Real World Coalition Experience

In this week's blog I'll being discussing coalitions and how they apply to me in a real world context. Coalitions bring several benefits to weaker parties and can help strengthen your side of the negotiation by pulling resources from each other and avoiding destructive competition. 

In my real world experience with coalitions, I am going to refer to a work experience where myself and 3 other bartenders had to figure who was going to close the bar one particular night. At my job we tend to hold charity events and donate our time and money towards the event. While hosting the event, we also provide entertainment by flipping bottles and putting on a show while we work to help raise money. We all enjoy doing these events, however no one likes staying for the whole event due to how long and tiring they are, but someone has to close down the bar. This is when joining a coalition can help you significantly in the negotiation. If everyone argues for them-self it becomes a drawn out process and you don't get many results. However, if you get as many bartenders on your side and build a stronger argument you can pin the closing shift onto the lone bartender. 

Furthermore, in order to be successful you have to make sure your interest align and that you are choosing the right bartender to join your coalition. If you choose a bartender you wish to build a coalition against and you ask a bartender to join your team and they have close relations with the counter party, you could single yourself out and have them join the other party and put yourself in a bad situation. 

Next, this leads to the Pros and Cons of joining a Coalition and how to apply it to this situation.

• Is the coalition well organized to negotiate with the other side?
• I have to pick the correct bartenders that have similar interest that I do.
• How much will I have to pay, if anything, to join and remain a member of the coalition? What costs might we face down the road?
• I might have to provide a monetary payment in order for people to join my team, to gang up on the other bartenders and will I have to provide a cash payment every charity event in order to build a coalition. 
• Does the coalition have a good ethical reputation and a track record for success?
• Did I pick the right bartenders that will not turn on me next charity event and are they reliable co-workers that will always be at the charity events so I'm not left to negotiate by myself next time?
• What consequences might we face if a negotiation doesn't go well?
• If the negotiation doesn't go well then I can be closing the bar.
• Do the benefits of a successful deal outweigh these risks?
• If I'm successful in the negotiation I can go home early and not have to close the bar.
• If we succeed, how will the coalition allocate the value it creates? 
• If we succeed as a coalition then no of use have to close the bar down and we can continue and strengthen our party so we don't have to close future charity events.