Working in Teams during negotiation

For the past few weeks, we have been working in teams for our negotiations. It definitely makes things different while negotiation. For example, the preparation is done very differently and the actual negotiation is done differently. When I negotiate individually, I prepare by studying the readings, making notes about things I found to be important, and think about my interests. When I began to negotiate as part of a team, it was a lot more complex. Each of my group members studied our parts and then met together as a team. We all started collaborating ideas and what we all thought we should do. It was different because one of the group members pointed something out that I was not thinking of which allowed me to see a situation differently than just what I thought. It was helpful to have more than one head thinking about the situation. We were also able to talk about the situation collectively and got useful information and ideas as a team. If I were doing this negotiation alone, I may have missed what my group pointed out and could have gone about the entire negotiation in a different way. 

In the book, there were ways to manage a negotiation team. For one my group talked things out thoroughly to work out our interests and discover if there were any conflicts among one another. Once we all voiced our interests, we tried to find the best solution that everyone could agree upon. My group did not have difficulty doing so because we were all open and willing to hear what everyone had to say. Also, in the book, it talks about establishing a plan for intrateam communication. It was important to have clear communication between our team in order to be successful in this negotiation. Intra means from the inside, so everything that happened among my team was important to understand and figure out, whether it was communication, conflict, opinions, etc. For example, in my intragroup, a group member did not understand what another member was saying and did not necessarily agree with it. We tried to explain to him but he still did not understand so he just went with it and wanted to move on. I felt that in order for us to proceed efficiently and effectively, I needed to help him understand so he wasn't just moving on. Once I explained it in a different way, he understood and we agreed as a team. Intergroup is my group and the opposing negotiation team. It was also important to navigate communication and conflict among the other group too in order to have a calm and valuable negotiation.