Styles, strategies and tactics in Negotiation Flashcards

1
Q

What are the different ADR styles?

A
  • Co-operative
  • Competitive/confrontational
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2
Q

Co-operative approach

A

Approach:

  • focus on settlement
  • offering information
  • accepting concessions
  • fairness
  • conciliatory approach
  • constructive tactics

Strengths:

  • agreement likely
  • appropriate concessions are seen as principled
  • supports a continuing relationship
  • fewer risks of the negotiation breaking down

Weaknesses:

  • undermined by competitive opponent
  • too easy to see settlement as main goal
  • can lead to unnecessary concessions and weaker outcome
  • may volunteer information and get little/nothing in return
  • may try to avoid confrontation instead of seeking best outcome
  • may fail to fully use strengths of case
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3
Q

Competitive/positional approach

A

Approach:

  • seeks to win, get best possible outcome
  • settlement not seen as a goal
  • adversarial
  • not constructive
  • high demands
  • limited justification
  • giving limited information but seeking a lot
  • seeking success on every issue
  • using unpleasant tactics (threats, bluffing)

Strengths:

  • very successful against weak/poorly prepared opponent
  • high starting position tends to lead to better settlement
  • more successful where there are fewer issues (where issues are money based, too)
  • successful for party with strong case
  • little chance of exploitation

Weaknesses

  • many lawyers not susceptible to this aggressive and manipulative behaviour
  • damages ongoing relationship
  • focus on ‘winning’ may ignore potential advantages of collaboration
  • increased stress and tension
  • over-confidence can be undermined by well-prepared opponent
  • not effective to deal with complex issues
  • can become a battle
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4
Q

Collaborative

Principled/Problem-solving

A

Different strands:

Principled – tries to achieve outcome that is objectively fair against some external authoritative norm (e.g. based on the example of an agreed expert)

Problem-solving – focuses on both parties’ real needs and interests, tries to get a practical solution without building costs

Approach:

  • parties explore underlying interests, share information and are creative
  • trying to identify options for mutual gain
  • working together is stressed at the start
  • constructive approach, focus on best possible outcome
  • issues approached from point of view of needs and interests rather than fault and blame
  • open and reasonable atmosphere
  • emphasis on objectivity, and a potential settlement is often judged against agreed criteria to test fairness

Strengths:

  • capable of achieving very good outcomes because it explores anything of potential benefit
  • creative
  • good chance of success
  • even if there is no agreement, areas of conflict usually decreased
  • techniques to expand resources rather than divide them
  • rational and reasonable approach easy to manage
  • well-prepared collaborative strategy can be successful against a competitive opponent

Weaknesses

  • both parties must be collaborative
  • may require substantial preparation of options
  • attempts to collaborate may be defeated or exploited by competitive opponent
  • may be difficult to use in court-door negotiations because of time pressure
  • may have little to offer in a case where options cannot be developed

Principled negotiation elements:

  • separating the people from the problem (avoiding emotion)
  • focusing on interest rather than positions
  • looking for options to benefit both sides (win-win)
  • using objective standards
  • developing a best alternative to a negotiated agreement
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5
Q

Pragmatic strategy

A
  • adapting strategy to meet the needs of the particular negotiation
  • different strategy for each separate issue
  • may be most effective where there is limited information and need to get more facts before deciding how to proceed
  • may be appropriate where you do not know your opponent and cannot predict what strategy he will adopt
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6
Q

How do you choose a negotiating strategy?

A

Planning should include:

  • a preferred overall strategy
  • how to open the negotiation to provide a firm foundation
  • fallback option
  • separate strategies

Be aware of how the parties’ strategies can interact:

  • two competitive may create deadlock
  • two co-operative may not get the best agreement
  • do not try to exploit too much – the opposing party can always refuse an offer
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7
Q

What negotiating tactics can be used with:

Information

Offers and Demands

Structure

Presentation

Law

A

Information

  • questioning
  • statements
  • revealing/concealing information
  • reframing – to objectively redress how a difficult opponent is presenting his case

Offers and demands

  • pre-conditions and setting parameters
  • objective standards
  • authority to settle
  • ultimata
  • proposing additional outcomes

Structure

  • imposing structure
  • ignoring structure
  • parking issues
  • moving on
  • re-opening issues
  • “Just one more thing”
  • avoiding deadlock

Presentation

  • abruptness
  • evasion
  • silence
  • time to think
  • prepare a draft
  • bluffing
  • aggression
  • threats

Law

  • using legal terminology and tests
  • using research
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