Brainstorm solutions.
• hat possible agreements or pieces of an agreement
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might satisfy all sides?
• What solutions can we propose?
Consider ways to legitimize the solutions.
• What external criteria might plausibly be relevant?
• What standards might a judge apply?
Identify commitments that each party can make.
• hat is our level of authority to make commitments?
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What is theirs?
• What are some illustrative, well-crafted commitments?
• What would be good products of this meeting?
Analyze the relationships in play and how important they are.
• hich relationships matter? How is each now? How would
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we like them to be?
• What can we do to bridge the gap at low cost and risk?
Plan your communication strategy.
• hat do we want to learn from them? How can we
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improve our listening?
• hat do we want to communicate? How can we do
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so persuasively?
• What are our agenda and plan for the negotiation?
• How should we handle inevitable disagreements?
Adapted from “Negotiation” by Bruce Patton. From The Handbook of Dispute Resolution,
Michael L. Moffit and Robert C. Bordone, eds. The Negotiation Project/Jossey-Bass, …show more content…
Our readers often learn from the successes of others. Can you give readers an example of what success looks like in a business context with each of the strategies? Strategy 1
Get the Big Picture
Start by soliciting the other person or group’s point of view, and use that understanding to shape the objectives of the negotiation and to determine how you’ll achieve those goals.
The situation. During a negotiation between a company and an alliance partner, one side was under tremendous pressure to renegotiate the financial terms of their underperforming partnership.
The assumption. Senior management had decided that it needed to change their partner’s incentives because they assumed their partner had lost interest in selling the jointly developed solution.
The strategy in action. After talking to the partner, it became apparent that they were very committed to the alliance and actively engaged in joint-account planning, sharing leads, and pursuing joint sales. They just weren’t successful in helping to sell the joint solution. In fact, the company’s partner was in the process of reducing the size of its direct sales force and had to reallocate much of its