SIX HABITS OF MERELY

EFFECTIVE NEGOTIATORS
An insight

NEGOTIATION
Group 9
Alex Jose 1527504
Jeby Benzy 1527515
Ranjith M 1527525
Athira Kumar 1527535
Dhanya Micheal 1527537
Divya S 1527538

Author
James K. Sebenius

professor of
Harvard (Boston)

Introduction
Negotiation has been part of every successful
busisiness from the past.
In the 1950s it was win-lose situation.
But as years passed, the philosophy changed
to WIN- win situation.
Situations of negotiation failures also occured.

Intro contd

We Negotiate on Daily basis

Understanding your counterparts decision and
shaping your interests will fix the deal.
Two minds and two ideas
Finally its to have a Deal or No Deal.

Motive

Your negotiation problem is to

understand and shape your
counterparts perceived decision so
that the other side chooses in its
own interest what you want.
5

Negotiation mistakes

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

neglecting the other sides problem

letting price bulldoze other interests
letting positions drive out interests
searching too hard for common ground
neglecting BATNA
falling to correct for skewed vision

Solving the right negotiation

problem

2 options : accepting a deal or

taking its best deal option
Negotiator : try to persuade other side to say
yes
Why should they say yes?
The art of letting them have your way:
negotiation

1) Neglecting the other

sides problem
Understand your own interests and your own no
deal options.
Ability to think by being in others shoes.
Its vital to know what the other side really wants
out of the deal.
It is imperative to make relationships
Example- Think from customer s side.

2) Letting price bulldoze

other interests
Though price is an important factor, it is not the only one.
Relationship : most of the negotiators forget about
developing working relationships. It has to be given more
importance.
The social contact :
(1) negotiation often focus on economic contract at the
expense of social contract.
(2) social contract governs peoples expectations about
nature, extent, duration of the venture, ways to handle
unforeseen events etc.

 The process: deal making process is as

important as its content.
The interest of the full set of players :
negotiators often forget about the interest of
the other players.
The deal should not be pure price deals.

3)Letting positions drive out

interest
In a negotiation, there are mainly 3 elements:Issues :- are on the table for explicit agreement
Positions :- are one partys stands on the issues
Interests :- are underlying concerns that would be affected by the
resolution
Of course, positions on issues reflect underlying interests, but they need not be
identical
[Eg : Job Offer]
If incompatible positions finally converge, a deal is struck; if not, the negotiation
goes into a never ending situation.
Incompatible positions may mask compatible interests. Your gain isnt necessarily
your opponents loss
Interest-based negotiation :- Negotiation that focuses primarily on interests.
Also called as integrative (win-win) negotiation.

 When people define their dispute in terms of positions

they often appear to be unsolvable.
If it is in terms of underlying interests rather than
positions, even resolution-resistant conflicts become
solvable
This is because, in many cases, interests are compatible,
even when positions are not.
Focusing on interests enables the parties to identify winwin solutions to problems that might not have been
evident when the issues were described in terms of
positions.

4-Search Too Hard For a Common Ground

Advise to find win- win agreement by searching for
common ground
Until both parties come to a common ground they
will never come to an agreement.
Finding common ground positive feeling, sense of
sharing , reach agreement easier .
When people are engaged in disagreement, its easy
for them to forget how many interests they share.
Eg ; Dispute of Israel and Egypt on the region Sinai.
Dispute was over drawing the boundary and they
couldnt reach a final agreement which resulted Sinai
to become a dematerialized zone under Egypt flag.

 When two parties are negotiating on a

business or any deal they should come to a
common understanding which both parties
will benefit from it.

5) Neglecting BATNA
Best alternative to a negotiating agreement BATNA
Both the party tries to get a deal better than its batnas
May involve walking away , approaching potential
buyers, going to court, going on strike etc.
BATNA is a Important negotiation tool for best deal
Not only assess your own BATNAs , should consider
others also. This gives other possibilities.
Should be careful not to damage your own BATNAs

6) Falling to correct for skewed vision

The major mistake happen here are

Self serving role bias At times we unconsciously
interpret information to our own side in a strongly
self serving way.
Ex- We negotiate for personal gains.
Partisan Perceptions Partisan perception is the
psychological phenomenon that causes people to
perceive "truth" with a built-in bias in their own favor,
or toward their own point of view.
egParticipants were asked to look at a picture which
simultaneously depicted an old woman and a young

Learnings

Usually negotiations happen with mutual

understandings.
Even after much planning it sometimes fails.
The parties are not supposed to be biased.
Good Negotiators change the whole game in
the table for their own benefits.
Before we go for a business meeting we need
to know our opposite team as a whole.

Conclusion

The very best

negotiators in a
business
understand and
shape other sides
choice such that
the other chooses
what they want.

18