Seeing the Self in the Other: An Important Lesson on Negotiation from the Athena Film Festival

Photo Credit @deanastacia

Written By WIN Staff

Film—a world of fantasy, whimsy, adventure, where you can live the impossible and do the unthinkable. Negotiation—a world of logic, reality, pragmatism, where real-life implications outshine glory and movie-like success. Though these two worlds are seemingly incompatible, film can help strengthen your negotiation skills. How you are thinking? It all comes down to one word: narrative. Narrative is a powerful tool, far more powerful than we are often aware of. Film, through its narrative structure, offers a rare glimpse into the private lives of others. It enables us to learn who they are, what they want, what makes them tick. You “become” the other as your consciousness grows absorbed in what is unfolding on the screen, and you lose awareness of the self. This ability to inhabit the headspace of another is hugely relevant to negotiation. Negotiation is not a solo venture. It is a back and forth between two parties with unique wants and goals. If you don’t understand the “other,” how can you successfully negotiate?

In the cultural moment of #TimesUp and #MeToo, women of all backgrounds, races, religions, and sexuality, are increasingly voicing their stories of resilience, struggle, and success. The dark cloak of silence and fear that once kept women’s stories hidden has started to lift. Film was once a genre dominated by the “majority” and is now a thriving vehicle for the “other,” that allows us to experience perspectives, drives, and challenges outside of our own.

Every year, our WIN Summit partner, Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College, presents a film festival, the Athena Film Festival, that creates opportunities to tell these stories -- the stories of “fierce and fearless women leaders.” This year’s festival, which wrapped a few weeks ago, featured films that traversed genre and geography to tell audacious, intimate narratives. From Rafiki, the story of two young Kenyan girls who fall in love, to 93Queen, the story of Hasidic women who formed the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps, Knock Down the House, the story of four female political hopefuls on their congressional campaign trails. The Athena Film Festival festival allows women to come together to confront current sociopolitical realities and help breed a vital new energy and understanding of the “other.”

As counter parties vary as much as the subject of a negotiation, interactions with and investigations into the “other” should as well. Thinking outside oneself inevitably opens new negotiation possibilities. Negotiation is personal. Expanding your view of the person allows added depth and nuisance to your negotiations. The Athena Film Festival affords an opportunity to remind us of the importance of championing the work of the “other” and seeking narratives that teach us about experiences beyond our own. We can live boldly in knowing meaningful change can come through sharing our story or living someone else’s, hopefully, becoming better negotiators along the way.

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