Principled Negotiating (Summary)
Principled Negotiating (Summary)
1. Negotiations
1.1 Negotiations is life
1. Everyone does some kind of negotiating every day.
2. The need for negotiations is growing because number and levels of conflicts are
increasing.
3. The need for negotiations is growing because people demand to participate more
in the decisions that effect their lives.
4. Due to urbanization and migration, individuals and groups are both more alienated
and more in contact with each other and therefore need to negotiate more often
with each other.
1.2 Positional bargaining
1. Positional bargaining is the standard type of bargaining. Each party takes a
position, argues for it, makes concessions, and reaches a compromise.
2. Positional bargaining produces unwise agreements because people tend to
become more and more committed to their positions and pay less attention to
meeting the underlying concerns of both parties.
3. Positional bargaining is inefficient because it takes more time by creating
incentives to stall bargaining, it requires a large number of decisions and it is
costly. With more than two parties it becomes even more inefficient.
4. Positional bargaining endangers ongoing relationships because it is a contest of
wills which tends to produce anger and resentment.
Positional bargaining can be done either the soft way or the hard way. The two
approaches are described below.
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1. The soft stance is more concerned with maintaining a good relationship among
friends. As such concessions are made and one-sided losses are accepted to
save the relationship.
2. The soft stance tends to trust others, is soft on people and on the problem, yields
to pressure and discloses his bottom line.
3. The soft stance insists on an agreement by making offers, changing position
readily and searching for solutions acceptable to the other party.
4. The soft stance often results in quick but unwise decisions. There is the risk to be
exploited, and consequently to become bitter.
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The soft stance
Principled Negotiating (Summary)
The hard stance
1. The hard stance sees negotiating as a contest of wills to be won against
adversaries and thus demands one-sided gains as a price for an agreement.
2. The hard stance tends to distrust the other, is hard on the problem and on the
people, applies pressure and misleads about the bottom line.
3. The hard stance insists on a position by making threats, diggs into a position, and
searches for a solution acceptable for oneselves.
4. The hard stance often results in exhaustion, unwise decisions and destroyed
relationships.
2. The principled negotiation method
The principled negotiation method is designed to produce wise, efficient and amicable
decisions. There are four principles to this method:
2.1
Separate the people from the problem
1. Reconcile interests, not positions. For every interest there is usually more than
one solution available. Behind opposed positions lie many more common interests
than conflicting ones. Interests define the problem.
2. Identify interests by asking why a particular position is being taken. Each side has
multiple interests and the most powerful are basic human needs, like financial
well-being, a sense of belonging, acknowledgement, and being able to influence
the course of your own life.
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2.2 Focus on interests
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1. Every negotiator has two kinds of interests: the substance or content, and the
relationship. It is important to separate these two in order to obtain the optimum
result.
2. Perceptions are the key issue. Ultimately the conflict lies not in the objects of the
conflict but in people’s heads. Understand the other party. Do not deduce their
intentions from your fears. Do not blame them for your problem. Discuss
perceptions. Send messages to change their perceptions by acting inconsistently
with their perceptions. Make sure they participate in the process by involving them.
Make your proposals consistent with their values.
3. Deal with emotions. Recognize your and their emotions. Make them explicit and
acknowledge them as legitimate. Allow the other side to let off steam. Do not react
to emotional outbursts. Use symbolic gestures to produce positive emotional
impact.
4. Communicate effectively by using active listening methods, and by speaking with a
purpose.
5. Prevention works best if you deal with people issues before they become
problems. Build working relationships. Think as partners in a sensible, side-by-side
search for a fair agreement advantageous to each.
Principled Negotiating (Summary)
3. Talk about interests. Acknowledge their interests as part of the problem. State the
problem before saying what your answer is. Look toward the future and not the
past.
4. Have a clear direction but be flexible in getting there. Be open to new ideas. Be
hard on the problem but soft on the people.
2.3 Invent options for mutual gain
1. There are four blocks to inventing options for mutual gain:
- premature judgement;
- searching for a single answer;
- assuming that negotiations is a fixed sum game;
- thinking that ‘solving their problem is their problem’.
2. Separate inventing options from judging and deciding. Brainstorm about potential
options. Broaden options by moving from general to specific and back; taking
different perspectives; creating agreements of different strengths and changing
the scope of the agreement (fractionate into smaller problems).
3. Look for mutual gain by identifying shared interests. Dovetail differing interests by
identifying them (ask about preferences) and see if an agreement can be reached
based on these differences.
4. Make their decision easy. Focus on one individual. Create options that will be easy
to choose and with consequences that are acceptable.
2.4 Insist on using objective criteria
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1. The value of objective criteria is that it is cheaper than a contest of wills. In additon
it brings standards of fairness, efficiency or scientific merit to bear on the decision.
2. Develop objective criteria by finding alternative standards for deciding. The
standards should be independent of each side's will. An alternative to fair
standards is to develop fair procedures for reaching an agreement.
3. Negotiating with objective criteria contains three steps:
- frame each issue as a joint search for objective criteria;
- reason and be open to reason as to which standards are most appropriate and
how they should be applied;
- never yield to pressure; only to principle.
4. Do not yield to pressure in any of its forms: bribes, threats, manipulative appeal to
trust, or refusal to change positions.
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