Annie's Reading Room
We have been learning so many good techniques, but in the
process of negotiating, you are bound to run into people who don’t “play nice.”
Thus begins the first of three chapters with the overarching theme of…
"Yes, But…"
What if they are more
powerful?
Of what use is talking about interests, options, and
standards if the other side has a stronger bargaining position? What do you do
if the other side it richer or better connected, or if they have a larger staff
or more powerful weapons?
Protect yourself
In response to power, the most any method of negotiation can
do is to meet two objectives: first,
to protect you against making an agreement you should reject and second, to help you make the most of the
assets you do have so that any agreement you reach will satisfy your interests
as well as possible.
The costs of using a
bottom line. Having a bottom line makes it easier to resist pressure and
temptations of the moment. However, the protection afforded by adopting a
bottom line involves high costs. It
limits your ability to benefit from what you learn during negotiation. By
definition, a bottom line is a position that is not to be changed. To that
extent you have shut your ears, deciding in advance that nothing the other
party says could cause you to raise or lower that bottom line.
A bottom line also inhibits imagination. It reduces the
incentive to invent a tailor-made solution that would reconcile differing
interests in a way more advantageous for you and them.
Is there an alternative?
 |
| "Yes, But..." |
Know your BATNA. If
you’ve been around the business-world block, you’ve probably heard the
acronym BATNA, or, your Best Alternative
to a Negotiated Agreement. The reason
you negotiate is to produce something better than the results you can obtain without negotiating. That’s your BATNA. That
is the standard against which any proposed agreement should be measured.
The insecurity of an
unknown BATNA. In most circumstances, the danger is being too committed to
reaching agreement. Not having developed any alternative to a negotiated
solution, you are unduly pessimistic about what would happen if negotiations
broke off.
Formulate a trip wire. This is to give you early warning that the
content of a possible agreement is beginning to run the risk of being too
unattractive. A trip wire should provide you with some margin in reserve. If
after reaching the standard reflected in your trip wire you decide to call in a
mediator, you have left him something on your side to work with.
Making the most of your assets
Protecting yourself against a bad agreement is one thing.
Making the most of the assets you have to produce a good agreement is another.
How do you do this? Again, the answer lies in your BATNA.
The better your BATNA,
the greater your power. People think of negotiating power as being
determined by resources like wealth, political connections, physical strength,
friends, and military might. In fact, relative negotiating power of two parties
depends primarily upon how attractive to each is the option of not reaching an
agreement.
Develop your BATNA.
Generating BATNAs requires three distinct operations: 1) inventing a list of
actions you might conceivably take if no agreement is reached; 2) improving
some of the more promising ideas and converting them into practical
alternatives; and 3) selecting, tentatively, the one alternative that seems
best.
Consider the other
side’s BATNA. The more you can learn about their alternatives, the better
prepared you are for negotiation. Their BATNA may be better for them than any
fair solution you can imagine. If both sides have attractive BATNA’s, the best
outcome of the negotiation – for both parties – may be not to reach agreement.
When the other side is powerful
If the other side has big guns, you do not want to turn a
negotiation into a gunfight. The stronger they appear in terms of physical or
economic power, the more you benefit by negotiating on the merits.
I’m particularly looking forward to next week’s chapter.
Question: What if they Won’t Play?
Answer: Use Negotiation Jujitsu
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