Off the Hook — Bond Before You Bargain

A four-round, high-stakes leadership simulation set inside Rheinwerk Components GmbH, a Cologne-based tier-one automotive supplier. At 06:40 a leaked restructuring memo has triggered a wildcat stoppage: 600 workers occupy the Düsseldorf assembly hall, the works-council chair refuses to meet, and the line bleeds roughly €95,000 an hour with an OEM penalty of €1.4 million looming past 18 hours. Playing the plant leadership team, you have until the 14:00 handover (about 7 hours) to win a return-to-work that restores trust rather than merely securing compliance. Built on Kohlrieser's Secure Base Leadership and Hostage at the Table, the simulation makes you (1) diagnose the underlying need behind the chair's position and confront your own threat reactions, (2) bond before you bargain by choosing an opening contact, (3) reframe a zero-sum threat into a shared problem and pick a single unlocking move, and (4) land a signed-in-principle agreement under acute time and emotional pressure. The math rewards sequencing — bonding before content, regulating your own state, turning the adversary into a thinking partner — and punishes the five classic errors: leading with rights and numbers, casting the chair as an enemy, rushing to the substance, matching his anger, and winning compliance while spending the 22-year relationship. Final KPIs track De-escalation, Trust (the 22-year asset), the OEM/contagion clock, and your own Self-Regulation.