Beth Fisher-Yoshida Explores Empowering Women’s Negotiation

Beth Fisher-Yoshida - Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia’s School of Professional Studies – recently visited Chile to promote her new book, New Story, New Power: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiation, which was translated into Spanish and titled El Poder de tu Historia.

Fisher-Yoshida originally contacted the Columbia Global Center in Santiago to see if there would be interest in holding an event to discuss the book’s central issue – how to help women strengthen their negotiation skills by changing their own narratives, thereby empowering them to negotiate better outcomes in many different aspects of their lives. The Santiago Center worked with Fisher-Yoshida and local partners to bring this to fruition. The following is her personal account of how the event developed:

As I stepped off the elevator to speak about the translation of my book, El Poder de tu Historia, the buzz of many people engaged in conversation filled my ears. I turned the corner and saw the packed room of attendees, most of them women, stopping in for the breakfast book talk before heading out to work and other commitments.

I was pleasantly surprised at the high level of energy in the room so early in the morning. Observing the conversations, it seemed to me that many of the participants knew each other and had their calendar apps open to set up times for meetings and future engagements. I found out that the groups that came together to sponsor this event had been co-hosting events in the past and there was a lively community of professionals using these opportunities to learn and network. My kind of crowd!

My point of contact was the Columbia University Global Center in Santiago, Chile. I was passing through Santiago and since I had been at the Global Center years before, I thought I would take the opportunity to see if there was an interest in hosting me. I received a warm reception. What impressed me the most, was the network the center had with these other organizations that co-hosted the event. The way in which it was organized demonstrated long-term working relationships.

These partners included the Center for Management at the Universidad de Chile's School of Business and Economics, KPMG Chile, and Mujeres Empresarias, a women’s entrepreneurial organization. My book is about negotiation, focusing on women in particular. This topic was of interest to the business and academic communities in Santiago, so that the partners co-presenting the event were all interested in the topic for their audiences. The Santiago Global Center found a natural fit collaborating with these other organizations.

There was mutual respect and admiration amongst the lead presenters representing these different entities. They each spoke a little about their organizations and they expressed their appreciation for the partnership and how they all benefitted from each of their contributions. That set the tone for the rest of the morning.

As mentioned earlier, this wasn’t the first time they were coming together as a joint learning community. That explained the enthusiasm in the room. People were excited to participate because they had either come to previous events in the past or had heard the buzz about how beneficial they were.

For me, as a speaker, it was very exciting and rewarding to be in conversation with the woman interviewing me, the audience asking questions and making comments, and the table I sat at for the last activity as we exchanged ideas. There were some humorous comments about men attending a “woman’s” event, but it demonstrated how they saw the value in it and wanted to be a part of what we were all making together.

Each global center has its own agenda and works in collaboration with their local partners in their own ways. From my experience with the global center in Santiago, they have forged a respected presence in Chile and the region that allows them to have these types of exchanges for everyone’s benefit.

The event was opened by Universidad de Chile’s Dean of the School of Business and Administration, José de Gregorio, followed by representatives of the Management Center and of KPMG Chile, as well as the founder and director of Mujeres Empresarias, Carolina Eterovic. The Santiago Center Director, Antonio Campaña, also addressed the crowd and spoke of the history of the Columbia Global Center and Chile’s longstanding relationship with Columbia University.

Use this link to see the video recording of the event, in Spanish.