Aracruz Cellulose Simulation

The Aracruz Simulation was certainly helpful is our efforts to become more flexible, patient and open-minded when communicating with different stakeholders. The factual situation was quite interesting. It was easy to engage in discussions since the stakeholders' perspectives and goals were relatively clear.

I learned from the simulation that various stakeholders can have a fruitful discussion by applying the following communication techniques :

• actively listening to others' points of view;
• trying to understand where they are coming from;
• collaborating efforts in reaching a common goal;
• showing tolerance and respect;
• staying on the issue at hand;
• acknowledging and considering every one's input;
• being creative and innovative in search for solutions;
• clarifying own perspective;
• building trust;
• avoiding ambiguity.

Since we were able to reach 5 areas of agreement and generated 8 innovative ideas, I believe our group was effective. All participants were interested in solving the same issue and were eager to share their ideas. If there was a disagreement, we attempted to solve the problem in a way that would satisfy every stakeholder. The few problems we had came from the fact that our information on the situation and especially some of the details was different. There were certain points that were not mentioned in every one's handouts which prevented that stakeholder from actively participating when discussing specific issues. Another problem that we faced stemmed from our own limited knowledge on the situation as a whole.

In the Aracruz simulation I was representing the Community. Because this stakeholder was indirectly affected by the Aracruz problem, it was sometimes hard for me to have a direct answer to some of issues in the discussion. My understanding was that the community wanted to keep the region peaceful and prosperous but it wasn't clearly stated whether that involved the return of the land to the indigenous people (which turned out to be a major conversation point). If I could redo the stakeholder dialogue I would try to gather more information on the background of the situation.

As every other skill acquired in this class, stakeholder dialogue skills will be helpful in different situations which require a "win - win" result such as: town hall, student organization, parent - teacher meetings, corporate policy development efforts as well as many situations of personal matter.