Negotiation

By Bob Chan
Agenda
1. Definition of negotiation
2. Negotiation basics
3. Negotiators in police force
What is negotiation?
There are no “absolute” definition of
negotiation as the place, time and
personnel are various. However, different
definitions share some common
characteristics:
 Negotiation is a process
 Two or more stakeholder parties are having
discussion on issues
 Strive through the exchange and structuring of
information
What is negotiation? (Cont’d)
 Come to an effective behavior binding (mutual)
agreement
 Parties share common problems and conflicts

Inconclude, negotiation is a process by which

two parties communicate with each other in
order to reach an outcome on which they
mutually agree.
Why need negotiation?
Misconceptions:
Negotiate only occurs in serious or
important situations.
Only professional negotiators can get on
the table.
Why need negotiation? (Cont’d)
Facts:
 Negotiations can also be personal and
happen in daily life (e.g. marriage,
parenting, etc)
 Everyone can negotiate upon receive
training (by means of attitude, techniques,
etc)
Negotiation basics
3 essential elements to begin
For any kind of negotiation, 3 requirement
should be fulfilled before getting started:
Both parties trust each other
Both parties are willing to exchange values
Both parties are willing to negotiate
Negotiation basics (Cont’d)
Negotiation process
◦ Preparation
◦ Establish relationship
◦ Present (information)
◦ Discuss and clarify
◦ Bargain and concession
◦ Agree
Preparation
Know yourself
Before you get started, you have to
understand the following:
 Your feelings
 Your point of view on negotiation
 Your condition
 Your negotiation practice
Preparation (Cont’d)
Know your enemy
The more you know about your enemy, the
more advantage you can get. We can
analyze another party by different
approaches:
 Identity
 Background
 Group (if any)
 Authorized to make decision
Preparation (Cont’d)
 Negotiation experience
 Habit
 Living/working environment
 Personality
 Way to react when under pressure
 Attitude
Preparation (Cont’d)
Self-assessment – negotiation style

 Recall what negotiation is.

 Answer all questions honestly.
 Interpretation guide will be distributed
later on.
This self-assessment is from:
William H. Holley, Kenneth M. Jennings, Roger S. Wolters,
The Labor Relations Process (8th edition), Cengage
Learning, 2008, ISBN 0324421443
Preparation (Cont’d)
There are 5 types of negotiating style
1. Avoider: dislikes conflict
2. Compromiser: fair-minded people
interested in maintaining relationships
3. Accommodator: resolve interpersonal
conflicts by resolving the other person’s
problem
4. Competitor: winning is the main thing
5. Collaborator: seeks to find the underlying
problem, use brainstorming to solve
Preparation (Cont’d)
If still cannot understand, please imagine:
 You are one of ten people at a conference
table, each person sitting across from
another
 Someone comes in the room and says “I
will give $1,000 to the first person who
can persuade the person sitting across
from them to come and stand behind
his/her chair.”
Preparation (Cont’d)
Different types of negotiators act differently:
1. Avoider: says I don’t want to play, look
foolish
2. Compromiser: both offering $500, starts
running to other side
3. Accommodator: runs to other side,
negotiates later
4. Competitor: sits tight, demands other
person move
5. Collaborator : “let’s both get behind each
others chairs, we can each make $1,000.”
Establish relationship
Determine the relationship between
parties
There are two approaches in negotiations:
1. Relationship > Outcome
◦ Couple discuss for dining place
2. Outcome > Relationship
◦ Property trading
Establish relationship (Cont’d)
Building trust
As mentioned in the last section, trust is
vital to negotiation. Don’t worry, we only
need basic trust here by doing the following:
 Listen to others carefully and patiently
 Observe non-verbal messages
Remember, showing your sincereness
through the actions above, and trust is easy
to establish.
Establish relationship (Cont’d)
Power
In a negotiation, power means the influence
you can cast on counterparts, here are
some examples:
 Position/Post
 Information
 Knowledge/Expertise
 Character
Establish relationship (Cont’d)
There are different aspects regarding to
negotiation power, and they will become
handy:
Relative
Limited
Change over time
Either real or apparent
Only exist when being accepted
Establish relationship (Cont’d)
Goals
Setting goals is important, yet simple, the
easiest way to describe is upper and lower
limit, which represent the ideal and worst
outcome (also called reservation price).
 Establish relationship (Cont’d)
The main arena of negotiation is around the
Zone of possible Agreement (ZOPA), which
is the difference between the reservation
price of both sides, for example:

$250k $275k
ZOPA

Seller’s Buyer’s
Reservation Price Reservation Price
Establish relationship (Cont’d)
Of course, apart from setting personal goals,
you have to guess or even know what
counterparts concern. Like a war, you must
know enemy’s objective before deploying
strategies and units, there are no set rules.
Discuss and clarify
Negotiation is also a form of
communication. In this stage, both parties
are speaking and listening to strive for
achieving their goals, which acts an
important rule. On the other hand, there
will be stalemate if anyone handles it badly.
Discuss and clarify (Cont’d)
Listening
There are two kinds of listening skills which
usually used by negotiators:
 Attentive – used to extract the true
message of your counterparts
 Interactive – to achieve good
understanding of both messages and
feelings
Discuss and clarify (Cont’d)
Attentive listening skills
 Ask instead of speak
 Let counterpart finish his/her words first
 Drop down some notes
 Remain calm
 Look your counterpart in the eye
 Pay attention to non-verbal messages
 Do not get distracted
Discuss and clarify (Cont’d)
Interactive listening skills
 Clarify by using facilitative questions (i.e.
ask precise questions)
 Verifying information by paraphrasing
speaker’s words
 Reflecting by making remarks to reply and
show empathy to speaker’s feelings
Discuss and clarify (Cont’d)
Questioning
"You can tell whether a man is clever by his
answers. You can tell whether a man is
wise by his questions." (Naguib Mahfouz)
Every negotiators need to know how to
ask questions, and the best ones knows
asking proper questions in proper time.
Discuss and clarify (Cont’d)
Purpose of asking questions
 Gain information
 Check understanding and levels of
interest
 Determine behavior style
 Gain participation
 Give information
Discuss and clarify (Cont’d)
Proper questioning
 Set goal and plan
 Know your counterparts
 Narrowing the scope
 Ask in right timing
 Ask for permissions to ask
 Listen after you asked question
 Take notes
Discuss and clarify (Cont’d)
Non-verbal communication
We heavily rely on verbal communications
in our daily life. Actually, 90% of our
messages are delivered by non-verbal
means. And since many people are not
aware to these messages, communications
cannot carry out effectively and lead to
various misunderstanding
Discuss and clarify (Cont’d)
Emotions
Emotion is becoming more and more
important for negotiation in recent years.
Why? It is because no matter the emotion
is positive and negative, it directly affect the
decisions we are going to make, so as our
counterparts’.
Discuss and clarify (Cont’d)
Positive emotions Negative emotions
Reach more agreements Reduce joint outcomes
Enhance relationships Reducing level of trust
Creative problem solving Act as a warning (angry)
Less aggressive, more cooperative More competitive
Lowered judgment Lower demands by counterparts
(worry)
Actually there are no good or bad for both kinds of
emotion, for example, angry (as a negative emotion) can
make counterparts to make concessions more quickly in
order to avoid stalemate situations.
All in all, emotions is a kind of non-verbal language, as well
as a way to deploy tactics and strategies.
Bargain and concession
Offers and Concessions
Remember the word ZOPA? Yes, that is
what negotiators are going to reduce.
Before reaching the point, both side put out
their offers or make concessions.
Bargain and concession (Cont’d)
Offering
Make the first offer
Distract counterpart by an unreasonable
offer
Adding “value-added” elements
Threat the counterpart either accept the
offer or no more negotiation
Offering a "trial" of a product or service
Bargain and concession (Cont’d)
Concession
 Make concession on minor topics instead
of majors
 Trade off
 Make counterpart to cost a great deal to
gain your concession
 As late as possible
Bargain and concession (Cont’d)
Stalemate
This is a common occurrence in
negotiation process, which may caused by:
 An important item such as price/date
 Negative emotions
 Low level of trust
 Some strategies
Bargain and concession (Cont’d)
Way to break stalemate
 Pause/postpone
 Restart from the last agreement
 Import new information
 Change atmosphere
 Small concession
Interview
Interviewer: Bob Chan
Interviewee: Dr. Chan Chi Chuen
Ex-clinical psychologist of Hong Kong
Correctional Services
Ex-lecturer of Hong Kong Shue Yan
College and University of Hong Kong
Now teaching in University of Macau and
The Open University of Hong Kong
Further reading
 Roger Dawson, Secrets of Power Salary Negotiating:
Inside Secrets from a Master Negotiator, Career Press,
2006, ISBN 1564148602
 Ira Asherman, 50 Activities to Teach Negotiation, Human
Resource Developement Press, 1996, ISBN 0874253144
 Sandy Asherman, Pike Bob, Negotiation Sourcebook-2nd
Ed, Human Resource Developement Press, 2001, ISBN
0874256046
 Frank L. Acuff, How to negotiate anything with anyone
anywhere around the world, AMACOM Div American
Mgmt Assn, 1997, ISBN 0814479502
Works cited
 L. Nieuwmeijer. (1992). Negotiation: methodology and
training (pp.9). Pretoria: HSRC Press.
 Gerben A. van Kleef, Carsten K. W. De Dreu, and Antony
S. R. Manstead. (2004). The Interpersonal Effects of
Anger and Happiness in Negotiations. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 2004,Vol. 86, No. 1,
57–76. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.57
 Dr.Charles J.Kibert. (2006). Basics of Negotiation
[PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from University of
Florida. Website:
http://www.dcp.ufl.edu/ckibert/BCN4712/ManagementL
ectures/Lectures-Spring2005/NegotiationBasics-Kibert-
2006.ppt