ISD AcademyInstitute for Social Dialogue
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What this course is about

Community leaders near mines are often asked to sit across the table from companies, government and other groups, with little preparation and a lot of pressure. This course gives leaders practical, plain-language negotiation skills: how to prepare, how to carry a real mandate and report back, how to stay calm and creative at the table, and how to turn promises into clear written commitments that can be followed up. It draws on recognised negotiation methods and on international and South African guidance on engaging with communities.

Who it is for

Community forum members, ward councillors and ward committee members, traditional council members, youth and women's group leaders, Communal Property Association committees, community trust trustees, union representatives who work with communities, and company community relations staff who want to understand the other side of the table.

What you will be able to do

  1. Prepare for a negotiation by separating positions from interests and knowing your best alternative to an agreement.
  2. Build a negotiating team that carries a clear mandate, includes the whole community and reports back.
  3. Use the principled method at the table: separate people from the problem, invent options and insist on fair criteria, and handle pressure without agreeing on the spot.
  4. Turn an agreement into clear written commitments with monitoring and a grievance mechanism, and know what to do when it is not kept.

Preview: the first two minutes

Module 1 · Introduction · 2 min

A woman in a mustard cardigan stands at her gate in the morning, reading a letter, with the village and a mine headgear on the ridge behind her.

Animated scene (fictional, Pula, a village beside the Kopano mine): a letter from the Kopano mine invites the Pula community forum to talk about a new shaft and what the community will gain. At the first planning meeting in the community hall, everyone calls out demands at once. The chairperson, Mme Dineo Sithole, asks the room a different question: "What do we actually need, and why?"

Modules

  1. Module 1 · 18 min

    Preparing to negotiate

    Prepare for a negotiation by separating positions from interests and knowing your best alternative to an agreement.

  2. Module 2 · 18 min

    A mandate and a team

    Build a negotiating team that carries a clear mandate, includes the whole community and reports back.

  3. Module 3 · 18 min

    At the table

    Use the principled method at the table: separate people from the problem, invent options and insist on fair criteria, and handle pressure without agreeing on the spot.

  4. Module 4 · 18 min

    Writing it down and keeping it alive

    Turn an agreement into clear written commitments with monitoring and a grievance mechanism, and know what to do when it is not kept.

Go deeper

Optional, outside the 72 minutes.

Sources

Negotiation Skills for Community Leaders | ISD Academy