N12: Best Practices in Negotiation

Negotiation is an important part of everyday life and the opportunities to negotiate surround us. For the last chapter, we are discussing 10 ‘best practices’ for negotiators who wish to continue to improve their negotiation skills.

1. Be prepared. Negotiators need to plan and be prepared properly for their negotiations to get the ability to analyze the other party’s more effectively and efficiently as well as to understand the nuances of the concession-making process, and to achieve their negotiation goals. Negotiators have to understand their goal and interest before negotiating and be ready to understand the other party’s communication in order to find an agreement that meets the needs of both parties.

2. Diagnose the fundamental structure of the negotiation. Negotiators should make a conscious decision about whether they are facing a fundamentally distributive negotiation, an integrative negotiation, or a blend of the two, and choose their strategies and tactics that lead to successful negotiation outcomes.

3. Identify and work the BATNA. BATNA is the best alternative to a negotiated agreement. It is very important because it is an option that likely will be chosen should an agreement not be reached. Negotiators need to be vigilant about their BATNA.

4. Be willing to walk away. The goal of most negotiations is achieving a values outcome, not reaching an agreement per se. Strong negotiators remember this and are willing to walk away from a negotiation when no agreement is better than a poor agreement.

5. Master the key paradoxes of Negotiation. Excellent negotiators should understand that negotiation composes of a set of paradoxes -- seemingly contradictory elements that actually occur together. Negotiators need to handle these paradoxes by striving for balance in these situations.

6. Remember the intangibles. Negotiators need to remember that intangible factors influence their own behavior. Strong emotions and values are the root of many intangibles, so surfacing intangibles may result in the discussion of various fears and anxieties. Therefore, negotiators need to be aware of how both tangible and intangibles factors influence negotiation, and they weigh both factors when evaluating a negotiation outcome.

7. Actively Manage coalitions. Negotiators should recognize three types of coalitions and their potential effects. Strong negotiators assess the presence and strength of coalitions and work to capture the strength of the coalition for their benefit.

8. Savor and protect your reputation.  Negotiators should start negotiation with a positive reputation and should be vigilant in protecting their reputations. Moreover, negotiators should enhance their reputation by acting in a consistency and fair manner. Strong negotiators always seek feedback from others about the way they are perceived and use that information to strengthen their credibility and trustworthiness in the marketplace.

9. Remember that rationality and fairness are relative. Negotiators need to be aware that people tend to view the world in a self-serving manner and define the “rational” thing to do or a “fair” outcome or process in a way that benefit themselves. To manage these perceptions proactively, negotiators need to question their own perceptions of fairness, find external benchmarks and examples that suggest fair outcomes. Lastly, negotiators should illuminate definitions of fairness held by the other party and engage in a dialogue to reach consensus on which standards of fairness apply in a given situation.

10. Continue to learn from your experience. The best negotiators continue to learn from the experience. There are many different variables and factors which make each negotiation different. These differences and learning enhance the ability to negotiate and make negotiators remain sharp. Negotiators should take a moment to analyze each negotiation after it has concludes to review what happened and what they learned. Negotiators should realize  their own strengths and weaknesses and develop a plan to work on weaknesses and become a better negotiators in the future.