Professional Documents
Culture Documents
JointProblem-Solving
Combination of hard and soft negotiation.
Turning face-to-face confrontation into side-by-side problem solving
It revolves around interests instead of positions.
It generates better results for both sides by saving time and energy by
cutting out posturing.
Leads to better working relationships and mutual benefit in the future.
Your Reaction
Their Emotion
Their Position
Their Dissatisfaction (not interested in a mutually satisfactory
agreement)
Their Power (they think they dont need to negotiate because they can
get what they want)
Because every person and situation is different, you need to marry the five
breakthrough principles with your own knowledge of the particulars in order
to create a strategy that works for you.
PROLOGUE
Winging it without preparation will not succeed because they may miss
opportunities for joint gain they could have achieved if they prepare.
Negotiations are more effective if people spent more of their limited time
preparing. To prepare for a negotiation, just like embarking on a voyage, you
need a good map.
1. Interests
Interests are the intangible motivations that lead you to take a
certain position your needs, desires, concerns, fears and
aspirations
To end up with an agreement that satisfies both sides, you need to
begin by figuring out each sides interests.
Figure out your interests, then figure out their interests
o How? Imagine their point of view. The more you can find out
about the other side, the better your chances of influencing
4. Alternatives to Negotiations
Come to a negotiation aware of your alternatives.
The purpose of negotiation is to explore whether you can satisfy
your interests better through an agreement than you could by
pursuing your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA).
Example:
o In negotiating with your boss for a raise, your BATNA might
be to find a job with another firm.
BATNA is the key to negotiating power. Your power depends less on
whether you are bigger, stronger, more senior, or richer than the
other person than on how good your BATNA is.
If you have a viable alternative (a better BATNA), then you have
more power in the negotiation.
2. "Interactive" alternative
What you can do directly to the other side to make them
respect your interests (go on strike or go to war)
PROPOSALS
There is commitment: a possible agreement to which you are ready to say
yes (this distinguishes a proposal from an option)
Rehearse
Talk it over with someone else
It bring new perspectives, compel you to address points of difficulty
that you might otherwise avoid, and offer you moral encouragement
What you will say and how you will respond with what they say
Make mistakes in rehearsing, not in negotiating for real
PREPARING TO NAVIGATE
You need to use the breakthrough strategy to navigate past the obstacles
that stand in your way
Striking Back
When the other side attacks you, your instinctive reaction is to attack
right back. If they take a rigid and extreme position, you do the same.
Occasionally, this shows them that two can play the same game and
makes them stop. More often, however, this strategy lands you in a
futile and costly confrontation. You provide them with a justification for
their unreasonable behavior. Striking back rarely advances your
immediate interests and usually damages your long-term relationships.
Even if you do win the battle, you lose the war.
Giving In
Giving in usually results in an unsatisfactory outcome. It rewards the
other side for bad behavior and gives you the reputation for weakness
that theyandothers may try to exploit in the future. Sometimes we
are intimidated and appease unreasonable people under the illusion
that if we give in just this one last time, we will get them off our back
and will never have to deal with them again. All too often, however,
such people come back for further concessions. There is a saying that
an appeaser is someone who believes that if you keep on throwing
steaks to a tiger, the tiger will eventually become a vegetarian.
Breaking Off
A third reaction is to break off with the difficult person or organization.
At times, avoidance is a perfectly appropriate strategy. Sometimes it is
better to end a personal or business relationship if continuing means
being taken advantage of or getting into fights again and again.
Sometimes, too, breaking off reminds the other side of their stake in
the relationship and leads them to act more reasonably. Breaking off is
frequently a hasty reaction that we come to regret later. A pattern of
breaking off relationships means you never get anywhere because you
are always starting over.
Go to the Balcony
If the bad news is that you contribute to the vicious cycle of action and
reaction, the good news is that you have the power to break the cycle at any
timeunilaterally by not reacting. When you find yourself facing a difficult
negotiation, you need to step back, collect your wits, and see the situation
objectively. The balcony is a metaphor for a mental attitude of detachment.
From the balcony you can calmly evaluate the conflict almost as if you were a
third party. You can think constructively for both sides and look for a mutually
satisfactory way to resolve the problem. Going to the balcony means
distracting yourself from your natural impulses and emotions. You ought to go
to the balcony before the negotiation even beginsin order to prepare. And
you should go to the balcony at every possible opportunity throughout the
negotiation. At all times, you will be tempted to react impulsively to your
opponents difficult behavior. But at all times, you need to keep your eyes on
the prize. The prize is an agreement that satisfies your interests, certainly
better than your BATNA could. It must also meet the other persons interests
acceptably.
Stonewalls
This tactic is a refusal to budge. The other side may try to convince
you that they have no flexibility and that there is no other choice
than their position.
Whats done is done. Its Company policy, I cant do anything
about it. You can take it or leave it.
Attacks
These are pressure tactics used to intimidate you and make you
feel uncomfortable that you ultimately give in to the other sides
demands.
Perhaps the most common form of attack is to threaten you with
dire consequences: Do it or else.
Attackers will bully, insult and badger until they get their way.
Tricks
These are tactics that dupe you into giving in.
3 types: Manipulating the date (using false figures, etc.), the no
authority ploy (misleads you into believing that they have the
authority and then informs you that someone else has authority to
decide after you have given up as much as you can), and the add
on (last minute additional demand that comes after being led to
believe that you have already reached an agreement)
The first clue that we are reacting usually comes from our bodies
stomach gets tied up in knots, face flushes, palms sweat. These
signal that something is wrong and that we lose our composure in
the negotiation. These are cues that we need to go to the balcony.
Each of us has certain emotional susceptibilities or hot buttons.
Some react to minor criticisms, or cannot take jokes, or cannot
accept when our ideas are rejected, or gives in because we worry
that people wont like us. When you understand what your hot
buttons are, you can more easily recognize when your opponent is
pressing them, and respond well by not letting them play on your
reaction/emotion.
How
Careful notes
It buys you time to think plus it give the impression of taking the other
person seriously
Some people think they become annoying if they keep asking questions.
Successful negotiators learn that appearing a little obtuse can be a
negotiating advantage because it allows you to slow down the discussion
and clarification.
Obstacles to agreement
After exploring each sides interests and the options for agreement,
you may be ready to deal.
The other side may stall however.
We often blame our negotiating counterparts resistance on personality
or basic nature, but behind the impasse usually lies some very good
reasons. CONSIDER