1. Negotiating 101

2. Agenda The Problem The Method Yes, But. . . Summing up Positions
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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. Concentrate on communication
Listen actively and acknowledge
Speak to be understood
Speak about you, not them
Speak for a purpose

8. Start before problems arise
Build a working relationship immediately
Focus on the problem, not them

9. Focus on interests not positions
Reconcile interests
Identify their interests
Talk openly about interests

10. Reconcile Interests Interests define the problem
Behind positions lie interests
Interest categories
Compatible
Shared
Conflicting

11. 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

12. 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

13. Invent options for mutual gain
Diagnosing the problem
Solving the problem

14. 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.

15. Prescription methods Separate inventing from deciding
Broaden your options
Look for mutual gains
Make their decision easy

16. Separate inventing from deciding
Before brainstorming
During brainstorming
After brainstorming
Helping them brainstorm 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Invent Options First
Decide which is best

17. 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)

18. Circle Chart for Inventing Options
Step III: Approaches
Possible strategies
Theoretical fixes
Broad ideas about what to do
Step II: Analysis
Sort symptoms into groups
Possible causes
What’s missing
Barriers to solving
Step I: Problem
What’s wrong?
Symptoms?
Reality vs Desired Future
Step IV: Action Ideas
What specific steps
Goals
Verify

19. 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?

20. Make their decision easy
Whose shoes?
What decision?
When threatening is not enough

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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.

26. The joint search for objective criteria
What is fair to both sides?
What is your theory about what is fair?
Agree first on principles.

27. 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

28. 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!!!!

29. Yes, but . . . What if they are more powerful? won’t negotiate?
won’t negotiate fairly?

30. 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

31. 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.

32. 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

33. 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.

34. Questions?