Negotiating 101

Agenda• The Problem

– Positions• The Method

– Separate people from problem– Focus on interests, not positions– Invent options for mutual gain– Insist on using objective criteria

• Yes, But. . .– What if they are more powerful?

• More on BATNAs– What if they don’t want to negotiate?– What if they don’t negotiate fairly?

• Summing up

Don’t negotiate over positions

• Unwise agreements

• Inefficient• Endangers a long

term relationship• Being a nice

person is no help• Focus on interests

and negotiate in a principled way.

Separate people from problem

• Negotiators are people first

• Two basic interests: the substance and the relationship

• Positional bargaining puts the two in conflict

• Deal with relationship as a separate consideration

Manage your perceptions• Put yourself in their

shoes• Don’t deduce their

motives from your fears• Don’t blame them for

your problem• Discuss each

perceptions• Give them a stake by

getting them to participate

• Make your proposals consistent with their values

Control your emotions

• Be aware and identify your own emotions

• Same for them• Talk about emotions

explicitly• Allow them to vent

interfering emotions– Anger and fear,

common• Do not react to emotional

outbursts• Use symbolic gestures

Concentrate on communication

• Listen actively and acknowledge

• Speak to be understood

• Speak about you, not them

• Speak for a purpose

Start before problems arise

• Build a working relationship immediately

• Focus on the problem, not them

Focus on interests not positions

• Reconcile interests

• Identify their interests

• Talk openly about interests

Reconcile Interests

• Interests define the problem

• Behind positions lie interests

• Interest categories– Compatible– Shared– Conflicting

Identify their interests• Ask “Why?”• Ask “Why not?”

– What are their other choices?

• Multiple interests– Detail the many sources

of interest in the problem, and determine who represents them

• Interests: the power of basic human needs

• Make lists

Talk openly about interests

• Show concern for their interests

• Put their problem ahead of your answer

• Make your interests come alive

• Look ahead, not behind

• Be concrete but flexible• Hard on problem, soft on

people

Invent options for mutual gain

• Diagnosing the problem

• Solving the problem

Diagnosis before prescription

• Be the Problem Doctor:

– Problems of premature solutions

– Searching for the single answer

– Fixed pie? Are you sure?

– Solving their problem is my problem.

Prescription methods

• Separate inventing from deciding

• Broaden your options• Look for mutual gains• Make their decision easy

Separate inventing from deciding

– Before brainstorming– During brainstorming– After brainstorming– Helping them brainstorm

Invent Options First

Decide which is best

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Broaden your options

• Look for help from a variety of experts

• Invent agreements of different strengths

• Change the scope of a proposed agreement

• Multiply options: the Circle Chart exercise (next)

Circle Chart for Inventing Options

Step I: Problem

What’s wrong?

Symptoms?

Reality vs Desired Future

Step II: Analysis

Sort symptoms into groups

Possible causes

What’s missing

Barriers to solving

Step III: Approaches

Possible strategies

Theoretical fixes

Broad ideas about what to do

Step IV: Action Ideas

What specific steps

Goals

Verify

Look for mutual gains• Identify shared interests

• Merge differing interests– What is the difference?– Different beliefs?– What is their value of

time?– Different forecasts about

the future?– Risk aversion differences?

• What are their preferences?

Make their decision easy

• Whose shoes?

• What decision?

• When threatening is not enough

Insist on using objective criteria

• Deciding based on strength of will

• Case for objective criteria• Developing objective

criteria• Negotiating with

objective criteria• Joint search for objective

criteria

• Reason and be open to reason

• Never yield to pressure

Deciding based on strength of will

• Too costly– Substance– Relationships

• Someone has to back down– No one wants to do

that, loss of face– Leads to irrational

choices

Case for objective criteria

• Principled negotiations– Smarter

• Finding data, information that help inform a better decisions for both parties

– Efficient• No time wasted in testing each other’s will

– Less hostility• No need to get angry if we looking for objective data

– Protects the relationship• Mutual hunt for an objective basis

Developing objective criteria

Fair standards– Market value– Precedent– Scientific judgments– Professional standards– Efficiency– Costs– Court decisions– Equal treatment

Fair procedures– Coin flips– Cut and choose– Veil of ignorance choices –

not knowing your part– Taking turns– Drawing lots– Letting a third party decide– Choosing the last best

offer

Criteria need to be independent of each side’s will

Legitimate and practical

Negotiating with objective criteria

• Frame each issue as the joint search for objective measures of value, facts, etc.

• Reason and be open to reason as to what to accept as appropriate standards

• Never yield to pressure, only to principle.

The joint search for objective criteria

• What is fair to both sides?

• What is your theory about what is fair?

• Agree first on principles.

Reason and be open to reason

• Keep an open mind

• Possibility of multiple criteria of fairness– What objective basis

is there to decide?– Splitting the

difference or compromising

Never yield to pressure

• Pressure to yield takes many forms– Bribes– Threats– Stubbornness

• Question the process, look for objective criteria

• This is why you have a BATNA!!!!

Yes, but . . .

• What if they– are more powerful?– won’t negotiate?– won’t negotiate fairly?

What if they are more powerful?

• Protect yourself from making a bad decision.– The problem of being too accommodating– The problem of being too inflexible– Know your BATNA: all offers are measured against it.

• Make the most of your assets– Better BATNA = More Power– Develop your assets into a BATNA

• Invent a list of actions you could take if the negotiation fails

• Improve the ideas and convert to practical alternatives• Tentatively select the alternative that seems best

What if they won’t negotiate?

• You can concentrate on interest / merits not positions.– Everything we have

looked at so far

• If they don’t respond, focus on what they might do. Negotiation jujitsu.

Negotiation jujitsu

• The typical attack has three parts;– Aggressively asserting

their own position– Attack your ideas!– Attack you!

• You should– Look behind attack for

motivating interests.– Treat their position as one

possible option.– Don’t defend your ideas

• Invite criticism and advice– Re-frame attacks on you

as attacks on the problem– Use more questions, make

fewer statements

What if they won’t negotiate fairly?

• Deliberate deception– Unless you have good

reason to trust someone, don’t trust them.

– Check facts, assertions, etc.

• Unclear authority– Making you think they

have power to decide– Asking you to concede

but claiming they don’t have power

– Before you begin, ask how much authority they have to make the decisions.

• Questionable intentions of the other side– Make your doubts

public– Negotiate assurances in

the agreement• Creating purposely

stressful situations– Acknowledge the

stressors and ask for some adjustments

• Personal attacks– Recognize it and call it

to their attention• Threats

– Recognize and call attention to it. Treat as pressure.

Questions?