Ted Feifer continued our skills training workshops for the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina with two programs on Negotiation and Diplomatic Skills held in Tuzla October 6-7 and Banja Luka October 8-9, 2009.
Ted Feifer continued our skills training workshops for the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina with two programs on Negotiation and Diplomatic Skills held in Tuzla October 6-7 and Banja Luka October 8-9, 2009. The first workshop had 9 national staff from the field offices in Tuzla, Srebrenica, Bijeljina, and Doboj, holding responsibilities in education, governance, municipal development and coordination, citizen participation and rule of law. The second workshop had 3 international and 12 national staff from the field offices in Banja Luka, Bihac, and Doboj, holding responsibilities as political officers, in human rights, education, municipal coordination and development.
Program objectives were to strengthen communication, negotiation, and third party skills in individual and group situations; plus share experiences and lessons learned in preventing, managing and resolving conflicts. The first day of the workshop addressed styles used in communication, conflict and negotiation; effective communication; negotiation; building up to intense, quick paced exercises involving negotiation and mediation. The second day covered the third party role; followed by a multi-party, multi-issue exercise. The group also focused on emotional pressures in negotiation, using a video as the basis for analysis; and fielded common negotiation tactics. The workshops culminated in an exercise using a video to analyze the conduct and negotiation skills of parties in conflict, as well as identifying possible mediation requirements and strategies.
Participants in both workshops evaluated them as highly useful. One participant in the first workshop commented that the use of theoretical examples followed by practical work provided excellent tools for use in their everyday work in the field. Another assessed the workshop as particularly applicable to their work in the OSCE, and BiH in particular. Participants in the second workshop emphasized their satisfaction that the workshop covered so manyParticipants in both workshops evaluated them as highly useful. One participant in the first workshop commented that the use of theoretical examples followed by practical work things they worked on in their job.
