Using the Zero-Waste Circular Economy Module in Managerial Negotiations

Bethany Cockburn, Northern Illinois University

Course Description

Examination of the negotiation techniques and strategies relevant to individual, group, and organizational decision making as well as the development of skills to enhance the resolution of personal and professional conflicts.

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Relationship of the Zero-Waste Circular Economy Module to Your Course

This is a 16-week long course. The module is implemented at the end of the course and spans 3 or 4 class periods. Prior to the module, students learn about negotiations in a variety of contexts through negotiation role plays. The sustainability module includes a multi-party negotiation role play with a sustainability theme.

Integrating the Module into Your Course

I've taught this class a couple times. The first time was in-person only and the second was hybrid. For the in-person only class, we started with the in-class exercise, which was specific to my Negotiations course. So, I wrote a negotiation that overlapped with the module. They did the negotiation and then on the second day we did the lecture, the lecture that was provided, and then we started the gallery tour. On the final day, they finished up the gallery tour, finished up the assignment, and then they did what I called an elevator pitch that basically wrapped the exercise back, that I wrote, into the end of the module. The hybrid day was really similar. The hybrid exercise was a little similar, so it started in person with the negotiation and day two was very similar. But then the third day was an online gallery tour. So they did the actual tour online and finished up the assignment online. So, it was in-person, in-person, online.

What Worked Well

I think, in general, the materials were great. The videos that were provided were great. The discussion questions really helped the students try to apply the materials to their own life. I think in general, things looked really nice. The segues between things made a lot of sense. It helped consolidate the material for the students.

Challenges and How They Were Addressed

What was kind of a challenge was that these concepts were pretty new to my students. I have a lot of business students, almost only business students, and so the science concepts like human and natural systems were new to them. So, I added a little explanation and a little video that I hoped bridged the understanding of why business cares about this. We talked about the tragedy of the commons, but mostly just answering questions and trying to stay with them and slow down the definitions, not skate through them. That's how I tried to help bridge that business to science piece. The other thing that you're probably going to hear people talk about a lot is the time commitment. So, I moved some materials around. I tried to add them to the course-specific
day that I did. In some cases that meant they heard the same thing twice, like the same definitions twice, but it allowed me to cut out a little material from some of the explanations on the second day during the lecture. I basically spread it out a little bit. I also had them work outside class a little bit more the second time I ran the course, just to see if that would still work. I think that helped with the time commitment too.

Student Response to the Module and Activities

I know that they liked it and I think that's a really important piece. I heard comments about the format, the material, the videos that were used, the conversations that we had. They were really engaged. They got quiet a lot of the time, which is really good, they were really focused on the things that I was saying or that were being said in the video. So, I knew that they liked it and they were paying attention. I think that they learned from it and I think that, in some ways, I had them learn a different set of things because I married it so tightly to my negotiations class. So, they were really learning a couple concepts at the same time. They were learning about team negotiations and multi-party negotiations and how we want to be organized and have agendas. That piece. And sustainability. I think that they learned a lot. Especially for how much I put into the same week, and I know that they really enjoyed it. I got a lot of positive comments when I asked them directly and when I asked them indirectly.

I love it. That's why I taught it several times.