Negotiation Workshop
Mario Moussa, Ph.D., MBA
President, Moussa Consulting
Co-Director, Wharton Strategic Persuasion Workshop
Senior Consultant, Fels Institute of Government, University of Pennsylvania
moussa@moussaconsulting.com/267-549-6694
Agenda
 Discuss the principles of negotiation.
 Assess your negotiating style.
 Practice.
 Build a negotiation “checklist,” with
emphasis on negotiating across
“cultural” boundaries.
 Apply insights to current challenges
and opportunities.
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 Write down 1 or 2 specific learning goals for today’s
workshop.
 Share your goals with someone sitting nearby.
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You have choices in pursuing
your goals.
INFLUENCE
PERSUASION
NEGOTIATION
NEGOTIATION
NEGOTIATION
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You learn by doing.
“In the last analysis, you cannot
learn negotiating techniques from a
book [or from a lecture]. You must
actually negotiate.”
—James C. Freund, Anatomy of a Merger (1975)
What is
your
mindset?
“You have to take
the shuttle.”
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Tricks don’t work. Be yourself.
“Everyone has his [or her] own
negotiating style, and the worst
thing you can do is to adopt a
negotiating technique that does not
feel comfortable [because]
credibility . . . is the most
important single asset of a good
negotiator.”
—James C. Freund, Anatomy of a Merger (1975)
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What is “negotiation”?
An interactive communication process that may take place
whenever you want something from somebody else or they
want something from you and there is a potential for
conflict.
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The Six Foundations of Effective Negotiation
Attitude to Conflict
I
Bargaining Style
Fear of Loss
Power of Expectations
VI
Leverage
II
Goals
InformationBased
Bargaining
III
Authoritative
Standards
V
Their Interests
Self-Esteem
and Self-Interest
IV
Relationships
Consistency and
Authority Principles
Reciprocity Norm
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When you ask, focus on
reasons rather than facts.
 Data-based statistics
 Specific examples
 Direct experience: demonstrations
and tangible objects
 Personal testimony
 Values or mission
 Accepted practices or procedures
 Leverage (positive, negative,
normative)
 Ethics
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Beliefs matter.
“No thought can be formed that
isn’t informed by the past; or,
more precisely, we think only
thanks to analogies that link our
present to our past.”
“I’m just not moving my car.”
-- Douglas Hoftstedter and Emmanuel
Sander, Surfaces and Essences
Sources: “Microsoft’s Lost Decade,” Vanity Fair, August 2012; “Words on Trial,”
New Yorker, July 23, 2012
Where do beliefs and culture
come from?
 Inertia
 Interests
 Entropy
 Meta-Culture
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Culture affects decision-making.
Participative
Culture
Response
Data-Based
Intuition-Based
Reference Point
Non-Participative
Source: The Effects of Organizational Frames and Problem Ambiguity on Decision
Making, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 11, No. 2, Winter 1996
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Organizational culture is based on
beliefs, values, and habits.
 “Organizations choose and structure
their environments through interpretive
decisions that are extensions of
corporate culture.” -- G. Morgan, 2006
 From “Executive Summary of NASA
Report” about the Columbia accident:
 “Culture traits and organizational
practices detrimental to safety
were allowed to develop,
including a reliance on past
successes, organizational
barriers, and lack of integrated
management.”
 “NASA’s safety culture has
become dominated by unjustified
optimism.”
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Tune in.
People are motivated
by multiple interests.
Focus on the the most
powerful one.
“Trade” in the right
“currency.”
Pay attention to the
pressures the other
person is responding
to.
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You can shift the balance of
needs.
What if the other
party will not talk?
Power Moves
n
n
n
What if the other
party will not
listen?
Process Moves
n
n
n
What if the other
party feels
misunderstood?
Use incentives
Put a price on the
status quo
Enlist support
Seed ideas
Reframe the process
Build consensus
Appreciative Moves
n
n
n
Help save face
Keep talking
Invite new ideas
Kolb, Deborah M. and Judith Williams. “Breakthrough Bargaining.” Harvard Business Review, February 2001.
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Negotiation Test
Problem: Roosevelt’s campaign manager produced a pamphlet with a copyrighted photograph on
its cover. Three million copies of the pamphlet had been produced. It had to be used and there was
no time to re-do it. The cost of using the photograph was one dollar per pamphlet. The campaign
was short on funds. The photographer, a man named Moffet, was hard up for money and hard to
reason with. What to do?
Sebenius, James. “Six Habits of Merely Effective Negotiators.”
Harvard Business Review, April 2001, pp. 87 – 95.
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“Schools” of Negotiation Ethics
 Poker
 Idealist
 Pragmatist
What school do you
belong to, and why?
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The Prisoner’s Dilemma: What
game are you playing?
Prisoner A Stays
Silent
Prisoner A
Betrays
Prisoner B Stays
Silent
Prisoner B Betrays
Each serves 6
months
Prisoner A: 10 years
Prisoner B: goes free
Prisoner A: goes free
Each serves 5 years
Prisoner B: 10 years
The Negotiator’s Dilemma
B Creates Value
(Cooperates)
B Claims Value
(Competes)
A Creates Value
(Cooperates)
Both cooperate
Both have good
outcome
A cooperates
B competes
A has a terrible outcome
B has a great outcome
A Claims Value
(Competes)
A competes
B cooperates
A has a great outcome
B has a terrible
outcome
Both compete
Both have a mediocre
outcome
Win-win?
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Case: Rare book
Everyone has a personal negotiation
style.
Degree of Assertiveness
High
High
Concern for
Others’
Outcomes
Low
Low
Collaborator/
Accommodator
Problem-solver
Compromiser
Competitor
Conflict Avoider
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Egocentric bias: we assume that
everyone is like us.
A few combinations to pay attention to:
 Accommodators versus Competitors
 Collaborators versus Compromisors
 Avoiders versus Competitors
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Start by assessing your situation.
Perceived Conflict Over Stakes
High
Perceived Importance
of Future Relationship
Between Parties
High
Low
I: Balanced Concerns
II: Relationships
(Business partnership,
joint venture or merger)
(Marriage, friendship
or work team)
Best strategies:
Problem solving or compromise
Best strategies:
Accommodation, problem solving
or compromise
III: Transactions
IV: Tacit Coordination
(Divorce, house sale
or market transaction)
(Highway intersection
or airplane seating)
Best strategies:
Competition, problem solving
or compromise
Best strategies:
Avoidance, accommodation or
compromise
Low
Case Debrief
The bargaining “iceberg”— Look
beneath the surface!
Positions
Issues
Interests
There are four stages in a negotiation.
Preparation
Exchanging
Information
Opening and
Concession Making
(Bargaining)
Closing and
Commitment
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Who should open?
(Anchor Effect vs. Information Effect)
Lots of
Information
Not Much
Information
Both Know
Same
They Know
More
Do Open
Don’t Open
Don’t Open
Don’t Open
You Know
More
Do Open
Don’t Open
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The Negotiation Preparation
“Checklist”
Review the Six Foundations
 Bargaining Style: What is your style
and its implications for this specific
situation?
 Goals: What are the highest, most
reasonable goals you can set?
 Authoritative Standards: What are the
authoritative standards that apply to
this situation?
 Relationships and Reciprocity: What
are you willing to give on and under
what circumstances? What can you
give the other side, at low cost, that
will satisfy them?
 Interests: What are the other parties’
interests?
 Leverage: Who has the most
leverage? What you can do to
increase your own?
Shape the Situation
Anticipate Their Moves
 Positioning Story: What is a
credible positioning story that
frames the situation and supports
your goals?
 Their Style: What is their style,
and their likely response to your
positioning story?
 Balance of Needs: What else is
going on in their company or
environment that will influence this
negotiation? How can you change
the environment to shift the
balance of needs, or resolve a
tension?
 Their Interests: What are their
interests and priorities, and how
will they influence the moves they
make?
 Your Value Proposition: What is it
about your offer that is distinctive
and uniquely attractive to the other
party?
 The Process: What is your plan for
managing the negotiation process?
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Research suggests that good negotiators have
a few essential characteristics.
1. The #1 trait of all effective negotiators is a willingness to
engage in systematic planning and preparation.
2. Negotiators with high expectations do better.
3. Credibility is highly prized by effective negotiators.
4. Effective negotiators also exhibit: listening skills, knowledge of
subject matter, verbal skills, and self-confidence.
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The Six Foundations of Effective Negotiation
Attitude to Conflict
I
Bargaining Style
Fear of Loss
Power of Expectations
VI
Leverage
II
Goals
InformationBased
Bargaining
III
Authoritative
Standards
V
Their Interests
Self-Esteem
and Self-Interest
IV
Relationships
Consistency and
Authority Principles
Reciprocity Norm
31
Application debrief
1. What insights/knowledge have you
gained today that broaden or deepen
your negotiation skills?
2. When should you use influence or
persuasion rather than negotiating?
3. What one or two specific things have you
learned that are most directly applicable
to the deal(s) or projects you are currently
working on?
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The secret of success in
negotiation
To become an effective negotiator requires constant practice in
negotiation thinking. It is a daily discipline, not an ability that can be
left dormant in normal times and tapped at will in an emergency.
Nor is there such thing as a line of ready-made, packaged
negotiation strategies waiting to be picked off the supermarket shelf.
Negotiation is simply the logical extension of one’s usual
communication processes. Done well, it derives from long-term
philosophy, not short-term expediencies. In a very real sense, it
represents the expression of an attitude about one’s life.
-- Paraphrased from The Mind of the Strategist (1982) by Kenichi Ohmae
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