Negotiating for

Win-Win

Interest-Based Negotiation
CASFAA Conference, 2008
Anaheim, CA
Presented by Natasha Kobrinsky
Pepperdine University
Graziadio School of Business and Management
Do You Negotiate?!
Session Objectives
 Recognize your negotiation skills
 Understand the negotiation process
 Enhance your negotiation skills by using the
interest-based approach and mediation
techniques
What is Negotiation?
 It’s a power imbalance
 It’s a discussion intended to produce an
agreement
 It’s a process to resolve disputes
 It’s a process of learning and discovery
 It’s a process of bargaining for individual
or organizational advantages
Approaches to Negotiation
 Positions are tangible items people say
they want

 Interests are the things one cares about

and wants
Approaches to negotiation

 Negotiations could be right-based

 Power-based

 Interests-based
Negotiation Outcomes
 Win-Lose

 Lose-Lose

 Win-Win
Criteria to compare negotiation
outcomes:
 Transaction cost
 Satisfaction with outcomes
 Effect on the relationship
 Recurrence of disputes
Interest-Based Negotiation
vs. Distributive Negotiation

 Creating a free flow of information

 Attempting to understand the Other Party’s
real needs and Objectives
 Searching for Solutions that meet the
goals and objectives of both sides
 Crafting an outcome for mutual interests
Identify and define the real
issues/problems
 Understand what drives the negotiation
and
 What drives the negotiator
 Define the issues in a mutually acceptable
way
Determine your and your
opponents’ real interests
 Substantive interests- economic
and financial issues
 Process interests
 Relationship interests
 Interests in principle
Establish your goal
 Best outcome
 Good enough outcome
 Tolerable outcome
 Get ready to compromise
Plan & Prepare
 Determine your walk-away point
(resistance point)

 Determine your BATNA and WATNA (best

and worst alternatives to negotiations )
Plan & Prepare
 Learn about your opponents
 Their personality
 Their background, culture
 Their personal situation

 Look for precedents

Plan & Prepare
 Determine your and your opponents’
strengths
 Consider your and your opponents’
weaknesses
 Identify the risk factor and try to remove it
 Identify the barriers and try to remove
them
 Consider the impact of deadlines
Plan & Prepare
 Develop alternative solutions:
 Generate as many options & packages as
possible to make the pie larger
Depersonalize the problem
 Separate the problem definition from the search
for solution
 Build trust
 Do not use threats
 Remove emotional barriers for the opponents
 Show respect (Lack of respect triggers the
majority of legal actions)
Propose
 Try not to go first with an offer
 Give a reasonable offer
 Be prepared to change it
Propose & Probe
 What if …
 Why not …
 What would you suggest …
Ask Questions
 Use open-ended questions to get more
information
 Use close-ended questions to force the
other party into seeing things your way
 The less you say, the more you hear
Influence the other party’s
resistance point but …
 Be ready to change your position
 Concession-making indicates an
acknowledgement of other party and a
movement toward the other’s position.
 Flexibility keeps your negotiation going
Listen
 Use active listening techniques: restate,
paraphrase other party’s statements
 Take notes
 Discover the other party’s outcome values,
resistance point, motives and etc.
 The opponents’ answers are the best
guides
Make Counterproposal
 Try to increase the real or potential
rewards of a transaction for opponents
 Align organizational & personal
incentives
 Motivation & incentives will increase a
chances of making a deal
Trade
 Exchange terms or items
 Trade something you value less for
something you value more
Factors that facilitate successful
interest-based negotiation
 Some common objective or goal
 Faith in one’s problem-solving ability
 Belief in the validity of one’s own position
and the other’s perspective
 Motivation
 Commitment to work together
 Trust
 Clear and accurate communication
Achieving closure
It’s important to know when to “shut up” and
reduce the agreement to written form.
Key steps for interest-based
negotiation
Identify and define the real issues
Define the problem in a mutually
acceptable way for both sides
Depersonalize the problem
Set mutual goals
Separate a search for mutually
beneficial solutions from problem
definition
Key steps for interest-based
negotiation
 Establish trust and positive feeling that are
likely to lead to an integrative outcome
 Advantages of moving beyond positions to
real interests
 Learn to expend the “pie” by looking for
alternative solutions
 Bargain for individual advantages
 Craft outcomes for mutual interests
 The best way to get what you want is to give
the opponents what they want
People say YES to people they like!