Negotiation Strategies and Procedures

Negotiation Strategies and Procedures Before Referencing What are the fundamental phases of pre-negotiations? Even before the 'process' of negotiation formally commences, it is essential to know just how long the negotiators have to prepare before the talks begin. This gives the negotiating parties an idea of the possible duration of their antecedent planning activities, as well as the resources (financial and otherwise) available to them to expend upon the planning process. Intelligence gathering is the first critical aspect of the pre-negotiation process.

Just as one must 'know the enemy' before a military campaign, a good negotiator must know his or her opponent's strengths and weaknesses, and, is ideally able to incorporate this knowledge into setting goals and creating a strategy to approach the negotiations. Knowing personal characteristics, national characteristics, and the organizational culture of the opposing negotiators is essential. Formulating goals, that is setting goals for the negotiation process, and knowing what the opponent's goals are likely to be is another critical aspect of negotiation.

After all, no one undertakes a negotiation for 'fun.' Negotiation implies the opposing parties have slightly or extremely different, although perhaps complementary, desires. A sense of goal-oriented purposefulness is required to ensure that the process does not reach an impasse. Instead of dwelling on minor points and issues, or getting bogged down in personality conflicts, being able to state the goal or goals helps to keep the negotiators' eyes on the forest, not the trees.

Strategizing, or taking the goals and forming a step-by-step methodology to achieve those goals, is another essential element, just as essential as creating a strategic plan in enterprise. Having a goal is necessary, but knowing the environment and whether an aggressive or conservative strategy will be embarked upon, what types of activities will be used to achieve the goals in a specific fashion -- all of these are part of creating a strategy.

The 'good guy/bad guy' pressuring technique is one famous offensive technique, as is the use of time pressure, while the use of trade-offs, concessions, and reparations are less confrontational. Then, preparation, or rehearsing for how the intelligence, goals, and strategy map will be implemented naturally follows -- with some 'tweaks' to these decisions made during first three steps, as the knowledge, goals, and methods are put into action.

Just like rehearsing for a debate or a play, the preparation process is a crucial aspect of mentally preparing for the negotiations, as well as identifying weaknesses of the opposing party, or in one's own approach that must be rectified. What are the individual characteristics of negotiators, presented by the authors? Knowing the 'enemy' also means knowing the individual characteristics of the negotiators one will face over the course of the process. The age and experience of the other side are crucial characteristics to keep in mind.

Younger negotiators may be less flexible, given their lack of experience with the 'give and take' of the negotiation process. Older negotiators also are more inclined to engage in antecedent planning activities, as outlined above. This is also true of more experienced negotiators.

Education exerts some less discernable influence upon planning -- individuals with a moderate level of education are more inclined to plan a strategy, as opposed to those negotiators without a formal education who are more uncertain of their abilities, and those with high levels of education who may feel confident enough to 'wing it.' Gender may influence negotiating style. Female negotiators may be more accepting of collaboration and more inclined to plan before the negotiating process.

However, the strongest correlation between antecedent planning as it affects the negotiation process is that of national culture, as classified according to Hofstede's famous value dimensions of individualism vs. collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculine vs. feminine cultures.

Collectivism results in more planning and acceptance of collaboration, as does uncertainty avoidance, and nations with high 'power distances' or acceptance of hierarchies are more inclined to plan, as are more 'feminine' or relational cultures, as opposed to masculine cultures which may be more rigid, inflexible, and thus less likely to see the value of planning and compromising.

Which of them, in your eyes, is most crucial to the success of a negotiation session? Of all of these variables, national culture exerts the most clear influence upon negotiating strategy and behavior -- particularly as younger people, or women, or less educated individuals may.