Artykuły dot. negocjacji

Negotiation strategies

listopad 28, 2015 - Artykuły dot. negocjacji

Negotiator / Knowledge base  / Strategies

Negotiation strategies

A strategy is a plan for achieving a particular future. In our case, a successful agreement. In this article I will outline two strategies. Understanding the differences between them is an indispensable step towards the development of negotiation competencies. One could say it brings about a change in the way of thinking. Position-based Strategy comes down to shooting, pushing and defending. We shoot by making frequent offers, trying to find a term combination which will please our partner. We push by putting forward arguments (thus acting on the downside of relations and cornering our partner in a defense stance) and bargaining (an emotional process lacking considerations from all parties). We defend our position (because a reaction for an argument is defense), holding it firmly so as not to have it changed under any circumstances (this is interlinked to an egoistic paradigm, that our once established way of fulfilling our interests is the only and best way in the world). Subsequently, often barriers and tensions arise during the way to an agreement. Due to its character, this is a hard strategy. People with gentler psychic are susceptible to being ‘broken’, and could agree to terms which are undesirable. An agreement reached through this strategy is at a risk of being a compromise, meaning all parties are at a loss due to big concessions. This is caused by an inflexible approach to settling on terms. This strategy does not require much preparation, but will quite surely have poor effect on relationships. Interest-based Strategy is sometimes referred to as problematic because a negotiator approaches the process to finding an agreement similarly as to problem solving. Parties know what needs they have and are open to non-standard solutions to satisfy them. Expand the pie is a phrase linked to this strategy. It assumes that in any situation, a beneficial solution to all sides can be found through creativeness and sideways thinking. We distinguish interests from means of reaching them (position in some sense). By keeping to our interests and having an open mind as to ways of their fulfillment. Subsequently, talks are held in an open atmosphere and focus on finding a solution through a joint process of communication and decision making. This strategy is often named ‘based on rules’ because there is an inside framework of the process. For example, when looking for options of possible agreement, parties keep to objective criteria. As a result of this strategy, we have good chances of reaching an agreement satisfying all sides meanwhile improving relationships. This strategy requires good preparation. Poor preparation can cause talks to detour to positions. Reality Along the development of negotiation practices, position-based negotiations are losing their effectiveness due to a raising number of professional negotiators. Business negotiations which are interest-based are more common and end in more lucrative agreements.