Collective Bargaining and Negotiation

Article Summary: Six Habits of Merely Effective Negotiators

 Six Habits of Merely Effective Negotiators

Most of the executives know the basics of negotiation, still, many of these experienced
negotiators leave money on the table, deadlock, damage relationships or allow conflicts to spiral.
High stake, intense pressure or careless mistakes can be the reason behind it. If the deal meets
other party’s interests better than its no deal option, then the other party will agree to the deal
wholeheartedly. So understanding the counterpart’s interests and shaping the decision
accordingly is the way to create and claim sustainable value from a negotiation.
The six common mistakes that keeping negotiators from solving the right problem are:

● Neglecting other side’s problem

As you should understand your own interests and no deals, it is imperative to
understand your counterpart's problem from their perspective as a means to solve your
own. The other side will say yes for their own reasons, so your decision should meet other
parties interests.

● Letting price bulldozer other interests

Hard bargaining practices which focus only on price often leave potential gains
unrealized. This is because the price is not the only important factor, emotions are also a
important part of negotiations. Other important nonprice factors are relationship, social
contract, process, interests of the full set of players.

● Letting positions drive out interests

Positions on issues reflect the underlying interest, but they need not be identical.
There can be other ways through which these interests can be attained. If you are adamant
about your position, the chances are high that the negotiation ends in an impasse. So joint
problem-solving approach can be used to meet both sets of interests and thus to create
value.

● Searching too hard for common ground

Typically people try to find win-win situations by searching for common ground, in this
process negotiators frequently overlook many sources of values which arise from
differences among the parties. For example differences in forecasts can fuel joint gains

● Neglecting BATNAs
BATNA is an important negotiation tool. One should carefully assess his own BATNA
as well as the other side’s. BATNAs helps to define a zone of possible agreement. So your
potential deal and BATNA should work together.
 ● Failing to correct for skewed vision
You cannot solve a negotiation problem without a firm understanding of both sides
BATNAs, interests, valuations, likely actions and so on. So any error in these
understandings will lead to inefficient negotiation. According to the psychology of
perception, the major errors can be Self-serving role bias and Partisan perceptions.

Article Critique

In this article James Sebinus talks about a few deal-breaking practices which result in “merely”
effective negotiation. He starts off with an example of the M&A in the global industry and how
negotiators partake only a fraction of the amount transacted.

But negotiations are not restricted only to the business industry. Even in everyday life, we face
situations where we may have to negotiate with someone in order to reach common ground.
As Sebenius talks about the six common mistakes that lead to ineffective negotiation, we get
better insights into how we can make our negotiation more effective. He lucidly describes each
mistake and supports the qualitative data with numerous examples from the business industry.
The examples quoted by him help us relate better to the errors in the negotiation deal with the
first three mistakes bringing in a personal angle which is solely controlled by the negotiator. The
next three mistakes encourage the reader to look around and consider the surroundings and the
blunders make when he neglects external factors which have a major impact on his negotiation.

In the six mistakes he talks about, he also has excerpts quoted by various professionals who
seem to understand human psychology and also have some sort of experience in negotiating
deals. The interviews bring some credibility to the article and bring the facts on the table. It also
prepares a base for all the examples that he quotes in order to illustrate the factual data.

The relevance of this article cannot be stressed upon enough, mainly because negotiation is
absolutely unavoidable in all fields of life. Hence no matter which profession you choose, being
an effective negotiator will always give you an edge over other members. Also, even though the
article has been written in 2003, the mistakes that we make during the negotiation phase are
relatable even today. Hence the timeline of this article spans various generations and years.

The language of the article is interesting and clear. Hence there is no scope for ambiguity in
interpretation. The points illustrated can be read and interpreted in one go.

The article can also be used as effective reading material for all courses like PGP, EPGP, PGP-
HRM and IPM as well. This is because as managers and leaders, effective negotiation skills is a
must-have. Through classroom discussion of this article, the course participants will also be able
to have a window to different perspectives on negotiating their way to the best deal.