Lesson 20: Introduction to Negotiation

What is negotiation? :

Negotiation is an interaction which includes the process of resolving disputes, agreeing upon courses of action, bargaining for individual or collective advantage, or crafting outcomes to satisfy various interests. It is an alternative form of dispute resolution.

In business: “Everything is negotiable”.


Techniques and skills that assist people in the negotiation process:

· Visualizing the end result
· Treating one’s opponent with respect and honesty
· Prepare ahead of time
· Aiming high
· Exhibiting confidence

Here are some preparatory questions to ask yourself before beginning talks with the other party:

· What is my main objective?
· What are all of the alternatives I can think of?
· Why do I deserve to have my goals met?
· What will my opponent's counter proposal likely consist of?
· How can I respond to this counter proposal?
· When would I like to have this issue resolved?
· What is my bottom-line?
· What market research/homework do I need to do to back up my cause?
· What is my bargaining power compared to my opponent's?
· What do I know about the principles of negotiating?

Collaborative Negotiating:

In business, the goal of negotiating parties should always be for mutual gain. This type of win-win negotiation is often called collaborative negotiating. The opposite of collaborative negotiating is called competitive negotiating.

The goal of competitive negotiating is for one party to win and the other to lose. Dishonest practices, such as lying, manipulation, intimidation, and bribery are often used in this type of negotiation.

We don't want competitive negotiation...

Main Principles of Collaborative Negotiating:

· Resolve previous conflicts ahead of time
· Deal with issues, not personalities
· Commit to listening more than speaking: The more you know about your counterpart, the more likely you will achieve your goals. You cannot convince someone of something when you do not know anything about them, or what their own needs are. A common mistake is to prepare one's next question or point while the opponent is speaking.
· Establish trust in the onset
· Develop a common goal
· Discuss a common enemy
· Take opponent's views/needs into careful consideration: Not only do you want to win this negotiation, you want your opponent to win as well, so that he or she will negotiate with you again in the future.


Here are a few golden rules to successful negotiations:

1) Always try to negotiate for at least 15 minutes. Any less than that and it is unlikely that either party has had enough time to fairly consider the other side. Generally, the size or seriousness of the negotiation determines the amount of time needed to negotiate it. Setting a time limit is a good idea. Approximately 90% of negotiations get settled in the last 10% of the discussion.

2) Always offer to let the other party speak first. This is especially important if you are the one making a request for something such as a raise. The other party may have overestimated what you are going to ask for and may actually offer more than what you were going to request.

3) Always respect and listen to what your opponent has to say. This is important even if he or she does not extend the same courtesy to you. Do your best to remain calm and pleasant even if the other party is displaying frustration or anger. Remember some people will do anything to intimidate you.

4) Acknowledge what the other party says. Everyone likes to know that what they say is important. If the other party opens first, use it to your advantage, by paraphrasing what you have heard. Repeat their important ideas before you introduce your own stronger ones.

5) Pay attention to your own and your counterpartner's body language. Review the chart below to learn how to interpret body language during the negotiations. Make sure that you aren't conveying any negative body language.

Body Language:

Body Language

Avoiding Eye Contact
· Lying
· Not interested
· Not telling the whole truth

Serious Eye Contact
· Trying to intimidate
· Showing anger

Touching the face/fidgeting
· Nervousness
· Lack of confidence
· Submission

Nodding
· Agreeing
· Willing to compromise

Shaking the head/turning away
· Frustrated
· In disbelief
· Disagreeing with a point

Activity: Negotiation stages

The negotiation process is very similar to the meeting process with objective, roles, agenda, procedures, timing, and closing.

However, there are a number of signals that indicate that negotiations are coming to a close. This may not always mean that an agreement has been reached. In many cases, there are many rounds of negotiations. The preliminary round may uncover the major issues, while subsequent rounds may be needed to discuss and resolve them. Here are some signals of talks coming to a close:

· A difference of opinion has been significantly reduced
· One party suggests signing an agreement.
· One or both parties indicate that a period of time to pause and reflect is necessary.


Beware of last-minute strong-arm tactics:

Even if you make the decision to treat your negotiating opponent with honesty and kindness, the other party may not extend you the same respect. Be prepared to stand your ground firmly, yet cordially, especially in the last few minutes of the negotiations.

This is the time when manipulative parties may employ certain tactics in order to try to fool you into losing focus or lowering goals and standards. Remember that conflicts are generally resolved in the last few minutes. The theory behind last minute tactics is that one party may be more willing to give in out of fear that all of the concessions or progress made up to that point (perhaps hours or weeks of talks) might be lost.

People also get tired or have other commitments that need to be met, such as making an important phone call before another business closes, or picking up children from school.

Here are some last minutes tricks that negotiators often use at this time:

· Walking out of the room
· Offering a short-term bribe
· Telling you to take it or leave it
· Giving an ultimatum
· Abrupt change in tone (used to shock the other party into submission)
· Introducing new requests (used at to get you to concede with little thought or consideration)
· Stating generalizations without evidence (dropped without significant statistics/proof)
· Adopting the Mr. Nice Guy persona (used to try to make it look like they are doing you a favour in hopes that you will lower your expectations)


Class Reading Activity: “What are good negotiators like?”

Read the article and answer the followings using true or false:

1. Neil Rackman is a negotiator.
2. Good negotiators spend more time planning their strategy before a negotiation.
3. Good negotiators argue, giving lots of reasons.
4. Good negotiators repeat the same arguments.
5. Good negotiators go back and check points again.


Grammar:

Go over exercise 3.2 and 17.3

Past Tense: (I did)
1. To talk about actions or situations in the past.
Mr. Brown enjoyed the party very much.
When Ms. Peterson lived in London, she worked in a bank.

2. In past questions and negatives, we use did/didn’t + base form verb.

Did it rain?
I didn’t enjoy the movie.


Past Continuous Tense: (I was doing)

1. To talk about someone who was in the middle of doing something at a certain time. The action or situation had already started before this time but hadn’t finished.

This time last year I was living in London.
What were you doing at 10 last night?

2. It does not tell us whether an action was finished or not. Perhaps it was finished, perhaps not.

Peter was cooking dinner.
Jane was doing her homework.

3. We use past continuous tense and simple past together to say that something happened in the middle of something else.

Dan burned his hand while he was cooking dinner.
It was raining when I got up.

4. But to say one happened after another, use simple past.

When Peter arrived, we were having dinner. (We had already started dinner before Peter arrived).

Compare to:

When Peter arrived, we had dinner. (Peter arrived and then we had dinner).

Compare simple past and past continuous tense:









Past Perfect Tense: (I had done)

1. To say that something had already happened before this time.

When I arrived at the party, Peter had already gone home.
When I got home, I found that someone had broken into my apartment and had stolen my money.

Past Perfect Continuous Tense: (I had been doing)

1. To say how long something had been happening before something else happened.

The soccer game had to be stopped. They had been playing for half an hour.
Ken had been smoking for 30 years when he finally gave it up.

2. Past perfect continuous tense is the past of the present perfect continuous tense.

Compare:
How long have you been waiting? (Until now)
How long had you been waiting when the bus finally came? (The whole scenario happened in the past)

Compare past continuous tense and past perfect continuous tense: