Two Departments, One Contractor

Why this exercise

Two department heads share 40 hours of a design agency's time and settle three more issues. Each has their own score table, and the two sides value the same terms differently. Pairs that only haggle over the hours split them in half and score about 48 points together. Pairs that ask about priorities find a trade and score twice as much — 99. The game shows clearly that you first make the pie bigger and only then divide it.

How to run it

1. Hand out the roles in envelopes: Head of Marketing and Head of Product. Partners do not show each other their score tables.
2. 20–25 minutes: each person fills in a preparation sheet — interests, goal, walk-away point, best alternative, what can be traded.
3. 20 minutes: negotiate four issues — November hours, a December extension, the agency's one-off fee, rights to the source files. Write down and sign the outcome.
4. Each person calculates their score. Pairs give both sides' scores and the total; the trainer writes them on the flip chart.
5. Show the best joint solution and the "fair 50/50 split" and compare the totals.

Debrief questions

• Which pairs scored more than 90 points together? What did they do differently?
• Who was the first to say what mattered most to them? How did that help?
• Which information is worth sharing, and which is not?
• Where at work do you split down the middle something you could trade?