Affecting The Balance Of Negotiating Power

Are great negotiators born or can anyone acquire their skills? Every negotiator comes to the negotiating table blessed or handicapped by certain unchangeable circumstances. But all things being equal why do some negotiators achieve better results than others. Mediators have both a unique view of other people’s negotiations and serve a unique role in those negotiations.


After 14 years of mediating disputes, observing good and not so good negotiations, and studying the experts, I believe that, although some people may be better natural negotiators than others, every negotiator can learn to be a better bargainer.

This article will briefly explore some of the things that distinguish great negotiators. They include an understanding of the importance of style and preparation as well as specific skills and techniques that can be employed. Great negotiators not only understand these factors but also understand when and how to employ them.

Preparation

Every good advocate has researched the law, examined the facts and educated their clients on probable outcomes if the matter is not resolved (what Fisher & Ury in “Getting to Yes” call their BATNA). A truly prepared negotiator, however, must go beyond this and analyze the alternatives for settlement not just the alternatives to settlement.

In “Practical Negotiating,” Tom Gosselin contends that negotiating “power is a function of alternatives.” Alternatives fall into three categories: (1) alternative sources, (2) alternative currencies, and (3) alternative skills and behaviors. The more alternatives a bargainer has the more power in the negotiation.

To understand alternative sources the negotiator must understand the difference between want and need. Preparation should also include an attempt to penetrate the opposing parties’ stated desires to find their true needs. Fisher & Ury suggest the parties should bargain based upon interests not positions. There are more ways to satisfy true needs and a negotiator with more options for acceptable results has more negotiating power.

Alternative currencies refer to the identification of resources that have a higher value to the receiver than the giver and can provide win-win opportunities for resolution. Acknowledgement of regret or even an apology are great examples of alternative currencies whose value exceeds its cost.

Style

In “The Intelligent Negotiator,” professor Charles Carver says that there are three basic negotiating styles: competitive-adversarial, cooperative-problem solving, and competitive-problem solving. Contrary to the perception that aggressive or abrasive people strike better bargains, many studies demonstrate that cooperative negotiators or those perceived as cooperative actually are more successful. What is clear is that the best negotiators can employ a different style in different situations.

According to Gosselin our negotiation style begins with basic psychology and comes from our primal response to conflict: either fight or flight. Although the correlation may be too simplistic, Gosselin identifies what he calls push tactics with competitive negotiators and pull tactics with cooperative people.

Push behaviors include asserting your position, persuading with facts, logic and objective sources, and seeking understanding of your own position. Pull tactics include asking questions, listening, summarizing, and seeking to understand the other side. Good negotiators use both types of tactics, so if you are naturally cooperative you must learn to be more assertive and vice versa.

In “Positive Power and Influence,” David Berlew writes that becoming more assertive is a simple matter of knowing what you want, asking for it directly, and being willing to pay for it. It may be even easier for competitive lawyernegotiators to employ pull tactics since lawyers are trained to use open-ended questions. It is important to note that push tactics do not require antagonism any more than pull tactics require timidity.

Skills & Tactics

There are specific techniques that can lead to better negotiations. Some are designed to foster understanding and promote win-win solutions, others are designed to enhance the negotiators position at the expense of the other side.

Brainstorming is a technique that is designed to identify better solutions for both parties. Brainstorming requires a commitment to identify as many possible solutions as possible without initially judging any of them. On the other hand, techniques such as stating extreme opening positions or the use of cascading levels of authority are designed to improve the allocation for one party at the expense of the other.

Every good negotiator knows that each negotiation is unique. What is the trust level? Are there opportunities for mutual gain? Is there an opportunity for salvaging a long-term relationship? The skills and the specific negotiating style should differ depending on the answer to these questions.

Conclusion

Few negotiators are fortunate enough to know the other side’s true power. Therefore power in negotiating is really a function of the perception of power rather than actual power. Parties are in a much better position to affect these outcomes if they are truly prepared. There is power in preparation!

- By Bob Meynardie