Negotiate Your Way in a Changing Business Landscape
Effective negotiation is about
discipline, confidence and
creativity. It is a skill that can be learned and should
be practised.
Negotiating is what we do when we need something from someone
else to help us achieve our goals. It may be a simple request from
a colleague, 'Have you got five minutes?' or the complex process by
which we negotiate to buy the home that we'll spend the next thirty
years paying for.
It can involve governments and business interests agreeing on a
comprehensive new tax for the mining industry or sovereign states
agreeing to establish a new refugee processing centre in East
Timor.
Negotiation is a refined communication process designed to
resolve conflict over interests. It can be simple transactional
exchanges or multi-party, multi-jurisdiction, multi-cultural and
multi-interest negotiations, or the myriad of micro negotiations
that fill our working lives. We negotiate in our business lives and
our personal lives. We are often involved in negotiations with out
even being aware that we are.
No matter the context, being able to negotiate effectively is a
key personal and professional skill.
Negotiation has always mattered, now it matters
more
It's not news that the environment in which we do business - and
in which we negotiate our business goals - is changing.
Organisations are increasingly complex. Outsourcing is common,
supplier and customer relationships are blurring as they evolve.
The competitive landscape that we work in is shifting too; industry
boundaries changing - a search engine business one day, is a mobile
phone company the next, and inventing the driverless car the day
after. Even the work day is up for grabs as flexibility and self
management have become watchwords of employment contracts. Trade is
global; information is abundant and ubiquitous.
The opportunities and threats implicit in a world where
competition and cooperation are global require high levels of
integration and coordination between firms and between individuals
to secure the benefits of trade. Managers need to manage the
blurred boundaries between their firm and others in the market
place.
Yet many managers are demonstrably poor negotiators. Why? I
believe most people under perform in negotiations because of a
combination of the following:
- The failure to develop skills.
- A lack of personal discipline.
- Mind set of win/lose.
- Irrational behaviour under pressure.
- An inability to distinguish between relationship and the
commercial issues.
- A failure to prepare and use of short-term tactics rather than
robust strategies.
Effective negotiation can be learned
and honed. It is about discipline, confidence and
creativity.
A negotiator needs discipline:
- Discipline to prepare thoroughly and research the issues before
going into a negotiation.
- Discipline to develop a robust strategy and stick to it,
combined with the insight to be flexible around strategy when plan
A doesn't work.
- Discipline to prepare options and the find solutions if
conflict arises.
To achieve mutually successful outcomes a negotiator needs
confidence:
- Confidence to understand that information sharing is crucial to
any gain sharing in a negotiation. Sharing of information builds
trust and helps towards a collaborative outcome. Research suggests
that people who share personal information before going into a
negotiation are less likely to reach a deadlock. We like to know
who we are dealing with. The increased use of social media both
provides excellent research material into the background of a
counterparty, but it is also important to establish relationship
with the prior to negotiating.
- Confidence to know that if the negotiation creates value then
you have the skills to negotiate a fair share of that value.
The skilled negotiator needs creativity:
- Negotiators need to be strong in asserting their rights and in
pursuing their objectives, they also need to be creative in trying
to achieve the other party's legitimate objectives.
- A starting point for the creative process is to put yourself in
the other party's shoes for part of the preparation. This will
provide both understanding of and empathy for the other party's
issues.
- Single issue negotiations inevitably lead to either deadlock or
compromise and negotiators need to be creative in bringing a range
of issues to the negotiating table. Rather than negotiate an annual
salary increment in isolation, open up the negotiation to career
issues which include training, opportunity to work in different
teams, overseas experience and temporary project assignments.
Rather than negotiate the purchase price of an asset, look at its
whole economic life which would include maintenance, upgrades,
training and replacements.
A skilled negotiator will combine assertive behaviour in pursuit
of their own legitimate objectives with a collaborative approach to
achieving the counter party's objectives.
Keith Stacey
Scotwork Australia
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