Negotiating for
Win-Win
Interest-Based Negotiation
CASFAA Conference, 2008
Anaheim, CA
Presented by Natasha Kobrinsky
Pepperdine University
Graziadio School of Business and Management
Do You Negotiate?!
Session Objectives
 Recognize
your negotiation skills
 Understand the negotiation process
 Enhance your negotiation skills by using the
interest-based approach and mediation
techniques
What is Negotiation?
It’s a power imbalance
 It’s a discussion intended to produce an
agreement
 It’s a process to resolve disputes
 It’s a process of learning and discovery
 It’s a process of bargaining for individual
or organizational advantages

Approaches to Negotiation

Positions are tangible items people say
they want

Interests are the things one cares about
and wants
Approaches to negotiation

Negotiations could be right-based

Power-based

Interests-based
Negotiation Outcomes

Win-Lose

Lose-Lose

Win-Win
Criteria to compare negotiation
outcomes:
Transaction cost
 Satisfaction with outcomes
 Effect on the relationship
 Recurrence of disputes

Interest-Based Negotiation
vs. Distributive Negotiation
Creating a free flow of information
 Attempting to understand the Other Party’s
real needs and Objectives
 Searching for Solutions that meet the
goals and objectives of both sides
 Crafting an outcome for mutual interests

Identify and define the real
issues/problems
Understand what drives the negotiation
and
 What drives the negotiator
 Define the issues in a mutually acceptable
way

Determine your and your
opponents’ real interests
Substantive interests- economic
and financial issues
 Process interests
 Relationship interests
 Interests in principle

Establish your goal

Best outcome
Good enough outcome
 Tolerable outcome
 Get ready to compromise

Plan & Prepare

Determine your walk-away point
(resistance point)

Determine your BATNA and WATNA (best
and worst alternatives to negotiations )
Plan & Prepare

Learn about your opponents
 Their
personality
 Their background, culture
 Their personal situation

Look for precedents
Plan & Prepare





Determine your and your opponents’
strengths
Consider your and your opponents’
weaknesses
Identify the risk factor and try to remove it
Identify the barriers and try to remove
them
Consider the impact of deadlines
Plan & Prepare
Develop alternative solutions:
 Generate as many options & packages as
possible to make the pie larger

Depersonalize the problem





Separate the problem definition from the search
for solution
Build trust
Do not use threats
Remove emotional barriers for the opponents
Show respect (Lack of respect triggers the
majority of legal actions)
Propose
Try not to go first with an offer
 Give a reasonable offer
 Be prepared to change it

Propose & Probe
What if …
 Why not …
 What would you suggest …

Ask Questions
Use open-ended questions to get more
information
 Use close-ended questions to force the
other party into seeing things your way
 The less you say, the more you hear

Influence the other party’s
resistance point but …
Be ready to change your position
 Concession-making indicates an
acknowledgement of other party and a
movement toward the other’s position.
 Flexibility keeps your negotiation going

Listen
Use active listening techniques: restate,
paraphrase other party’s statements
 Take notes
 Discover the other party’s outcome values,
resistance point, motives and etc.
 The opponents’ answers are the best
guides

Make Counterproposal



Try to increase the real or potential
rewards of a transaction for opponents
Align organizational & personal
incentives
Motivation & incentives will increase a
chances of making a deal
Trade
Exchange terms or items
 Trade something you value less for
something you value more

Factors that facilitate successful
interest-based negotiation







Some common objective or goal
Faith in one’s problem-solving ability
Belief in the validity of one’s own position
and the other’s perspective
Motivation
Commitment to work together
Trust
Clear and accurate communication
Achieving closure
It’s important to know when to “shut up” and
reduce the agreement to written form.
Key steps for interest-based
negotiation
Identify
and define the real issues
Define the problem in a mutually
acceptable way for both sides
Depersonalize the problem
Set mutual goals
Separate a search for mutually
beneficial solutions from problem
definition
Key steps for interest-based
negotiation






Establish trust and positive feeling that are
likely to lead to an integrative outcome
Advantages of moving beyond positions to
real interests
Learn to expend the “pie” by looking for
alternative solutions
Bargain for individual advantages
Craft outcomes for mutual interests
The best way to get what you want is to give
the opponents what they want
People say YES to people they like!