Negotiation Is No Art

When we attend our first negotiation course we naively think that we are going to learn some magic and tricks.  By the end of the first day you understand that it is a process with some rather fixed rules and there are no secrets.  We spent the first hour split into two teams arguing over the same orange with no success, only to find out once our process was reviewed that one party only wanted the skin and the other the juice.  I guess being shown up at the start of a course is a good way of making you shut up and listen.

Here are the three golden rules:

• Always have the high ground before starting the negotiation.  If you don’t have the high ground, go away and spend time getting it. Avoid jumping in just because you are right, a poor case leads to a poor outcome. The position you come from needs to be strong and the required outcomes clear. You cannot negotiate from a weak position and may need to look at other options. 
• In the case of the Ports of Auckland Dispute, the union seems to have never read the signs and their high ground has been eroded over the last few years.  For the long term benefit of the members they should have started negotiations when they saw the shape of the industry changing.  A slow start and time has removed their high ground.

• You can only have a reasonable conversation with a reasonable person. Common sense has to break through any negotiation and make sure you have a full understanding of the other party’s position and options. You don’t want to be fighting over the same orange due to a misunderstanding. 
• Again… reasonable offer after reasonable offer was rejected.

• Never show a card that you are not prepared to play. It can be so tempting at times to state a position or action that you are not prepared to take. Despite it making sense during the heat of the battle, a retracted position or action removes all your positional power and credibility. Once in this position it is impossible to recover. 
• The Ports played a card they were prepared to play and have kept their reputation intact.

 When dealing with people emotions can run high on both sides and in a lot of cases negotiation is not easy.  Over the years these three easy to remember rules have served me well.

^DB