On Monday I got out of class late. We start class at 6:30pm and we are done by 9:15pm on a normal Monday. But this was no normal Monday, it was a Negotiation Class Monday. I must admit, the professor gave us a serious assignment. My classmate and I spent over 2 hours negotiating a case about a contractor and a real estate investor. I was the contractor and I was in serious financial trouble, he was the real estate developer. We sat down at 8:30pm, after our class break, and began going over the details of the case. We had to come up with something that would work for both of us in the given situation. It took 2 hours to do. Everyone else was finished way before we were, but I think we came up with an excellent agreement for both of us. We both won some and we both lost some, and in the end, the pie was going to grow bigger.
When we left, I felt like I had accomplished something, even though it was a case study. My classmate and I did a lot of work to reach an agreement that suited us both. We could have easily just taken the assignment and figured out something quick and left. We didn’t nor did anyone else in our class. We may have taken longer to reach what we wanted, but there were a lot of people still around at 9:30pm. This is what I enjoy the most about my class: we all work together and make these classes a priority. It isn’t like undergraduate classes, where half the people never show up. Everyone is there every day, ready to work. Yes, the grading is competitive, but in the end we all help each other out. Our class is only as strong as each person in it. So what if it took us 2 hours to solve a case study problem when we could have been at home after 45 minutes. Things like that do not happen every class, most of the time we are out at 9:15. The extra effort makes the program worthwhile, and everyone I am in class with gives more than they take. I’m lucky to be around so many interesting and hard working professionals.
Jonathan Jouet
PMBA Candidate