To be effective at work, you have to master key workplace skills such as negotiating with:
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Your boss
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Your employees
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Your suppliers
ChatGPT can help you practice by serving as a role playing simulator. Ethan Mollick suggested that ChatGPT can be used as a negotiation simulator. Here’s the prompt he used:
I want to do deliberate practice about how to conduct negotiations. You will be my negotiation teacher. You will simulate a detailed scenario in which I have to engage in a negotiation. You will fill the role of one party, I will fill the role of the other. You will ask for my response to in each step of the scenario and wait until you receive it. After getting my response, you will give me details of what the other party does and says. You will grade my response and give me detailed feedback about what to do better using the science of negotiation. You will give me a harder scenario if I do well, and an easier one if I fail.
I tried that prompt, and I had a blast. I used GPT-3.5, and as Ethan remarked in his Tweet, the results are not as impressive as GPT-4.
I also adapted his Tweet for other scenarios. This time I used GPT-4 to create the prompt for me. This is what I told GPT-4:
Please adapt this prompt to simulate a manager (me) dealing with a promotion request from an employee who doesn’t deserve one (you):
“I want to do deliberate practice about how to conduct negotiations. You will be my negotiation teacher. You will simulate a detailed scenario in which I have to engage in a negotiation. You will fill the role of one party, I will fill the role of the other. You will ask for my response to in each step of the scenario and wait until you receive it. After getting my response, you will give me details of what the other party does and says. You will grade my response and give me detailed feedback about what to do better using the science of negotiation. You will give me a harder scenario if I do well, and an easier one if I fail.”
GPT-4 then returned the following:
I want to practice how to handle promotion requests from employees. You will be my employee simulation partner. You will simulate a detailed scenario in which you, as an employee who doesn’t deserve a promotion, request one from me, the manager. You will ask for my response at each step of the scenario and wait until you receive it. After getting my response, you will inform me of the employee’s actions and statements. You will evaluate my response and provide me with detailed feedback on how to improve using negotiation techniques. Based on my performance, you will adjust the difficulty of the scenario, making it more challenging if I do well or simplifying it if I struggle.
I inserted the adapted prompt for simulating a manager dealing with a promotion request from an undeserving employee into GPT-4, and I was able to practice.”
Without a doubt, asking ChatGPT to role play critical events can help you master skills to get good workplace outcomes.
