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Negotiation Training - Outline: Core Modules

The purpose of this section is to develop a set of lenses and concepts for analyzing and pursuing negotiations. The focus is on the manager as negotiator, both internal to the organization and external to the organization: 70% to 90% of mid and senior managers time is typically spent in some form of negotiating activity. From this perspective, most meetings and even phone calls can often be best understood through a set of negotiations lenses. The following topics are discussed and integrated:

• Identifying the key elements of the issues (interests and concerns) and establishing criteria for success
• Evaluating and valuing the relationships involved: one-time contact or a continuing relationship? What strategies can improve important relationships? What strategies might use where relationships are not important?
• Power and influence: creating power that builds relationships. How to use your influence without creating a negative reaction.
• Communication: Avoiding “negotiation poker”. Understanding and responding to different communication “styles”.

Communication is the mechanism through which we negotiate. The session will focus on understanding the strategic choices that are made, often implicitly, including:

• The process of communicating, including choices of timing, presentation and setting.
• Knowing what information to share and when and how to do it effectively.
• Four different communicating and decision-making styles and hw to respond most effectively in a negotiation context.

• Internal negotiations to build internal understanding, agreement and support.
• A first joint negotiating session for the purpose of discussion of the negotiating process and exchange of information, views and concerns.
• A second internal planning session to craft alternatives responsive to the information garnered in the initial joint session.
• A second joint negotiation session to craft an agreement.
• Ratification of the agreements based on organizational interests, concerns and criteria.

In most negotiations the negotiator is representing others – an organization, a department, or a team. The result is that the negotiator may be involved simultaneous negotiations with the other party and then representing the negotiations “back home”. In this section we will consider some of the key challenges that face the negotiator in ensuring internal support for their external efforts. These include:

• Establishing clear expectations that permit the flexibility to build innovative solutions.
• How to build your negotiating team.
• Arranging for the necessary staff and other resources to support the negotiating team.
• Arranging for and achieving incremental ratification.

In this Section we will focus in on specific strategies and tactics for building agreements. Each of these strategies and tactics will build on the concepts that have been developed in the earlier sessions. They include:

• Building influence by responding to the other party’s concerns.
• How to build and present proposals.
• The use of alternative packages to illustrate and protect flexibility.
• Single documents and “straw drafts”.
• How to avoid lowest common denominator agreements.
• Knowing when not to agree and how not to agree.
• Ensuring that the agreements can be effectively implemented by having a “test drive”.

In many organizations committee and other staff meetings are a major component of the manager’s time and efforts. These meetings are an important forum for internal negotiations and applying the lenses and concepts of negotiation to their structure and operation can result in major efficiencies. For every committee the manager should know the true cost of holding a meeting. With some of my clients we have developed a formula that calculates the per hour cost of meetings by defining the hourly value of the attending managers’ time (this could be more than $1,000 for a senior manager, probably in the range of $500 for many mid-level managers with a multiplier of one or two to one for time spent on preparation and follow-up time). This awareness can result in managers being much more thoughtful in establishing committees. Other tools that can have an important cost and efficiency impact are:

• A template of issues to be addressed in structuring committees (purpose, expected outcome, responsibilities and knowledge to be engaged, time, etc.)
• The use of effective agendas established and discussed in advance of the meeting.
• The use of meeting notes and records.
• Effective meeting management including facilitation in the meeting and preparation to maximize the effectiveness of time in the meeting.
• How to avoid lowest common denominator agreements.

Negotiation Training - Additional/Optional Modules

In most organizations the frequency and speed of change is on increasing. Tools and lenses developed in negotiations can illuminate both the reasons for resistance to change and strategies for more effectively implementing change. They reveal that:

• Resistance is seldom the result of disagreement with the need for change.
• The major interest of those considering change is “what does it do to/for me?” and change proposals seldom address that question.
• It is not usually acceptable to raise such questions directly (not a “team player”, too selfish, etc.) and therefore the opposition is phrased in terms of criticism of the substantive elements of the planned change.

A negotiation perspective suggests a series of strategies for reducing resistance to change and increasing commitment to change, including:

• Designing change to reduce social impacts.
• Negotiating “how” to implement change within clear organizational constraints.
• The use of assurances and guarantees where available.
• The effective use of time.

Many organizations and their managers are frequently engaged in complex conflicts and negotiations that engage government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) aboriginal peoples and others. Structuring and undertaking negotiations in such situations has unique challenges such as:

• Who needs to be involved?
• How do you structure such negotiations?
• How do you determine representation?
• How do you design and manage the negotiation process?
• What types of agreements are possible?

A major segment of a course can be structured around this time of negotiating situation, based upon the instructor’s decades of experience in resolving such issues in a wide variety of sectors and in several countries. Topics could include:

• Consultation versus consensus building.
• The ten principles of successful consensus building
• The four stages in successful negotiations: assessing, structuring, negotiating, implementing.
• How different types of organizations negotiate and make decisions.
• How your critics can become your most persuasive supporters.

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