Getting to Yes:Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Julie PoroznukJP Communicationjulie.poroznuk@jpcommunication.cawww.jpcommunication.ca
Getting to Yes:Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Roger Fisher
Bruce PattonWilliam Ury
Negotiation is a basic means of getting what you want from others.
Back and forth communication designed to reach agreement when you and the other side have some shared and some opposed interests.
Negotiation is not easy to do well. Standard strategies often leave people
dissatisfied, worn out or alienated.
Getting to Yes
Dilemma: people see two ways to negotiate – soft and hard.
Soft: avoid conflict, make concessions; often end up exploited and feeling bitter.
Hard: sees any situation as a contest of wills. Exhausts people and resources and harms relationships.
Other strategies are between hard and soft, but each involves a trade off.
Getting to Yes
Third way to negotiate: both hard and soft.
Principled Negotiation: decide issues on their merits instead of haggling.
Look for mutual gains wherever possible. Where interests conflict, insist that
results be based on some fair and independent standards.
Getting to Yes
Any method of negotiation may be fairly judged by three criteria:
1. does it produce a wise agreement?2. is it efficient?3. does it improve or at least not
damage the relationship between the parties?
Getting to Yes
A wise agreement: meets legitimate interests of each
side to the extent possible resolves conflicting interests fairly is durable takes community interests into
account
Getting to Yes
Most negotiation depends on taking and then giving up a sequence of positions.
Taking positions tells the other side what you want, serves as an anchor and will produce acceptable agreements.
But often fails to meet basic criteria of a wise agreement reached efficiently and amicably.
Getting to Yes
Arguing over positions produces unwise agreements
negotiators lock themselves into positions which they must defend against attacks
the more you defend, the harder it is to change a position
position now involves ego and saving face
less and less likely an agreement will wisely reconcile original interests
Getting to Yes
Arguing over positions is inefficient This process takes a lot of time. You must start with an extreme position
and stubbornly hold to it. Make only small concessions as
necessary to keep negotiations going. Require many decisions by each side
about what to offer and reject.
Getting to Yes
Arguing over positions endangers an ongoing relationship
strains and sometimes shatters relationships
long time commercial enterprise partners may part company
neighbours may stop speaking to each other
especially tragic in divorce/child custody situations
Getting to Yes
Being nice is no answer in soft negotiations, make offers and
concessions, be friendly, yield as necessary to avoid conflict (e.g. WWII)
between friends and family, it tends to be efficient as it produces results quickly
but it does not ensure a wise agreement for example, story about the combs and
the watch by O. Henry
Getting to Yes
4 Basic Points: People: separate the people from the
problem Interests: focus on interests, not
positions Options: generate a variety of
possibilities before deciding what to do Criteria: insists that the results be
based on some objective standard
Principled Negotiation
People: separate the people from the problem
emotions cloud the objective merits of the problem
egos become identified with positions
participants should come to see themselves as working side by side
Principled Negotiation
Interests focus on interests, not positions object is to satisfy underlying interests a position may obscure what you really
want compromising is not likely to address
underlying interests example: two men quarrelling in a
library about the window. example: talks on nuclear testing
breakdown over number of inspections
Principled Negotiation
Options: generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do
having a lot at stake and searching for the one right solution inhibits creativity
create an opportunity to think up a wide range of solutions that advance shared interests and creatively reconcile differing interests
example: argument over an orange
Principled Negotiation
Criteria: insists that the results be based on some objective standard
for example, market value, expert opinion, custom, precedence or law
both parties can defer to a fair solution without giving in to each other
Principled Negotiation
Fair standards There is often more than one objective
criterion available.Car example: original cost less depreciation what the car would have sold for blue book value replacement cost what a court might award as the value
Use Objective Criteria
A mediator asks about interests instead of positions. Asks “why?”
First, she tries to learn all she can about the needs and interests.
Explores the possibility that he might be able to make a recommendation.
Involves preparing drafts and asking for criticisms.
The one-text procedure
Problem: Positional Bargaining: Which Game Should You Play?
Solution: Change the Game – Negotiate the Merits
Getting to Yes
Soft: Participants are friends
Hard: Participants are adversaries.
Principled: Participants are problem solvers.
Getting to Yes
The goal is agreement.
The goal is victory.
The goal is a wise outcome reached efficiently and amicably.
Getting to Yes
Make concessions to cultivate the relationship.
Demand concessions as a condition of the relationship.
Separate the people from the problem.
Getting to Yes
Be soft on the people and the problem.
Be hard on the people and the problem.
Be soft on the people, hard on the problem.
Getting to Yes
Trust others.
Distrust others.
Proceed independent of trust.
Getting to Yes
Change your position easily.
Dig in to your position.
Focus on interests, not positions.
Getting to Yes
Make offers.
Make threats.
Explore interests.
Getting to Yes
Disclose your bottom line.
Mislead as to your bottom line.
Avoid having a bottom line.
Getting to Yes
Accept one-sided losses to reach agreement.
Demand one-sided gains as the price of agreement.
Invent options for mutual gain.
Getting to Yes
Search for the single answer: the one they will accept.
Search for the single answer: the one you will accept.
Develop multiple options to choose from; decide later.
Getting to Yes
Insist on agreement.
Insist on your position.
Insist on using objective criteria.
Getting to Yes
Try to avoid a contest of will.
Try to win a contest of will.
Try to reach a result based on standards independent of will.
Getting to Yes
Yield to pressure.
Apply pressure.
Reason and be open to reason; yield to principle, not pressure.
Getting to Yes
There is power in: developing a good working relationship
with the other party understanding interests inventing an elegant option. (e.g. stamp
auction rule – highest bidder gets the stamps at price of second highest bid)
using external standards of legitimacy developing a good BATNA
Sources of Negotiation Power
Make the most of your potential power.
Getting to Yes
Let us never negotiate out of fear.But let us never fear to negotiate.
-John F. Kennedy
Getting to Yes:Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Roger Fisher
Bruce Patton
William Ury
Beyond Reason:Using Emotions as you Negotiate
Roger Fisher Daniel Shapiro
Beyond Reason:Using Emotions as you Negotiate
Written in the same remarkable vein as Getting to Yes, this book is a masterpiece." —Stephen R. Covey, author, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People “Powerful, practical advice. It will put your emotions to good use.” —Desmond Tutu, Nobel Laureate
“A brilliant guide. Anyone who faces a difficult conversation, let alone a formal negotiation, can use this as a guidebook.” —Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence
Getting to Yes:Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Thank you!
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