Very insightful play about negotiation

Rating: 8/10 (14 November 2016)

A critically acclaimed American Drama, 12 Angry Men, takes place in a jury room where 12 jurors with diverse personalities are tasked to come up with a unanimous decision as to whether the accused is guilty. Initially, Juror 8 held up the jury as he gave a "not guilty" verdict even though all the other eleven jurors gave a "guilty" verdict. This resulted in a vote count of 1-11, which was not unanimous. What started off as an open-and-shut homicide trial soon became a negotiation story where Juror 8 was able to skillfully negotiate and, against all odds, turn the tides around to influence all other eleven jurors to give a "non-guilty" vote.
Even though this movie was in black and white and filmed in one room, it was extremely engaging and insightful because of the principled negotiation skills of Juror 8 and the short excerpts of humour intercepted into the movie. It was also interesting to see how Juror 8 managed to one- handedly move all the jurors from positional negotiation to a principled one, and did not succumb to the pressure of changing his vote so that they can arrive at a unanimous vote quickly. As the saying goes, "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." Juror 8 truly exemplifies this saying and I have definitely learnt more about negotiation from him.