Preparing Your Negotiation

From Peacebuilding

Contents 1 Purpose 2 Time 3 Participants 4 Materials 5 Process 6 Debriefing 7 Note 8 Source 9 Handout: Preparing Your Negotiation

Purpose

To provide participants with a framework that they can use for preparing their negotiations; To help participants focus on the importance of preparation for effectivly negotiating.

Time

At least one hour.

Participants

Any number.

Materials

• Copies of the handout “Preparing Your Negotiation” (see below);
• Flip chart papers;
• Markers.

Process

I) Distribute the handout to participants and allow sufficient time for reading the first page.

II) Announce participants that you will ask them to work individually. Their task is to think of a negotiation situation that they are facing in their real lives (or will face, or are likely to face) and to apply the framework presented at page 2 of the handout for preparing their negotiation. Make sure the task is understood.

III) Start individual work. Allow sufficient time.

IV) Stop individual work and ask participants to form groups of 3-5 people.

V) Ask members of each group to discuss based on answers to the following questions:

1. How useful is it to prepare before negotiating?
2. What is most important when preparing to negotiate?
3. How would you change the framework presented in order to make it more useful?

Allow sufficient time.

Debriefing

Not needed.

Note

Alternatives to this process include:

• You can introduce the content at page 1 of the handout with a lecture, or by using one of the Content Processing Activities (LINK). After it, you can start from step II) of the process above described.

• You can divide the plenary in groups of 3-5 individuals and change the task. Instead of having each individual thinking to a situation in their real lives, ask the groups to think of a situation they all know (this might be a political negotiation in their Country; a meeting between representatives of guerrilla and the government; etc.). Then ask the groups to imagine being one of the parties and preparing to the negotiation.

• Working with groups, you can introduce a case taken from international news and bring it to the attention of participants. Introduce the case with a short description - and handout if needed - and invite the groups to play the role of chief negotiators for any of the parties involved. An example might be the international dispute over Iran’s programs for uranium enrichment. You can ask different groups to play the role of chief negotiators for Iran, the USA, Russia and others. Local, national and international news can provide you with many cases useful for participants’ practice.

• After the fifth step in the process above described you can bring the discussion to the plenary, starting by asking groups to share their findings.

Source

The table in the handout is adapted from Ury, William, Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way from Confrontation to Cooperation, New York: Bantam, 1991 (1993), P. 173. The presentation preceding the table is adapted from the same book, PP. 15-26.

Handout: Preparing Your Negotiation

Preparation is essential for effective negotiation. Spending time in preparation and not just on actual meetings is likely to increase your potential to get what you want. Negotiation guru William Ury identifies five important points to a mutually satisfactory agreement:

1. Interests

Distinguish your position (the things that you say you want) from your interests (the real motivations that lead you to take that position). Try to articulate your interests, make them clear to you first. But this is not enough: if you want to work with them on a joint problem-solving journey you need to begin by figuring out their interests. The key question here is why? “why do I want that?”, “why do they want that?”

2. Options

Many negotiations fail because each party dwells on a single solution: their position. Instead, try to separate yourself for a moment from criticism and evaluation and generate as many options as possible that might satisfy both yours and their interests. Indulge: welcome unusual options; later you will judge how these may satisfy your interests.

3. Standards

How will you decide what you and them will get from this negotiation? Instead of relying on a contest of wills and trying to win over them, try to identify standards independent on either party’s will for making a decision. These might be the law, traditional customs or the way similar issues have been dealt before, market value, etc. Coming to the meeting armed with independent standards you can appeal to, provides you with power of persuasion.

4. Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)

You might not always look for an agreement. You might find alternative ways to satisfy your interests without agreeing with them. You should choose an agreement only when this is more satisfactory to you than your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA). Your BATNA is the power you bring in a negotiation: the better it is, the more powerful you will be at the table. Explore and expand you BATNA, but identify also their BATNA. Their BATNA helps you understand the challenge you face: if you want them to accept a solution, this must satisfy their interests better than their BATNA.

5. Proposals

What distinguishes an option (see above) from a proposal is commitment: a proposal is an option for agreement to which you are ready to say yes. A proposal should meet your and their interests better that your respective BATNAs and should possibly be based on fair standards. You might articulate three proposals: a) what you aspire to, this is aiming high; b) what you are content with, this would be an agreement that meets your basic interests while being far from perfect; c) what you can live with, this would be only marginally better than your BATNA.

My Interests: 1. 2. 3.	Their Interests: 1. 2. 3.
Options: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Standards: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
My Batna:	Their Batna:
Proposals (Aspire To):
Proposals (Content With):
Proposals (Live With):