Lecture on:

NegotiationRegional Meeting Rzeszow, April 2002

By: Koen G. Berden, Rotterdam

Why a lecture on ‘Negotiation’?

1. What do YOU think?

• For Poland or Czech Republic to be able to join the EU at favourable terms (or not to join at all without loosing face!)

• To work on ‘conflict resolution’: resolve conflicts (AEGEE, Middle-East)

• To get most out of a cooperation when you organise something (eg. a conference, job fair, exchange)

• To ‘convince’ your university professor you really really learnt the course materials well enough so you pass the exam

2. A Chinese Proverb illustrates the point very nicely: ‘If you give a person a fish, they eat for a day. If you teach them how to fish, they eat for a lifetime’

Structure of the Lecture

1. What is negotiation and Who negotiates?

2. Is the ‘art’ of negotiating culturally or nationally determined?

3. Successful Negotiation Techniques

4. A specific case:

- Negotiating with English as 2nd Language

5. About theory and practice: negotiating tips

6. The Negotiation Case (tomorrow)

7. Conclusion

1. What is negotiation and Who negotiates?

What is Negotiation?

1. Interaction between two or more parties

2. Each party having certain goals to be achieved

Who Negotiates?

EVERYONE!

- children when they ‘beg’ for something: sweets or late to bed

- AEGEE-people on fundraising talks: eg. Mr. Nowina-Konopka

- Miller and Balcerowicz trying to reach a compromise on the rates of unemployment, inflation and government deficits

- CEO’s of Accenture and KPMG about a possible merger of the two firms

2. Is the ‘art’ of negotiation culturally or nationally determined?

Empirical evidence seems to suggest the answer is YES.

For Example:

- Polish/Japanese and Dutch cultures: the level of directness varies a lot. In Poland/Japan: negotiators would always leave the possibility for the opposing team to retreat without loosing face; NOT in The Netherlands! (Dutch people tend to be less successful negotiators because they are too direct; eg. EU!)

- Spending time during negotiations on the implementation of the reached compromises: this is important in countries/cultures that are risk averse (eg. Thailand)

3. Successful Negotiation Techniques (1)

a. Irritating behaviour of Negotiators

b. Making Counterproposals

c. Defence and Attack

d. Arguing your Position

e. Warning about Behaviour

f. Disagreeing with your Opposition

g. Understanding and Summarising

h. Implementation

i. Information Seeking

3. Successful Negotiation Techniques (2)

a. Irritating behaviour of Negotiators

Successful negotiators do not make ‘claims’ about offers or arguments.

– Don’t make ‘claims’: it implies things about the oppositions’ offer

– Avoid a personality clash: no personal attacks no matter how much you want to!

– Stay calm, open and polite in general

NEVER accept a ‘NO’ from anyone who hasn’t the authority to give you a ‘YES’ (Unknown Author)

3. Successful Negotiation Techniques (3)

b. Making Counterproposals

Many negotiators make a counterproposal immediately a proposal is being presented by the opposition, while successful negotiators do not!

Why not?

• You complicate and confuse the proposal just presented to you

• It looks like you present an argument against the other proposal instead of a separate proposal

• You do not have a receptive opposition because the others are thinking about their proposal

3. Successful Negotiation Techniques (4)

c. Defence and Attack

‘Be nice, be provocable, be forgiving’

• When a discussion heats up: risk of defending and attacking positions (irrational arguments)

• Skilled negotiators will attack, but never give prior warning until they attack hard, and then move on

• So: reply in a balanced manner, then forget it and move on

d. Arguing your Position

‘The more reasons the better’ is not followed by skilled negotiators. They only give a few reasons.

3. Successful Negotiation Techniques (5)

e. Warning about Behaviour

‘Skilled negotiators will be polite and civil and give warning about forthcoming changes in their behaviour’

• See these changes coming: they go from a listening mode to a question mode

• This is also a ‘warning’ for a possible upcoming ‘attack’

• It slows the negotiation: give you time to collect thoughts

• It introduces a formality into the negotiation: keep it on a rational level

• It reduces ambiguity

3. Successful Negotiation Techniques (6)

f. Disagreeing with your Opposition

Two options:

• You disagree and then present your arguments to justify your disagreement

• Start with your arguments and then conclude that you can therefore not agree

g. Understanding and Summarising

• Minimise ambiguity and misunderstanding

• Powerful tool to summarise ‘in your direction’!

h. Implementation

• Don’t move on immediately once an agreement has been reached: also focus on the implementation!

h. Information Seeking

‘Skilled negotiators were looking twice more often for more information during discussions than average negotiators’

• more info to be used in bargaining process

• ask questions: get greater control over negotiations

• questions easier to accept than direct disagreement

• opposition answer questions instead of thinking (you v.v.)

3. Successful Negotiation Techniques (7)

• Reveal what you feel

‘Skilled negotiators revealed their feelings more often than average negotiators’

3. Successful Negotiation Techniques (8)

4. A Specific Case: English as a 2nd Language

• Invite the opposition to talk

• Keep them talking

• Show you listen/are interested

• Show you understand

• Support and reinforce them

• Link up with them

• Echo what they say

• Reformulate what they say

• Summarize what they say

So; Well, gentlemen; I believe;

Tell me more; Please go on;

Really?; My goodness; Hmmm;

I see; Ah yes; I understand;

Right; Correct; Yes; Absolutely;

In line with your comment;

...

...

To put it shortly; So to summarize, you are telling me that …;

5. Negotiating Tips: Practice (1)

• Know thyself:

look into yourself; what do you want; do you want to win?; how do you feel about negotiation? Etc.

• Do your homework:

who is negotiating with you?; what is the other persons reputation as a negotiator?; does the other person what to discuss with you?

• Practice Double and Triple Thinking

you need not only to know what you want out of the meeting; what does the other person want and … what does the other person think you want?!

THINK

THINK

THINK

• Build Trust

building trust eases communication; be trustworthy; honour your commitments; respect confidence and the truth

• Develop External Listening

you cannot listen both externally and internally at the same time; concentrate on the other person: facial expressions, voice changes, body language, etc.

• Move Beyond Positions

at first, when still large risks are there, you state your position, … later on after building trust, you open up your interests; make sure you get to the interests of the other party and get your interests known to the other party

5. Negotiating Tips: Practice (2)

5. Negotiating Tips: Practice (3)

• Own your Power

power can be split up in different powers: internal power and external power; internal power is to do with self-esteem and self-confidence; external power is to do with your situation; in both cases, power dynamics can shift!

Just be self-confident and all will go fine!

5. Negotiating Tips: Practice (4)

• Know your BATNA

BATNA = Best Alternative to A Negotiated Agreement; know what your options are and how far do you want to give in?

• Know What a Win is!

what is your worst case scenario and what is your best case scenario: the settlement area is somewhere in the middle; inside the settlement area is a win! Don’t drop below your worst case scenario.

• Enjoy the Process

negotiation is a process: some parts are predictable steps (preparation, creating the climate, identifying interests and selecting outcomes); if you practice you will gain skills in all these steps in the process

6. The Negotiation Case (tomorrow)

The case will be about a crisis situation in the UN Security Council.

HOSTAGES!• You are all representing a specific country

• Each country has a specific agenda

• During the case more developments will take place

• Together you will have to talk, negotiate and try to reach the goals that your country has set out to achieveInterfere or Not?

What about the Chinese?

Human Rights!

UN

or

US?Gunfire??!!

7. Conclusion

• A definition of ‘negotiation’

• Negotiation styles and aspects differ per country, nationality and culture

• What negotiation techniques can you use or will others use (against you!)

• What to do if English is your second language and you have to negotiate?

• Some negotiation tips: the practical side

• The UN Security Council negotiation case

Good Luck Negotiating!!

Thank you for your attention!