Chapter 18: Managing Difficult Negotiations Flashcards
Why are other parties difficult negotiators? (List 2 Reasons)
- Difficulty may be intentional:
- a clear strategic, behavioural or philosophical choice made - Difficulty may be due to inadequate skill
- other party doesnt see value for a potential for a collaborative approach or how to craft and pursue approach
- people may sometimes not be aware of the long term costs to people and organizations
What are shadow negotiation and social contract ***
How are they similar and different?
Similarity:
They both provide suggestions on how to overcome negotiation impasse and difficult negotiations.
Shadow Negotiations are negotiations about the negotiation process that occurs before or during the actual negotiation process. Shadow negotiations deal with the ‘How’.
The Social Contract deals with how the negotiation should progress, who has influence and power and the boundaries of the negotiations.
- social contract determine what the negotiation is about
- social contract is also concerned how decisions are made when unforeseen circumstances occur and how disputes are resolved
What are some strategic levers to help navigate shadow negotiation***
- Power Moves
- designed to bring bargainers to table - Process Moves
- process adjustments to agenda, sequencing and decision rules - Appreciative moves
- soft approaches designed to break cycles of conflict that may have lead to deteriorating communication
What are some kinds of power moves are there (list 3)**
- Incentives – highlight benefits early in negotiation
process (the carrot) - Pressure tactics – lead the other party to realize that
the status quo is unacceptable (the stick) - Enlistment of allies – help the other party see the advantage of negotiating with you (carrot or stick)
How to respond to other side distributive tactics
- Call them on it
- Ignore them
- Respond in Kind
- Offer to change to more productive methods
What are the issues of power imbalances in negotiation
Power imbalances represent clear dangers to the satisfaction of the needs of both parties and to the collaborative process
High power parties pay little heed to the needs of low power parties
Low power parties are not in position to advance integrative process
How should one respond when there is more power on one side (list 5)
- Protect themselves (more disincentives)
- Keep in mind their real interests (more reviews) - -
- Negotiation may be the preferred approach to achieve those interests
- Excessive accommodation to the high-power party will not serve them well over the long term - Cultivate their own BATNA (better options)
- Lack of a good BATNA gives low powered negotiators less power and limits what they can achieve. Improve current BATNA
4, Formulate a “trip wire alert system”
- warning signal when bargaining gets close to walkaway point or the BATNA
- Correct the power imbalance
- get high power parties to give power (benevloence)
- encourage low power parties to take power (nimble but aggressive)
- third parties manage transfer of power (mediation)
What are the problems that come with handling ultimatums
ultimatums attempt to induce compliance or force concessions
- consist of characteristics of demanding others, creating sense of urgency, or issue as a threat of punishment
What is an exploding offer - type of ultimatum
What are the components of such an offer **
- Specific time limit or deadline attached to it
- Clear gap of power levels between the parties
- Pressure-inducing test of faith for the receiver
- Restricted set of options
- Perceived lack of consideration and respect for the offerer by the respondent
- Apparent lack of good faith on the offerer’s part
Exploding offer can be defused by embracing it**
- you can agree but should be met with conditions and counter offers
What are the two possibilities of responding when other side is being difficult
The negotiator does not know any other way to negotiate, but might be responsive to suggestions for changing his or her behavior
The other party has a difficulty personality and his or her behavior is consistent within and outside the negotiation context
How to respond when other side is being difficult (5-Step Process)
Step 1: Dont react
- psychologically remove self from interaction
Step 2: Disarm them
- act counterintuitively - deflect or sidestep other party’s negativeness
- Disarm them using postive, constructive communication
Step 3: Change the game
- Change negotiation by proactively reframe tactics
Step 4: Make it easy to say yes
- entice other party to cross over to agreement
- involve design of an agreement
- satisfy his or her unmet needs
- recognise and being emphatetic to demands and expectations
- walking them through complex agreements
Step 5: Make it hard for them to say no
- strengthen one BATNA
- help other party think about consequences of not reaching agreement
- keep sharpening other’s choice –> refer to attractive terms and focus on advantages of completing deal
What you should do when having conversations with difficult people
- Preparation
Understand one’s own comfort level and know how one reacts to different difficult conversations - Manage Conversation
- focus on clarity, tone, temperate phrasing
- Clarity: use precise language as much as possible
- Tone: Strike neutral tone when have stressful conversation
- Temperate phrasing: choose a delivery of message that will not provoke other side - Respond to difficult conversation
- through visualization, practice difficult conversation with neutral party, construct team that has broad experience dealing with others
