Intended for:
This energiser is useful for training courses based around the topic of negotiation skills and influencing skills. It demonstrates how people’s behaviour can be altered based on the idea of ‘fairness’.
Training course contents:
A free set of instructions for the energiser, ‘Fair Share’ can be downloaded from the link at the bottom of this page. Alternatively, you can follow the instructions below.
Materials: A tangible item that can be split and shared. For example, £100 in play money made up of £1’s, £5’s, £10’s etc. or a bag of sweets.
Note: in the example below we use £100 in play money.
Instructions:
Ask for two volunteers and label these volunteers A and B.
1. Provide volunteer A with all of the £100 play money.
2. Explain to both A and B that the money is A’s to make an offer to split the share with B.
3. A can share the money in any way they see fit and in any proportion they want.
4. B cannot influence A in their decision and cannot make a counter offer to the main offer being made.
5. B has the choice to either accept or reject the offer.
6. If B accepts the offer then this is the share both will receive. However, if B rejects the offer, both A and B get nothing.
Review:
Discuss what happened during the energiser. Use the following questions as prompts for discussion…
1. Why did volunteer A act in the way they did?
2. Why did volunteer B act in the way they did?
3. How might they have approached the task differently?
4. How likely is A to trade again with B?
5. How likely is B to trade again with A?
6. What would you do in their position?
Most typically it is tempting to offer a lesser deal, which demonstrates the idea that we should ‘win’ at all costs. Where people are more likely to share resources it can mean that relationships are formed and future negotiation is possible. Where someone thinks they have ‘lost’ in a deal, they are unlikely to want to play ball again. This throws up an interesting negotiation question of, ‘Should we try and win at all costs?’ and ‘What does this mean for future deals?’
Objectives:
This energiser is helpful when discussing the topic of influencing or negotiation skills. It helps participants realise the value of playing fair in order to reach a wise decision on discussions that will result in a better future relationship.
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