Negotiation and

Difficult Conversations Outline Elena Tkacheva

Applying negotiation and difficult conversation skills in advocating for a change in policies:
the example of advocating for survivors of human trafficking.

Introduction: Advocacy as a tool in policy negotiations

I. Policy negotiations: the case of human trafficking in Canada

- Answering Raiffa’s Organizing Questions
- BATNA; reservation price, target point, bargaining zone
- Integrative negotiations as collective problem solving
- Scoring System
- Stakeholder mapping
- Addressing the power imbalance
- What would be major negotiation sins
- Impact of the first offer

II. Involving survivors of human trafficking in advocacy to negotiate policies

What can we learn from other successful cases that resulted in policy change?
- The significance of the victim versus survivor distinction in the context of advocacy
- Three stories of success:
• Setsuko Thurlow, the ICAN campaign and drawing attention to the catastrophic
humanitarian effect of nuclear weapons;
• MeToo, social media, and the change in policies
• Caregivers and drawing attention to legislative gaps

III. The ethical aspect of involving survivors in advocacy to negotiate policies

Using difficult conversations to discover ethical ways of working with survivors in the context of
service provision and law enforcement. Common issues and solutions using the difficult
conversations framework.

1. Perceived choice in trafficked persons, especially youth

2. Addressing the Intergenerational trauma of the Indigenous survivors
3. Being aware of the blame frame and ones predispositions
4. How do you elicit feeling from the clients and listen effectively
5. Bigger issues behind petty disagreements
6. Reconciling the relevance of contribution mapping and victim blaming
7. Being aware of trauma

IV. Where difficult conversations and non-violent communications meet

The difficult conversations framework is very similar to non-violent communication. Where do
they meet and how it is relevant for working with trafficking survivors.

V. Conclusions

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Negotiation and
Difficult Conversations Outline Elena Tkacheva
Summary of findings