Negotiating across Cultures

Module 7
 The Aracruz simulation:
Developing stakeholder dialogue skills for
an emerging economy
 Emerging economies present increasing opportunity
for business expansion
 Main challenges in those economies: socio-political
(e.g., poverty, civil unrest)
 Key to overcoming those challenges:
 dialogue skills
 ability to engage with various stakeholders
 in order to find the best possible solution
 Step 1: Introduction

Group formation
Read article “Aracruz Cellulose”
Read your assigned role
 Step 2: Presentation preparation (20’)

Prepare a presentation explaining:

1. Who you are and what you value
2. What you hope to gain in this situation
3. What you will do if that does not happen
 Step 3: Stakeholder presentations (20’)

 Listen carefully to other stakeholders’ perspectives

 Take notes on Table 1

 Ask for clarifications but avoid debating

 Step 4: Stakeholder dialogue
preparation (10’)

 A successful dialogue consists of:

 Listening and learning about other stakeholders’
perspectives
 Reaching a creative, consensus solution
 Avoiding debate

 Practice those skills (see Table 2)

 Step 5: First stakeholders meeting –
Areas of dis/agreement (20’)

 Negotiate with other stakeholders with the

purpose of finding common ground (15’)
 Suspend judgments
 Identify assumptions
 Communicate effectively

 Write-up (5’):
 Describe 3 to 5 areas for solutions
 Describe 3 areas where solutions will have to resolve
disagreements
 Step 6: Second stakeholders meeting-
Finding a solution (15’)

 Brainstorm creative solutions

 Focus on those that appear most promising
 Avoid immediately judging the ideas as good or
bad
 After enough ideas are on the table, choose the
5 most promising and develop them further
 Select the best idea (everybody needs to sign
on this selection)
 Evaluate your team (Table 2)
 Step 7: Debriefing (30’)
1. What solutions did your team come up with? Which of
these strikes you as the most likely to work? Which is
the most creative?
2. Is there anything Aracruz could have done to avoid this
problem? What should they do at this point in the
controversy?
3. What is the responsibility of business regarding social
problems like poverty?
4. How should businesses deal with NGOs and other
community stakeholders?
5. What did you learn about using stakeholder dialogue
skills?