Kimberly-Clark annual negotiations tournament

Objectives: to replicate previous year's success and organize another negotiations tournament that is becoming the annual corporate event.

Background: last year the negotiations tournament was conducted online and turned out to be an exciting and highly engaging event. This year the company, keen to boost the negotiations skills of the new managers, was determined to replicate this successful experience.

Key events:

The participants were offered a 6-week intensive training course to boost their negotiations skills. The tournament itself included several stages.

First the participants had to work through 10 cases prepared specially for Kimberly-Clark, to analyze the background information and get ready for the negotiation battles. At the next stage, all participants conducted 4 rounds of negotiations via video calls.

During the negotiation battles the participants have been regularly swapping roles, each time focusing on relevant objectives and aiming to reach a deal; points have been awarded based on results.

The participants have checked their own skills against those of their peers and worked to improve their negotiations skills. Halfway through the championship each participant had a one on one coaching session, to identify the preferred approaches to negotiations and work on the individual development plans under the guidance of ManGO! Games experienced coaches.

Those participants who gained the most points after the 4 rounds have made it to the finals and had a chance to compete for the Best Negotiator title. This was the most intriguing part of the tournament, especially since this year there was a special award announced for the most accurate forecast of the final battle outcome.

Results:

Each participant had a chance to try and test various approaches to negotiations and to compare the efficiency of those. Kimberly-Clark employees boosted their planning, decision-making, and strategic thinking skills, learned to demonstrate their leadership abilities, to manage emotions and conduct negotiations efficiently and under any circumstances.