Successful Negotiator: Master in Agreements Negotiation
- 4.5
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Brief Introduction
Contracts, Sales, Salary, Prices, Conditions, and Agreements in General: Win-Win Approach to Negotiating DealsDescription
Principled Negotiation: Focus on Interests to Create Value
Principled negotiation, as described in the bestselling negotiation book Getting to Yes, encourages us to share and explore the deeper interests underlying our stated positions.
In this course, you will learn The Principled Negotiation Approach to negotiating agreements. Principled negotiation is an interest-based approach to negotiation that focuses primarily on conflict management and conflict resolution. Principled negotiation uses an integrative approach to finding a mutually shared outcome.
Principled negotiation is synonymous with the more popular phrase “Win-Win.” This phrase was originally taken from game theory. First explained in the book Getting to Yes, principled negotiation is used mostly in North America. Although the authors drew from various disciplines in their 1981 book Getting to Yes (including many lessons taken from NLP), many mediation practitioners and academics have subsequently contributed in answering the challenging question: how can we best achieve principled negotiation in many different contexts? The condensed result of these studies is presented in this course, Successful Negotiator: Master in Agreements Negotiation.
Inexperienced negotiators and even many experienced negotiators tend to assume they have a choice between two main strategies: negotiate in a tough, demanding manner or in a friendly, accommodating manner. In fact, there’s a better, third way of negotiating—one that doesn’t rely on toughness or accommodation, but that will improve your likelihood of meeting your negotiation goals. This course promotes principled negotiation, or negotiation on the merits, which is designed to produce wise outcomes efficiently and amicably.
The main principles of this approach to negotiation are:
Lesson 1. See First People, Then the Problem
Emotion, communication and perception can cloud the issue being negotiated. When negotiating, especially if you or the other person feels or perceives you are at a disadvantage, you will react with emotions such as fear or anger. Often, lack of communication causes negotiations to fall apart. People talk around each other or do not listen to what the other person says. Parties engaged in negotiations should put themselves in the other person’s situation and think of each other as partners not adversaries.
Lesson 2. Focus on Interests
Instead of focusing on your position on a subject, which implies other views on the same subject are inferior, principled negotiation suggests having discussion about common interests. First you must to identify the interests of each party regarding the issue. Ask them why they have a particular stance. Each party has a number of interests underlying their positions. Discuss these interests and stay focused on a solution.
Lesson 3. Generate Options for Mutual Gain
It is important to generate plenty of options for a possible solution. To do this, it’s also important to not judge the ideas. Some people refer to this as brainstorming, which can be an effective exercise in creativity. This activity is informal and should involve shifting your thinking among the tasks of stating the problem, analyzing it, taking general approaches, and considering specific actions. During the evaluation phase, start with the most promising ideas.
Lesson 4. Use Objective Criteria
Parties should use objective criteria when strong, direct opposition is present. Develop objective criteria that might include legal precedent, scientific studies and industry statistics. If both sides agree to the validity of the information and see it as a standard they can agree to, then it is objective.
Lesson 5. Obstacles to a Resolution
Not all negotiations result in a solution. Power, the use of dirty tricks and refusal of the other party to use principled negotiation all can kill a deal. When power is an issue, the weaker party should develop a best alternative to a negotiated agreement. This acts as an alternative to bottom-line thinking in which parties evaluate the worst possible outcome before negotiations start. The weaker party should turn down solutions that would be worse than their best alternative. Power in a negotiation comes from the ability to walk away from negotiations. When the other party doesn’t use principled negotiating, just keep at it. Don’t respond to attacks, direct them at the problem. Dirty tricks can muddy the negotiations too. Use the four principles of principled negotiation to establish ground rules for the negotiations.
Lesson 6. Develop your Alternatives
Negotiators should always understand their alternatives. Parties should never accept an agreement that is worse than the one they might have gotten or that may make them worse off than before negotiation. Understanding the alternative to a negotiated settlement allows the parties to manage more effectively differences in power and to understand that they are negotiating to produce something better than that alternative.
Principled negotiation is one of the most useful approaches to resolving a conflict. If the parties can achieve a positive relationship, the objective becomes one of finding common interests that can help generate options for mutual gain.
Bonus Materials:
Learn to manage emotions
Be sure that you and your counterpart have ample opportunities to express and discuss any strong emotions related to your negotiation. Allowing one another to speak your mind will benefit both sides. Freed from the burden of unexpressed emotions, people will become more likely to work on the problem.
Express appreciation
No one likes to feel unappreciated, and this is particularly true in a negotiation. Negotiators have to express appreciation by working to understand the other’s perspective, seeking merit in that perspective, and communicating understanding through words and actions—all critical negotiation skills.
Put a positive spin on your message
Communicating in a positive way is a much more effective means of getting to yes than blaming and criticizing.
Escape the cycle of action and reaction
Avoid the common negotiation trap of action and reaction. If the other side announces a firm position, you may be tempted to criticize and reject it. If they criticize your proposal, you may be tempted to defend it and dig yourself in. If they push you hard, you will tend to push back. Avoid escalation by refusing to react. Instead, channel our resistance into more productive negotiation strategies, such as exploring interests, inventing options for mutual gain, and searching for independent standards.
Note: The certificate of completion is now available. You are also very welcome to leave a positive review: I really hope you will like the course.
Requirements
- Requirements
- Common Sense
Life Skills Academy Copenhagen
4.5 Raiting
Negotiation A-Z™: Inside Secrets from a Master Negotiator
- 4.3
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Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. How To Get What You Want. Negotiating in Difficult Situations. **Course Updated - Oct 2018** How important is the need of negotiating?...
Successful Negotiator: Master in Agreements Negotiation
- 4.5
-
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Contracts, Sales, Salary, Prices, Conditions, and Agreements in General: Win-Win Approach to Negotiating Deals Principled Negotiation: Focus on Interests to Create Value...
