2020 Special graduate degree programs Specially Offered Degree Programs for Graduate Students Tokyo Tech Academy for Leadership

Recognition of Social Issues Workshop I

Academic unit or major: Tokyo Tech Academy for Leadership
Instructor(s): Keisuke Yamada / Kenshu Kamura / Yuri Matsuzaki
Class Format: Exercise (Zoom)
Media-enhanced courses: -
Day of week/Period (Classrooms): Intensive
Class: -
Course Code: TAL.S505
Number of credits: 010
Course offered: 2020
Offered quarter: 2Q
Syllabus updated: Jul 10, 2025
Language: English

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

ToTAL understands that recognizing and understanding issues which are occurred in current society and in the field of academic, business, politics, technology and art would be fundamental for the course category of “Leadership, followership and consensus building” which aim for fostering capabilities to proactively solve such issues with no correct answers. During the course of “Recognition of Social Issues Workshop I”, students will acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote communication and negotiation process necessary in complex situations with multiple stakeholders.
Any communication between two or more persons with an intention to influence or to persuade is negotiation. Negotiation are pervasive in business, government, academia, law and everyday life with family and friends. The problem of negotiation is that it often fail--deals are not made, relationships are damaged and money and time are wasted. Recognize possibilities for mutual gain is a possible solution for a successful negotiation and we need to learn a simple and systematic way to do it. This course will give you an opportunity to increase your self-awareness and diagnostic capability as a negotiator.

Course description and aims

1. Understand basic negotiation theory and learn to make flexible strategies in changing circumstances.
2. Learn the essence of the distributive negotiation approach.
3. Learn problem-solving negotiation approach.
4. Learn how to resolve conflicts by the mediation process.

Keywords

Consensus building, Issue identification, Communication

Competencies

Specialist skills
Intercultural skills
Communication skills
Critical thinking skills
Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

The course schedule will be announced at Tokyo Tech Academy of Leadership website (http://www.total.titech.ac.jp). This program will give you an opportunity to increase your consensus-building and communication skills by learning theory and practice them by role-playing.

Course schedule/Objectives

	Course schedule	Objectives
Class 1	1. The world trading game Students will play an experience-based learning simulation game of world trading in which groups of students play the roles of the assigned country. All countries are different in terms of economical/technical resources. After the gameplay, students will reflect on personal behaviors and discuss how to make it more effective. 2. Negotiation and consensus-building workshops - The basic theory of negotiation (lecture) While success and failure of negotiations highly depend on how much you prepared, you can't script negotiation - due to changes in the ideas and situations of the other party and oneself. Therefore, it is necessary to improvise while having a certain strategy. You will learn the basic theory of negotiation and learn how to put ideas together and make strategic decisions. - Distributive negotiation (role simulation) If your goal of negotiation is to maximize own gain, this type of negotiation is called “distributive negotiation” or “win-lose” style. You will learn the essence of this approach through a role play with other participants. - Integrative negotiation (role simulation) Integrative negotiation is an approach to create value in deals and disputes. It is a collaborative process and also called “win-win” style. You will have an opportunity to learn problem-solving negotiation through a role play with other participants. - Mediation (role simulation) Mediation is a process in which an impartial third party act as a catalyst to help others constructively address and perhaps resolve a dispute, plan transaction, or define the contours of a relationship. A mediator facilitates negotiation between the parties to enable better communication, encourage problem-solving, and develop an agreement or resolution by consensus among parties. You will experience the essence of mediation through a role-play of three parties.	Feedback report

Course schedule

Objectives

Class 1

1. The world trading game
Students will play an experience-based learning simulation game of world trading in which groups of students play the roles of the assigned country. All countries are different in terms of economical/technical resources.
After the gameplay, students will reflect on personal behaviors and discuss how to make it more effective.

2. Negotiation and consensus-building workshops
- The basic theory of negotiation (lecture)
While success and failure of negotiations highly depend on how much you prepared, you can't script negotiation - due to changes in the ideas and situations of the other party and oneself. Therefore, it is necessary to improvise while having a certain strategy. You will learn the basic theory of negotiation and learn how to put ideas together and make strategic decisions.

- Distributive negotiation (role simulation)
If your goal of negotiation is to maximize own gain, this type of negotiation is called “distributive negotiation” or “win-lose” style. You will learn the essence of this approach through a role play with other participants.

- Integrative negotiation (role simulation)
Integrative negotiation is an approach to create value in deals and disputes. It is a collaborative process and also called “win-win” style. You will have an opportunity to learn problem-solving negotiation through a role play with other participants.

- Mediation (role simulation)
Mediation is a process in which an impartial third party act as a catalyst to help others constructively address and perhaps resolve a dispute, plan transaction, or define the contours of a relationship. A mediator facilitates negotiation between the parties to enable better communication, encourage problem-solving, and develop an agreement or resolution by consensus among parties. You will experience the essence of mediation through a role-play of three parties.

Feedback report

Study advice (preparation and review)

Textbook(s)

None

Reference books, course materials, etc.

None

Evaluation methods and criteria

1. Class attendance and attitude in class (50%)
2. Feedback reports (50%)

Related courses

TAL.W401 ： Introduction to Leadership
TAL.W502 ： Fundamental Group Work for Leadership I
TAL.S506 ： Recognition of Social Issues Workshop II

Prerequisites

None