Ground Rule 1:Someone’s got something you wantWhatever the situation, a negotiation starts when one party wants something that is specifically available from the other party. This can be as straightforward as shopping or as extreme as territorial warfare.

Negociaciones

The immediate problem with this particular negotiation is that there is no opportunity for communication, no common language, nor any mutual point of reference.

When the parties communicate, they

can appreciate each other’s needs.

Ground Rule 2:Understand – and be understoodThe importance of communication.Without communication there is no understandingand similarly without understanding, there isno communication. A workable negotiation isbased on the ability to communicate and understand both points of view.

A successful negotiation must have a lasting outcome because you have to live with it in the future.

Ground Rule 3:Plan for the futureThe history of the world is a story of conflicting interests leading to wars, conquests and domination. However, as recent decades have taught us vividly, it is one thing to win a war and quite a different matter to win the peace.When the conflict is over you must establish a situation that both parties can live with. This may mean that both sides have to accept fundamental changes. If they do not, there is every possibility that conflict will re-emerge and the vanquished will rise to fight another day.

Power…… HARD, SOFT, MIX OF BOTH

What you want to know is how to win an argument; how to reconcile conflicting interests in the course of day-to-day negotiations. You want to know how to persuade someone else to come around to your point of view.

Rough & Tough or Soft & Sweet (useful?)

In many negotiations: ➣ You take a position ➣ You attack ➣ You defend ➣ You make sacrifices ➣ You make gains ➣ You make concessions ➣ You demand more

But in the end, you either compromise or take the walk-away option.Or, if there’s a man with a spear, or a ferocious tiger chasing you, youtake the run-away option.

Is conflict the essence of negotiation?

Positional Negotiation describes where both parties look at asituation in terms of the fixed positions they are occupying. The parties argue in terms of how far they are prepared to move in order to achieve an outcome. The Rough & Tough negotiator is inflexible, while the Soft & Sweet negotiator will back down and make concessions in order to reach agreement.

Neither party achieves what they want. The solution is a compromise and as such is unstable.

The truth is that this approach is inefficient for both you and your colleague because there is nothing much to discuss. It’s a take it- or-leave-it approach that stems from a fixed position on both sides. Suppose instead, that rather than arguing from your position, you argue about what you both want to achieve?

Negotiationisn’t about sticking to a position; it’s about achieving an outcome, getting what you want. As long as the two parties are focused on positions – whether defending their own position or attacking the position of the other party – then the negotiation risks simply going round in circles until one or other party yields. That’s not the way to reach a lasting solution.

So, now what? He can play rough and tough:‘Share the food with me, or else!’Or he can play soft and sweet:‘I am hungry; please share your food with me.’

The four criteria of negotiationTo optimize the situation you need a framework for negotiation: a set of principles which both parties can accept and work to. This framework is bounded by a set of standards for negotiation – four Ss.Sensible : Straightforward : Sustaining : Satisfying

A negotiation should be sensible,appropriate and workable

An effective negotiation seeks to acknowledge the grounds for a potential transaction and agree the terms on which this transaction can take place.

Conflict is not sensible

ConstructiveConstructive values

Achievement High personal integrity

Constructive principles Respects confidences Cooperative

Constructive thinking Thinks of others Thinks for self

Constructive behaviour Good listener Enthusiastic

Excellent effectiveness Gets along well with othersRelaxed, at ease Manages time extremely well

Defensive values Approval Status

Defensive principles Reacts rather than initiates Controls others

Defensive thinking Thinks in terms of what others think Thinks only of self

Defensive behaviour Says what’s expected Argumentative

Defensive

Ineffectiveness Does not get along well with othersTense, under stress Manages time poorly

A negotiation should bestraightforward, efficient and smoothThe protocol of a negotiation requires effective communication.This means:● Communicating your own position● Establishing beyond doubt that the other party understands your position● Understanding the other party’s positionYou achieve these three points through a constant exchange of speaking and listening, telling and hearing.

A negotiation should sustain and notdamage or diminish the relationship of

the parties involvedMany Cultures…. One Nation

A negotiation’s outcome should besatisfying, meeting the realistic

expectations of both parties

would it have been possible for him to have conducted the negotiation in a way that achieved an outcome which met all the criteria of both parties?

Positional Negotiationvs

an alternative process Directional Negotiation

There are four criteria for conducting an effective negotiation:•Sensible : Straightforward : Sustaining : Satisfying1. A negotiation should be sensible, appropriate and workable2. A negotiation should be straightforward, efficient and smooth3. A negotiation should sustain and not damage or diminish the

relationship of the parties involved4. A negotiation’s outcome should be satisfying, meeting the realistic

expectations of both parties

Ground Rule 1:Someone’s got something you want

Ground Rule 2:Understand – and be understood

Ground Rule 3:Plan for the future

Summary: