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processes you need to undergo to be able to persuade the other party to accede to
your proposal or to your idea. Almost everyday, we try to negotiate, like going out
with friends and deciding where to hang out or where to eat.
In the book of William Ury, entitled Getting to Yes, the author enumerated
and explained different steps and techniques to take when trying to negotiate with
another person and to come up with a mutually acceptable agreement that neither
leaves the parties dissatisfied, worn out, or alienated.
about what they have done that may have caused the conflict. Attack the problem
without blaming the people. Go even further and be personally supportive: Listen to
them with respect, show them courtesy, express your appreciation for their time
and effort, emphasize your concern with meeting their basic needs, and so on. Show
them that you are attacking the problem, not them. 7
Invent Options for Mutual Gain
The most important skill that a good negotiator must have is his creativeness
at inventing options. In deciding for a solution to the problem, you should be open
to suggestions and be good at creating options. You should separate inventing from
deciding. Inventing ideas would require you to think about things that are not
already in your mind. Creating options would be best in a brainstorming session
where all the parties participate in inventing ideas. Do not be too
compartmentalized from having to think of a solution that would instantly address
the problem. The more options you have, the better your solution would be that
would satisfy both the parties interests. Deciding should follow after the parties had
already generated different options.
Before inventing options, you must first define your purpose, think of what it
is that you want to achieve in the meeting. In a large group with quiet a number of
people, it is best to choose only a few participants in the brainstorming session,
usually large enough to provide a stimulating interchange, yet small enough to
encourage both individual participation and free-wheeling inventing 8. It would as
well be helpful to design an informal atmosphere where the parties at home with
each other, it would help them generate more ideas and options if the parties feel
comfortable with each other.
Insist on Using Objective Criteria
To arrive at a mutually agreeable solution, decision must be based on some
objective criteria which should be independent of each of the parties will. After the
parties brainstorming session, a lot of options have been invented, now its time to
choose from one of those options. Agree with the other party that the decision be
based on reasonableness and fairness, like when you try to bargain with the price of
a house you want to buy, insist that the price be based on its market value or the
same with the price with other houses similarly situated. Insist that the negotiation
be based on the merits, in this manner you can bring others around to playing that
game, since that becomes the only way to advance their substantive interests.
Shifting the discussion in a negotitation from the question of what the other side is
willing to do to the question of how the matter ought to be decided provides fro a
strategy you can vigorously pursue without the high cost of positional bargaining.
Develop Your BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement)
7 Ibid., 30
8 Ibid., 33
The reason why you negotiate is to produce something better than the results
you can obtain without negotiating. Developing your BATNA would help you become
flexible in negotiation, you BATNA is you alternative when negotiation fails. This is
something you can use to avoid accepting terms that are hardly acceptable to you.
It helps you compare a proposal with your other alternatives, so you may not end up
accepting terms that are too unfavorable. When negotiating, always prepare or
develop your BATNA, this will help you gain more confidence in negotiating, most
especially you have developed an attractive BATNA. You can always tell the other
party that its perfectly fine if they dont accede to your proposal, anyway there are
still others waiting in line with better offers. The danger however with being too
confident with your BATNA is when you have made an unreasonable stretch price
that you end up taking out your product off the market without anyone having
accepted your terms for being too unreasonable.
In every negotiation, always remember to prepare and develop your BATNA.
Avoid positional bargaining by shifting the game, ask the other party what is it that
he wants and why he wants it. Always focus on interests and needs. A wise
agreement is one based on fairness and reasonableness and one that satisfies the
parties interest.