An integral part of CONCUR's training courses is to lead participants through role playing simulations. CONCUR is skilled in preparing and leading such simulations, which provide participants with hands-on experience developing their dispute resolution skills. Following is a description of simulations developed by CONCUR over the past 18 years.
 

The Deltonium Simulation:

In the Spring of 2001, CONCUR developed a complex multiparty, multi-issue simulation for the State Water Resources Control Board. The objective of the exercise was to provide participants with a negotiation scenario that closely emulated issues they tackle in their day-to-day work. The simulation forcuses on three specific issues: Establishing an effluent limit and monitoring regime for a fictional contaminant, negotiating penalties for discharge violations, and funding research to inform the development of TMDLs. Parties to the exercise represent the Regional Board (with one negotiation Chair, and one Negotiator), the Department of Fish and Game, and energy producer, an industry group, and an environmental health and justice non-profit.

The San Remo Simulation:

CONCUR developed the San Remo simulation for a training course delivered to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The goal of the exercise is two-fold: 1) to teach participants the basic elements of carrying out a Stakeholder Analysis and Conflict Assessment process; and, 2) give students a chance to test their negotiating skills and styles in a complex multi-party dispute. The simulation focuses on the contamination of groundwater aquifers beneath a housing development. Decisions to be negotiated include selecting remedial actions, allocating financial responsibility, and determining a preferred sequence and timetable for the remedial actions. Parties to the simulation represent an electric company, an environmental justice community group, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the fictional city of San Remo.

Negotiated Development in San Felicia:

The San Felicia simulation was also developed for a training course for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The objective of this two-party exercise is to negotiate an agreement that integrates the need to meet growing energy demand with protection and restoration of wetland habitats. The exercise is structured to focus participants on two specific issues: the square footage of a proposed substation expansion, and the number of wetland acres to be protected and restored. The participants in the negotiation include the San Felicia Light & Power Company, the League for Delta Environmental Restoration, and a neutral mediator.

The NPDES Simulation:
CONCUR developed the multi-party NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) simulation for the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. The simulation deals with setting effluent limits for wastewater treatment facilities. Parties are required to work together to set an effluent limit for mercury, determine how to handle technical uncertainty in the development of those limits, and develop a timeline for a Total Maximum Daily Load study. Parties to the simulation include representatives of environmental, agency, and wastewater treatment groups. Also participating are two Regional Board representatives: one as a staff negotiator, and the other as a negotiations chair.

The Basin Lake Simulation
CONCUR developed the Basin Lake simulation for a training course with the Nevada Division of Water Planning. In this multi-party exercise, participants are required to negotiate a preferred strategy for increasing water flow into Basin Lake, set target water levels, and decide the number of years it will take to implement those target water levels. Six parties representing various environmental, resource user, and tribal interest groups are facilitated by a seventh participant in the simulation. Each party is presented with a general list of their options, preferences, and trade-offs, and is briefed on the mechanics (e.g. timeline, caucusing, straw voting) of the negotiation.  

Initiating a Statewide Boll Weevil Pest Control Program
In this four-party simulation, participants apply mutual gains bargaining to an environmental negotiation. The overall mission is to negotiate an agreement that integrates the goals of a pest control program to meet local needs and protect the environment and public health. Participants include representatives from the United Stated Department of Agriculture, an agricultural products trade association, a health and the environment coalition, and the State Department of Resource Conservation. Issues that must be negotiated include the control measures to be emphasized, target areas and methods of application, as well as monitoring, public review, and restoration elements. All of these issues contain several sub-issues that participants must address as they work towards agreement. Several different options and trade-offs are presented, but participants are encouraged to create their own hybrid of options.  

Negotiated Development in San Guadalupe
This simulation is a mediated two-party negotiation between a redevelopment agency and environmental group in the fictional California delta town of San Guadalupe. The objective is to negotiate an agreement that integrates regional housing development goals with protection and restoration of wetland habitats. The redevelopment agency, the environmental group, and the mediator are all given confidential instructions to help direct their interactions. Initially, the two parties dig into diametrically opposed positions. The mediator is assigned the task of getting parties to move off those divergent positions and to explore zones of potential agreement.  

El Dorado Land Sale Negotiation
This two-party simulation was prepared by CONCUR in 1993, and focuses on brokering a land sale agreement between a land trust and a development company which owns a 100-acre parcel of land in the California foothills. The property in question is valuable wildlife habitat, and is adjacent to 150 acres of property held by the land trust. However, the development company has received competitive offers from other organizations. The development company representative and the land trust agent need to reach agreement on a sale price acceptable to both organizations.  

Stakeholder Analysis and Conflict Assessment Exercise
This exercise was prepared by CONCUR in 1992, and has been modified for several different clients since. The objective of this simulation is to learn some of the basic elements of the stakeholder analysis and conflict assessment processes by guiding participants through a simulated process. Students examine a case of their choosing, using guidelines provided to them by the simulation notes. The simulation requires participants to choose a case, identify the parties with a stake, and then evaluate the most salient issues, the interests of the parties, and their willingness to negotiate.  

Endangered Species Single Text Negotiation
The goal of this facilitated five-party simulated dialogue is to recommend revisions to improve the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act. Parties in the simulation include a water association, a fishing alliance, a development company, the Chamber of Commerce, and an environmental advocacy organization. The groups work together to draft a short public statement that shows how the Act could be strengthened. The public statement is to represent the negotiated consensus product of the five participants. Participants are told that the statement must contain broad principles, along with two or three specific examples in order to maintain the confidence of the voters. Students get hands-on experience in negotiating single-text documentation of an evolving group consensus.  

Initiating Cleanup for a Contaminated Site Simulation
This exercise is a negotiation involving a contaminated site that lies adjacent to the San Francisco Bay. The five parties involved include a case handler and a section chief from the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the City Manager from an affected community, a corporate representative, and a geohydrologist from an environmental remediation firm retained by the corporation. All parties agree that something needs to be done to clean up the site. However, the scope of the investigation and extent of the cleanup needs to be defined by the participants. Participants are asked to agree upon issues such as site access, the extent of the remedial investigation, and the need for a risk assessment.  

Hungary's Ministry of the Environment (MFE) vs Electroworks
This simulation was developed in 1993 by Scott McCreary, Principal of CONCUR, for a training course for Hungary's Ministry of the Environment (MFE). This complex multi-party negotiation mirrors the real world in that it embodies several issues, including: technology assessment, liability assistance for protection from claims of damage to human health and the environment, operating status of the plant, cost of the positive publicity campaign, a compliance incentive fund, and the cost of the alternative to a negotiated settlement. A range of options is discussed for each of these issues, as well as the financial implications for each choice. The objective is to work out rules governing water pollution.  

City of Davis Multi-party Facilitated Land Use Negotiation
CONCUR developed this simulation for a one-day training course for the City of Davis Planning Department. The seven parties in this simulation include: a developer, two neighborhood associations (one with environmental interests, the other with traffic and community character interests), the planning department, public works, a national environmental organization, and a neutral facilitator. The exercise addresses issues such as the mix of affordable versus market rate housing, location and capacity of traffic circulation patterns, and handling of sensitive species habitats. The goal of the exercise is to explore the application of facilitated negotiation techniques to local land use disputes.