COMMUNICATING SUCCESSFULLY

Nadina Visan Motto: “You don’t get what you deserve in life, you
CLOE, 2009 get what you negotiate.” (Anonymous)

TOPICS OF DISCUSSION:

1) A definition of ‘negotiation’
2) Types of negotiation; the ‘win-win’ type; interpretive errors (the Wissman paradox and the
Green Conundrum)
3) Principled Negotiation: the ‘four-rules’ model: people/problem, interests/position, options,
objective criteria
4) Stages of Negotiation
5) BATNA (Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement)
6) Language of Negotiation (description, common errors, tips)

INTRODUCTORY APPLICATIONS:

1) a telephone script (read the script and comment on it):

Collector: “Mr. Ionescu, I’m calling from Extrafon about your bill.”
Customer: “I’m very busy. Which bill is this and how much do I owe?”
Collector: “It’s for the wireless service we provided last month.”
Customer: “I have two accounts with Extrafon – one for personal use, one for the business.
Which one is this?”
Collector: “This is your business account. Are you still located at Str. Berzei 13?”
Customer: “Yes, but how much do I owe?”
Collector: “You owe 600 lei for calls made between June 15 th and July 15th.”
Customer: “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”
Collector: “Yes. You owe 600 lei for calls between June 15 th and July 15th , and payment must be
made within the next six days.”
Customer: “Oh. I can’t pay you till my customers pay me.”
Collector: “Then your outbound calls will be restricted.”
Customer: “But my customers won’t pay till the 30th…”

2) a parking notice (re-write this notice):

This vehicle is parked on private property. The make, model and license number have been
recorded. If this improper parking is repeated a second time this vehicle will be towed to
Klempner Brothers where the interior will be removed by fire and the auto will be compressed
into a scrap cube approximately 1 ½’ x 3’. The cube will be shipped (freight collect) to your
home for use as a coffee table and to serve as a constant reminder not to park on private property.

3) another telephone script (imagine a second phone call and act it with your deskmate):

MOTHER: Hello, Pat! Do you know who this is? It’s your…
PAT: Gee, Mom, how are you? I’ve been meaning to call.
MOTHER: It’s okay – you don’t have to call me. I’m only your mother. Why should you have to
spend a dime?
PAT: Aw, Mom, c’mon. I’ve been very busy at work. How do you feel?
MOTHER: How does a person my age feel? Listen, I am celebrating your twenty-ninth birthday
this Saturday night and have invited my best friends from the club to meet you. I’ve ordered a
beautiful cake and bought your favourite food, so…
PAT: But moth-er, I intended to go away this weekend. I told you about –
MOTHER: You mean you can’t find a few hours on your busy schedule for me?
PAT: No, it’s not that. it’s just that I’ve planned this trip and have made –
MOTHER: All right, Pat, I understand. I’m sorry to bother you. I’ll just tell my friends that you
are too busy for me.
PAT: Please, Mom – I’m not saying that.
MOTHER: No, I understand. Don’t concern yourself about me. I’ll manage somehow. After all,
no law says a child has to see his mother.

4) a story (read it and try to explain the underlined phrase):

My daughter Amy mastered the rejection-then-retreat strategy at the age of three. She quickly
learned that I would typically limit her expectations on our trips to McDonald’s by telling her she
could order one item, and one item only. Generally she chose a burger. She didn’t think this was
at all fair, so on later visits she tried negotiation. It usually started, “Daddy, I’m really hungry
today. I would really love a burger, chips, and a Coke.” I would reply, “No, Amy. You can’t have
three items. You can have two.”
I later learned that when she stayed at her grandparents, she opened negotiations at an even higher
level, asking for four items – adding an apple pie to her request. Grandparents, I’ve discovered,
are much more gullible.

5) another story (comment on the strategy employed and on the outcome):

An actor, negotiating a contract with movie mogul Sam Goldwyn, demanded fifteen hundred a
week. ‘You’re not asking fifteen hundred a week,’ snapped back Goldwyn, ‘you’re asking
twelve hundred and I’m giving you a thousand.’

References:
Cohen, H., 1980. You Can Negotiate Anything, Bantam Books
Fisher, R., Ury, B., Patton, W., 1991.Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving in,
Penguin Books
Fisher, R. & Danny Ertel, 1995. The “Getting to Yes” Workbook. Penguin Books
Jackman, A., 2004, How to Negotiate, Hamlyn
Kennedy, G., 2004, Negotiation, The Economist Newspaper
McNary, L., 2003. The term "win-win" in conflict management: a classic case of misuse and
overuse. In The Journal of Business Communication. Volume: 40. Issue: 2.
Mills, H. 2000. Artful Persuasion. AMACOM Books.
Mulholland, J., 1991. The Language of Negotiation: A Handbook of Practical Strategies for
Improving Communication, Routledge.
Saner, R., 2005. The Expert Negotiator: Strategy, Tactics, Motivation, Behaviour, Leadership,
Martinus Nijhoff