Negotiating Your Way to Yes,

No or Maybe
Joanne Kossuth, Franklin W Olin
College of Engineering
Agenda
Negotiation and Communication
Negotiation Styles
Impact of Emotions
Culture and Context
Sharing Examples and Practical
Approaches
Implementation
Negotiation
Negotiation is a dialogue
 intended to resolve disputes
 to produce an agreement upon
courses of action
 to bargain for individual or group
advantage
 to craft outcomes to satisfy various
interests
It is the primary method of alternative
dispute resolution.
Negotiation
Negotiation involves three basic
elements:
 Process;
 Behavior;
 Substance.
Process
Process:
How the parties negotiate;
 Context;
 Parties involved;
Tactics used;
 Sequence and stages;
Anything missing?
Behavior
Behavior involves:
 Relationships among the parties;
 Communication;
 Styles.
Substance
What is negotiated:
Price
Terms
Employment
Process
Timelines
Others?
Where?

Where do you NEGOTIATE?

Examples?
Do the Negotiation….
Exercise 1
Take one of the index cards at the table
and write down four words that mean
negotiation to you.
Pair up with one person at your table.
Discuss your reasons for your words.
More instructions to come.
Getting to Yes
Four fundamental principles of
negotiation:
1) separate the people from the
problem;
2) focus on interests, not positions;
3) invent options for mutual gain; and
4) insist on objective criteria.
Rule 1:People vs. Problem
People problems, Fisher, Ury and Patton
(Getting to Yes) observe, tend to involve
problems of perception, emotion, and
communication.
Perceptions define the problem and the
solution.
There is an "objective reality," that is
interpreted differently by some.
Different understandings of the dispute
means effective negotiation may be
very difficult to achieve.
7 Steps
See the situation from your opponent's
perspective.
Don't deduce your opponent's intentions
from your own fears.
Avoid blaming your opponent for the
problem.
Discuss each other's perceptions.
Seek opportunities to act inconsistently
with your opponent's misperceptions.
7 Steps
Give your opponent a stake in the
outcome by making sure they
participate in the negotiation process.
Make your proposals consistent with the
principles and self-image of your
opponent.
Communication Problems
Consider communication problems to be
"people problems" as well.
Disputants may not be talking to each
other.
Grandstanding or playing to the
crowd.
Parties are not listening to each other.
May be planning their own response,
or listening to their own constituency.
When parties are both listening and
talking to each other,
misunderstandings and
Rules 2 and 3: Negotiate about
Interests
Rule 2:
Negotiating about things that people
really want and need, not what they say
that want or need.
Rule 3:
By focusing on interests, disputing
parties can more easily fulfill the third
principle--invent options for mutual gain.
Rule 4
Insist on objective criteria for decisions.
Rule 4A: BATNAs
Know what their alternatives are.
If no alternatives:
You might accept an agreement that is
far worse than the one you might have
gotten, or
 Reject one that is far better than you
might otherwise achieve.
Brainstorming
Establish common goals of what this
"collaboration" would create.
Establish the rules of engagement.
Trust is key, and difficult to establish in
many cultures.
Add diversity (gender, culture,
extroverts, different work specialties,
experts, outsiders) to the group.
Use storytelling to establish who you are
and what point of view you are bringing.
Brainstorm ii

Work in small groups. Add physical

movement.
Work holistically and using visuals.
Sleep on it.
Doing this process over several sessions
allows both sides to feel that progress is
being made. (synthesize positively)
It is the process of creating something
together, which creates bonding around
a shared task and establishes new ways
of working together.
Spectrum of Styles
Competitive Approach
The basic assumption of competitive
negotiation is that it is a 'zero sum
game'.
 The people involved believe that there
is a fixed amount to be gained which
both people desire, and if one person
gains then the other person loses.
Win-lose
Competitive Approach
The relationship between the people is
unimportant.
To show concern for the other is to show
weakness that may be taken advantage
of.
This can lead disingenuous interactions.
Does this correlate to any specific
communication types?
Competitive Approach
Only consider win-lose negotiation if you
don't need to have an ongoing
relationship with the other party as,
having lost, they are unlikely to want to
work with you again.
Collaborative Approach
Does not mean being weak and giving
in.
Seeks to gain the best possible solution.
Transparency and trust are key.
You may not give away all of your
information but deceptive practices
need to be curtailed if trust is to be
gained.
Collaborative Approach
The need to achieve their immediate
substantive goals while also keeping
within social norms and personal values.
Understand the other person's natural
negotiating style and the degree of
movement into gray areas that they will
expect or accept.
When you have identified the style
boundaries in which they negotiate,
then you can adapt your style to find an
optimally effective solution.
Joint Approach
Seeks to convert individual wants into a
single problem and to bring both parties
together to work on solving this
problem.
By converting individual positions and
wants into separated problems, one can
take a more objective and equitable
position from which they can act in a
more collaborative way.
Context: Global
Diplomacy and tact
International negotiation takes very
careful notice of local cultures and
customs, and is conducted with
remarkable diplomacy and tact.
It is easy also to offend people from
other cultures without realizing what you
are doing. Body Language, and
particularly gestures, can have very
different meaning.
Global Rules
Ten new rules for global negotiations
advocated by Hernandez and Graham:
Accept only creative outcomes.
Understand cultures, especially your
own.
Don’t just adjust to cultural differences,
exploit them.
Gather intelligence and reconnoiter the
terrain.
Global Rules
Design the information flow and process
of meetings.
Invest in personal relationships.
Persuade with questions. Seek
information and understanding.
Make no concessions until the end.
Use techniques of creativity
Continue creativity after negotiations.
Tactics Exercise
Pick 2 of the tactics on the handout.
Think about how the tactics might be used.
Think about the pros and cons of the tactics.
Discuss with your table what types of
negotiations
the tactics might be best associated with.
Report out to the group on one of the tactics,
where it might be best used and the pros
and cons.
Note: some negotiation may be necessary 
Advantage Pre-negotiation
Competitiveness and Equality
Simulated negotiations can be viewed
as a kind of experimental economics
wherein the values of each participating
cultural group are roughly reflected in
the economic outcomes.
Pre-negotiation
Howard Raiffa[4] and his colleagues
recommend: …the teams should think
and plan together informally and do
some joint brainstorming, which can be
thought of as “dialoguing” or
“prenegotiating.”
Getting your ducks in a row
Pre-negotiation
Think through the following points before you
start negotiating:
Goals
Trades
Alternatives
Relationships
Expected outcomes
The consequences
Power
Possible solutions
Quick Review
Negotiation: process, behavior, substance
Getting to Yes; people problems and
communication problems
Negotiate about interests
Approaches: collaborative, competitive,
joint
BATNAs
Global implications
Tactics and pre-negotiation
Now on to managing conflicts that arise