Given the importance and ubiquity of negotiating in business, politics, and society in general, we would benefit greatly from an approach that addresses and improves on the inadequacies of positional bargaining. Formalising the engagement of stakeholders and the process of negotiation using a principled approach provides just such an improvement.
The objective of principled negotiation is to:
- Try to obtain all the benefits possible from an agreement. Positional bargaining is poor at exploring what the parties actually value, concentrating on relative positions to arrive at an agreement. Principled negotiation emphasises measurable, objective discussion of the best outcome for all parties and thus raises opportunities for much more creative outcomes that discover and utilise more of the benefit
- Strike a lasting, equitable agreement that establishes a relationship for future opportunities. By providing a framework and approach that respects all participants and concentrates on the objective of the agreement, principled negotiation manages the ‘people’ clashes separately to contention over the proposition itself. In doing so it does not prevent counterproductive emotional disruption and the detrimental effects of historical ‘baggage’ but it does provide a means of minimising their disruptive effects
- Optimise your power and negotiating position. By establishing what is seen as fair at the outset and insisting on objective arguments backed up by a body of accepted authoritative facts, principled negotiation provides the lever to move even the heaviest objection, if just a little
- Improve on the alternatives to an agreement. Once a clear view of the un-directed outcome is articulated, principled negotiation provides a mechanism to not only improve on this but to measure that improvement
Intransigence, trickery, and obfuscation are costly to those who employ them in principled negotiation. On the contrary, the principle of separating the people from the problem allows all parties to work as a team in generating a range of solutions to resolve their differences rather than competing to impose one.
Bibliography:
‘Getting to Yes: Negotiating an agreement without giving in’ (Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton, published by Houghton and Mifflin). The Harvard Negotiation Project.
‘The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology’ (Lee Ross , Richard E. Nisbett , et al. published by Pinter and Martin)