Negotiations The order in which things are said is almost as important as what is said, and in some cases it is even more important. This has been a long-recognized fact in the world of rhetoric and basic composition from time immemorial. It is only relatively recently, however, that this fundamental truth has been explicitly and consciously explored in the realm of negotiating and information strategy. The additional factor of who receives what information at what time, and the order in which separate entities are approached with different pieces of information, adds a similar but exponentially complicating factor to information exchanges during a negotiating practice. This was made very clear during the Harborco negotiations, as our team was able to use effective negotiation sequencing to our advantage. By striking certain deals first, supplying information and signaling intentions and plans selectively and on a time- and order-specific basis, the Harborco negotiations were handled more smoothly and more effectively than might otherwise have been the case.

Effective Sequencing

Through a series of increasingly complex examples and a sound explanation of what is ultimately relatively straightforward probability theory, Sebenius makes the importance of sequencing in negotiations and deal-making quite clear. There are many reasons that one party to negotiations might have their willingness to agree with certain deals or take certain actions altered by knowledge of the decisions others have made -- previous or hoped for alliances come into play when the decision of one allied party is known, risks can be reduced and/or rewards increased for one party by another party's decision or other...

This was certainly the case in the Harborco negotiations, where several parties with complex relationships -- some shared goals, many oppositional goals, and other reasons for forming or refraining from certain allegiances -- needed to be dealt with in order to bring the negotiations to a "successful" (as variously defined by the different entities) conclusion.
Our group was able to use sequencing quite effectively, meeting with strategic allies -- those that had a position close enough to our own and with either enough concordance or persuasive/overriding power with those entities more opposed to our position -- securing agreements and certain aspects of the deal from these parties before moving to tougher negotiations. This enhanced our position with primary opponents both by giving us greater clout from which to assert our position and by enabling more persuasive deals to be made, making certain concessions through strategic allegiances that did not cause great detriment to our outcome but that created significant enough benefits for opposing entities to make deal-making possible. Had negotiations taken place in a simultaneous fashion, without the benefits of the initial agreements that smoothed the final round of negotiations would not have been reached, and the outcome would likely have been very different.

Non-Transparent Negotiation

One of the automatic outcomes of any sequential negotiations, whether the sequencing is purposeful and consciously planned or not, is that there is necessarily a certain lack of transparency in certain rounds of negotiation and/or in the level of information sharing over time. That is, by reaching agreements…