Getting to Yes

in
your negotiations
a summary
 Agenda
 The Problem
◦ Positions
 The Method
◦ 1. Separate people from problem
◦ 2. Focus on interests, not positions
◦ 3. Invent options for mutual gain
◦ 4. 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
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.
The Method
1. 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
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
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
Concentrate on Communication

 Listen actively and acknowledge

 Speak to be understood

 Speak about you, not them

 Speak for a purpose

Start before problems arise

 Build a working relationship immediately

 Focus on the problem, not them

2.Focus on interests not positions

 Reconcile
interests

 Identifytheir
interests

 Talkopenly about
interests
Reconcile Interests
 Interests define the problem

 Behind positions lie interests

 Interest categories
◦ Compatible
◦ Shared
◦ Conflicting
Identify their interests

 Ask “Why?”
 Ask “Why not?”
◦ What are their other choices?

 Multiple interests

 Interests: the power of basic human

needs
 Making lists
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
3.Invent options for mutual gain

 Diagnosing the
problem

 Solving
the
problem
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.
Prescription methods

 Separate inventing
from deciding
 Broaden your options
 Look for mutual gains
 Make their decision
easy
Separate inventing from deciding

◦ Before brainstorming
◦ During brainstorming
◦ After brainstorming
◦ Helping them brainstorm
1.
2.
Invent Options First Decide which is best
3.
4.
5.
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)
Circle Chart for Inventing Options

Step II: Analysis Step III: Approaches

Sort symptoms into groups Possible strategies

Possible causes Theoretical fixes

What’s missing Broad ideas about what to do

Barriers to solving

Step I: Problem Step IV: Action Ideas

What’s wrong? What specific steps
Symptoms? Goals
Reality vs Desired Future Verify
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?
Make their decision easy

 Whose shoes?

 What decision?

 When
threatening is not
enough
4. 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
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
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
Developing objective criteria
Fair standards
◦ Market value
◦ Precedent
◦ Scientific judgments
◦ Professional standards
◦ Efficiency
◦ Costs
◦ Court decisions
◦ Equal treatment
• Criteria need to be independent of each side’s will
• Legitimate and practical
Fair procedures
◦ Cut and choose
◦ not knowing your part
◦ Taking turns
◦ Letting a third party
decide
◦ Choosing the last best
offer
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.

The joint search for objective criteria
 What is fair to both sides?

 What is your theory about what is

fair?

 Agree first on principles.

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
Never yield to pressure
 Pressure to yield takes
many forms
◦ Bribes
◦ Threats

 Question the process,

look for objective criteria

 This is why you have a

BATNA!!!!
Yes, but…
Yes, but . . .

What if they

◦ Are more powerful?

◦ Won’t negotiate?
◦ Won’t negotiate fairly?
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.
What if they are more powerful?
 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
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.
Negotiation jujitsu
 The typical attack has
three parts;
◦ Aggressively asserting
their own position
◦ Attack your ideas!
◦ Attack you!
Negotiation jujitsu
 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
What if they won’t negotiate fairly?
◦ Deliberate deception ◦ Questionable intentions of
the other side
 Unless you have good
reason to trust someone,  Make your doubts public
don’t trust them.  Negotiate assurances in
 Check facts, assertions, the agreement
etc. ◦ Creating purposely stressful
◦ Unclear authority situations
 Making you think they  Acknowledge the
stressors and ask for
have power to decide some adjustments
 Asking you to concede but ◦ Personal attacks
claiming they don’t have
power  Recognize it and call it to
 Before you begin, ask how their attention
much authority they have ◦ Threats
to make the decisions.  Recognize and call
attention to it. Treat as
pressure.