer-driven) which are blended with video illustrations so that participants fully integrate the negotiator role(s) vis-à-vis other “actors” and “stakeholders”, understand and practice what to do while reinforcing resistance to constant observation and pressure.
Video-debriefings
CENAD’s unique added-value expertise lies with how we use video debriefings of actual performances in selective, respectful and personalised feedback. “Seeing is believing” is the backbone to raise awareness and encourage improvement: we all know that personal impressions and prisms can influence successful negotiation and people management.
CENAD puts great emphasis in the energy and quality of its debriefings and feedback: 50-70% of your time is devoted to analysis, support and reinforcement.
Extensive research proves that humans learn significantly more from an experience if they are provided with the opportunity to see and hear their own unfiltered performances with subsequent support: this is where CENAD’s magic operates.
You are offered detailed, concrete feedback on successful – and perhaps less successful – interventions and behaviours. Here, learning takes place both at the group, peer and the individual level. The entire group learns from the general comments, tips and “tricks”; individuals reflect on their own behaviors as a negotiator and/or chair.
These are opportunities for intense self-reflection – those with experience play back their own life’s films of previous meeting situations; newcomers now acquire “experience” in preparation to the real thing to come.
CENAD’s trainers’ didactic diplomacy precludes hurt feelings, losing face or feeling diminished: we are professionally equipped to facilitate this shared learning experience thanks to our unparalleled training and teaching experience. Participants go home with improved performance agility, self-confidence and concrete applicable knowledge and “savoir-faire”.
Get in touch with us for any further information or request.
