Planning and Preparation for Effective Negotiation

Planning and Preparation for Effective Negotiation

1. About 80% of negotiators’ efforts should go toward the preparation stage.

2. Negotiation preparation as an ongoing process.

   • Assessment of negotiation
     • Adjust
       • Negotiate
         • Update
           • Adjust
             • Negotiate
               • Update
                 • Adjust
                   • Negotiate
                     • Update

3. Negotiation Analysis:

   • Know the Situation, Yourself, and Your Opponent
     • Is to conduct a well-rounded analysis of the bargaining situation
     • Negotiation parties enter the negotiation because they depend on each other to fulfill some needs
     • Is to conduct a well-rounded analysis of the bargaining situation

4. Analyze the negotiation context

   • Opportunities and constraints
     • lose–lose negotiation
       • Google renewed its push to expand in China
   • Assess the historical, political, legal, and cultural
     • the quality of deals negotiators reach is significantly influenced by their bargaining histories (O’Connor et al., 2005).
   • Assess the purpose of the negotiation: Deal-making or dispute resolution?
     • After all, as a for-profit corporate entity, its primary interests are market values, rather than political power.
   • Assess the nature of the conflict: Are ideologies involved?
     • conflict situations, especially those between members of diverse cultural, ethnic, or social groups,
   • Assess the temporality of the negotiation: One-shot or long-term?
     • For a longterm work relationship, what matters during the negotiation goes beyond tangible
       • quantifiable issues
       • intangible issues
       • such as negotiators’ reputation
       • relational harmony may be equally
   • Assess external constraints: Is time an issue?
     • Assessing time-related constraints, therefore, can help negotiators to guard against such irrational tendencies
   • Assess external constraints: Place
     • Negotiating on one’s own territory is typically considered an advantage
       • May experience greater uncertainty and perceive less power
       • outside party may be better prepared, more alert, less concerned about hospitality and information leakage
         • More flexible in “walking away” (Sims, 2005)
   • Assess external constraints
     • Communication channels

5. Analyze the negotiation structure and components

   • negotiated agreement (BATNA)
   • Identify the negotiation parties.
     • Define the issues.
       • Understand the underlying interests.
         • Consider alternatives.
           • Create a scoring system and sort out preferences.
             • Determine the target/aspiration and reservation/resistance points.
               • Assess your negotiation style
                 • Practice perspective taking
                   • Assess the relationship with the other party
                     • Consider the history and differences in power or cultural background that could influence the negotiation.
                   • Collecting information about the counterpart and putting oneself in the counterpart’s shoes
                 • Self-assessment in terms of their attitude toward risks
               • Calculating the resistance point as the sum of all options multiplied by their probability
             • It is important to sort out their own preferences
           • Negotiators need to set specific parameters for the negotiation, such as the best deal they can hope for
         • Identifying interests consists in asking oneself why one wants those things (Lewicki et al., 2006).
       • When focusing on a single issue, negotiators tend to come with a clear position and fight for it.
     • person or group pursuing distinct goals in the context of a specific negotiation