GAME CHANGERS
BXL

Launching in 2021-2022

A new inter-communal platform for students of Dutch-speaking and Francophone university-colleges in Brussels to learn and practice creative negotiation skills and to promote a multilingual culture of joint problem-solving for a shared and vibrant city.

NEGOTIATION. négociation. onderhandeling. تفاوض. Verhandlung. NEGOCIAÇÃO. negoziazione. negociación. müzakere. negocimi. 谈判. negocjacja. thương lượng.
ネゴシエーション. διαπραγμάτευση. jednání. negociació.

NEGOTIATING TOGETHER FOR A DYNAMIC, CREATIVE BRUSSELS...

ABOUT

The Game Changers BXL program brings together students from different departments at Dutch-speaking and Francophone university-colleges in Brussels for interactive workshops to build inter-school connections, learn and practice a problem-solving approach to professional and personal negotiations, and promote multilingual communication, cooperation, and bridge-building. The program is run by PATHWAYS asbl/vzw in partnership with participating university-colleges, with support from the Be Talky initiative sponsored by the Brussels Capital Region.

SCHEDULE

We will be running two groups in the first semester of 2021-2022 and two groups in the second semester.

Semester 1 – 2021

1. Erasmushogeschool Brussel & ECSEDI-ISALT (Haute École Galilée)

2. Haute École Francisco Ferrer & Odisee Hogeschool

Semester 2 – 2022

3. Erasmushogeschool Brussel & Haute École Francisco Ferrer

4. ECSEDI-ISALT, Haute École Galilée & Odisee Hogeschool

Group Creations

Participants will work together in small inter-school groups to create inspiring multi-lingual negotiation resources that translate and make accessible concepts, tools, and experiences from our program. Schools will also assign a brief written reflection paper to submit as part of the final project.

Closing Event

We will host a celebratory closing event for all participating students, faculty, and partners in May 2022. Location, date, and time TBD.

JOIN

Please contact your school’s point of contact for more information about the Game Changers BXL program and to apply to join.

If you are not in one of the participating university-colleges, and would like to explore the possibility of your school taking part in the future, please ask a representative of your institution to contact PATHWAYS to start the conversation.

PATHWAYS

PATHWAYS Institute for Negotiation Education is a non-profit organization (asbl / vzw) registered in Belgium that works with students, educators, and professionals to develop communication and negotiation skills and to establish a shared framework for creative problem solving. Our goal is to help individuals navigate their personal and professional negotiations, and to bring together people from different backgrounds to develop the personal and social skills necessary to foster a cohesive and shared society. Since 2017, we have partnered with a variety of organizations to deliver interactive, experiential negotiation skills workshops and programs based on methodology developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project. We also offer a suite of virtual programs. 

Program FACILITATOR

Avi Goldstein

FOUNDER & DIRECTOR, PATHWAYS

Avi Goldstein is the Founder and Director of PATHWAYS Institute for Negotiation Education, and has led a variety of interactive negotiation education and exchange programs with thousands of students and educators across continents. He started his career in 2002 working with Vantage Partners, a consulting firm in Boston, MA spun out of the Harvard Negotiation Project. Over the past decade, Avi has been working in partnership with educators and educational institutions to establish problem-solving negotiation as a life skill taught as part of formal and informal education, from universities and professional schools to secondary schools. He is based in Brussels, Belgium and has lectured and facilitated workshops at a number of universities and colleges, including Solvay Brussels School for Economic & Management, Institut des Hautes Études des Communications Sociales, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, UCLouvain, Erasmushogeschool Brussel, and Haute École Francisco Ferrer.

FAQ

The program is run by PATHWAYS asbl/vzw in partnership with participating university-colleges, currently including Haute École Francisco Ferrer, Odisee Hogeschool, Erasmushogeschool Brussel, and ECSEDI-ISALT at Haute École Galilée. The program is supported by a grant from the Be Talky initiative of the Brussels Capital Region. 

Be Talky is an initiative of the Brussels Capital Region to promote multilingualism in Brussels.

As described by Be Talky:

“Our city has 1.2 million inhabitants, who speak more than 100 different languages. The advantages of multilingualism are numerous. In addition to the opportunities it opens up in the labour market, multilingualism promotes cohesion among the people of Brussels.

In our super-diverse city and beyond, speaking several languages is important for shared citizenship and the mutual understanding it requires.

Multilingualism is now a central ingredient of Brussels’ identity and will be even more so in the future.”

For more information, see betalky.brussels

The Game Changers BXL program will be comprised of 6 interactive 3-hour workshops, hosted at participating schools. Workshops will be facilitated in English by a native English-speaker. During each session, we will explore and practice different aspects of a problem-solving approach to negotiation developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project. The concepts and tools of this approach will help develop your professional and personal negotiation toolkit and confidence. We’ll learn actively through a variety of role plays, simulations, and small group debriefs and discussions – all while getting to know students from other schools, language communities, and academic majors. For our final project we’ll create multi-lingual negotiation resources, not only in French and Dutch but also in any other maternal languages spoken by participants in each group. We’ll share our experience and creations with the public to celebrate and promote multi-lingual, problem-solving approaches to negotiation in Brussels. 

Participants are expected to attend and participate actively in all 6 sessions. 1 justified absence (e.g. sick day with doctor note) will be allowed. Any further absences will result in a student being disqualified from the course. Students are expected to participate actively in workshop activities and discussions and to contribute to their group’s final projects. A brief written individual assignment (reflection paper) will be assigned by each school. 

Our approach is based on methodology developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project. Here is a high-level outline of the program (subject to change): 

  • Session 1: Know your Game – We will get to know each other and then, through interactive exercises and a high-stakes role play, explore key choices in negotiation and identify how our assumptions influence our results.
  • Session 2: Creative Negotiation – We will discover and experiment with the seven elements framework developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project through a variety of targeted exercises and role plays.
  • Session 3: Preparing to Negotiate – We will practice methodically preparing for a negotiation using the seven elements framework. We’ll  work in groups to practice team-based preparation and then conduct negotiations in pairs.
  • Session 4: Engaging with Disagreement & Conflict – What to do when things get tough? How do we say “no” when needed? We will exploring issues around having challenging conversations and build our repertoire.
  • Session 5: Constructive Communication – We will take a deeper look at applying communication tools for understanding and navigating different points of view and for engaging in principled and productive persuasion, influence, and joint problem-solving.
  • Session 6: Negotiation Leadership – What impact can people have with these kinds of ideas and approaches in their organizations and communities? We will collect, share, and explore stories of negotiation from across Brussels and work in groups to create multilingual materials to share out with the public. 

Students successfully completing the course will receive academic credits from their schools, a LinkedIn badge and signed certificate from PATHWAYS, and an invitation to the closing event. Please contact your school’s program coordinator for details regarding academic credits.

Participation in this program is free of charge for all accepted students enrolled in good standing at participating university-colleges. Costs of the program are supported by the Be Talky initiative of the Brussels Capital Region.

We are currently planning for workshops sessions to be held in person, with appropriate sanitary measures. Workshops will be hosted at participating university-colleges, alternating between schools in a pair. If required at any point by public health regulations or school policies, we will adapt to hold virtual workshops on the same days and at the same times. Virtual workshops will be designed to be interactive, playful, connective, and engaging – not lecture-based. 

Please contact the program contact at your school (listed above) for more information.