Children, Teens, Adults
30-40 minutes (longer if you use the Bible study at the end)
This game teaches about negotiation skills and going for win-win. It has elements of a “Gotcha” activity (an activity where participants are set-up to fail in order to create an awareness of a learning need). Teams compete with each other and often end up doing worse overall than they could have done if they had cooperated and gone for win-win.
o Genesis 18:1-33
o Flipchart and marker
o Notecards that say “Win-Win” on one side and “Win-Lose” on the other (one per team)
o (Optional) Projector, Computer and Screen to display PowerPoint slides with the rules and the debriefing questions. You can access these by downloading the file “Negotiation Game – Slides” on the Lesson and Material Downloads page at http://www.teachingthem.com.)
o (Optional) Prizes for the highest-scoring team.
o Write “Win-Win” on one side of each of the notecards.
o Write “Win-Lose” on the other side of the same notecards.
o Draw a score chart on the flipchart. It should look like this (add more columns if you have more teams):
|Team #1||Team #2||Team #3||Team #4|
|WW / WL||Points||WW / WL||Points||WW / WL||Points||WW / WL||Points|
|Total After 2 Rounds|
|Total After 3 Rounds|
|Total After 4 Rounds|
Use the following script (or modify to suit your needs):
- “Let’s play a game about negotiation.”
- “In this game, your team will have two choices: go for Win-Win or go for Win-Lose.”
- “Win-Win means that you want to win but only if the other teams can win, too.”
- “Win-Lose means that you want to win even if it means that another team might have to lose.”
- “In a perfect world, we would always go for Win-Win, but this isn’t a perfect world.”
- “I’m going to give you incentives for going for Win-Lose that will make you have to think hard about what you want to do.” (Share slides on the PowerPoint if you want to.)
- “Each round, your team will decide if it wants to go for Win-Win or Win-Lose.”
- “You will make your decision known by holding up this card.” (Show one of the notecards, and show both sides so that they can see their choices. Pass out one card to each team.)
- “If ALL the teams go for Win-Win, the facilitator gives each team 100 points.”
- “If more than half the teams go for Win-Lose, the facilitator takes away 100 points from every team.”
- “But if less than half the teams go for Win-Lose, the facilitator gives the Win-Lose teams 200 points and takes away100 points from the Win-Win teams.”
- “We will play five rounds.”
- “Each team should now select a Negotiator.”
- “This person will meet with the Negotiators from the other teams before each round and have three minutes to come to an agreement about what strategy to take.” (Allow teams to select a Negotiator. This person will have to be the Negotiator for the entire game.)
- “What questions do you have before we start to play?” (Answer questions. Then, give the Negotiators time to meet outside the room for three minutes. Afterward, have them come back to their teams. On the count of three, have the Negotiator on each team raise their card with the side that has their choice (Win-Win or Win-Lose) facing you. Record these choices on the flipchart, and assign scores to each team. Then, allow 5 minutes for the team to discuss changes to their strategy before starting the process over again and sending the Negotiators outside the room. Run all five founds. If everyone is choosing Win-Win, you can add pressure by doubling the point amounts for a particular round. When you’ve finished the game, award a prize for the highest scoring team if you want and have the teams discuss the Debriefing Questions below (and also on the 2nd PowerPoint slide.)
• What makes the win-win strategy difficult?
• What are the problems with the win-lose strategy?
• How should we handle it when we are going for win-win, and someone takes advantage of us?
• Why should we strive for the win-win strategy?
Idea for Bible Lesson
If you want to do this game is connection with a Bible lesson, try having participants read Genesis 18 and answer the following questions:
1. What did Abraham do before the negotiation that helped make it successful?
2. What did Abraham do during the negotiation that helped make it successful?
3. Was Abraham going for Win-Win or something else? Why do you think so?
4. Why do you think Abraham stopped at ten?
5. Could he have gotten the Lord to agree to a lower number? Why do you think so?
6. What practices of good negotiation can you use in your negotiations?