USIP traveled to Warsaw, Poland to conduct negotiation skills training for professionals who work on democratic elections, implementation of human-rights commitments, combating of trafficking in human beings, freedom of religion, civil society, rule of law, gender equality, and more, as a part of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Mike Lekson and Ted Feifer of USIP's Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding conducted two negotiation skills trainings for staff of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Warsaw, Poland, on March 16–18, 2011.
ODIHR works on democratic elections, implementation of OSCE human-rights commitments, combating trafficking in human beings, Roma and Sinti issues, freedom of religion, civil society, freedom of movement, rule of law, gender equality, and combating all forms of intolerance, including against Muslims.
There were 12 participants representing a cross-section of ODIHR in the first core skills workshop (7 international and 5 Polish national staff) and 10 participants from the Elections Department in the second more advanced skills training workshop (9 internationals and 1 Polish national staff).
The objectives of the core skills workshop were for participants to understand and be able to apply the key elements of negotiation, including conflict styles, active listening, and negotiation tactics. The objectives of the second workshop were for participants to plan, prioritize, and set goals for a negotiation; understand the differences between various types of negotiations; practice effective communication, including active listening; identify best practices in handling emotion in negotiation; and understand and practice negotiation tactics. During this training, a tutorial on key skills was followed by two teams interacting with each other in a series of meetings, switching the roles of each team so that by turns they would simulate an ODIHR mission, a host government, and a local non-governmental organization.
According to one participant, this was a “great effort to adapt the training to our needs and to our work. Interesting, with good interactions.” Another participant noted regarding the advanced course: “I appreciated the fact that the training was specifically tailored for us in the Elections Department, which made all the discussions and advice relevant.”
USIP’s Academy has been providing a wide range of training programs for OSCE, at their headquarters and for their many field missions—a total of over fifty such courses over the last decade.
