The Art of Negotiation

This week, Girls in Tech had a phenomenal turnout at our first annual all-female Catalyst Conference.  When people asked me which panel I enjoyed the most, my answer was truthfully, “all of them.”   That said, as a business development gal, I found Katherine Barr’s workshop on “The Art of Negotiation” the most interesting.

A partner at MDV, Katherine started the workshop by asking the audience to pair up, and assume the arm wrestling position.  (Visualize a full room of 400+ women poised to arm wrestle.)  Next were the instructions: Without speaking to each other, know that each time you move your partner’s arm all the way down, you earn a million dollars.  At this point, it was clear as day to me that we would both see-saw each other’s arms down as quickly as possible to earn the most money.  But my partner didn’t see it that way.  She held her arm firm.  After struggling for a bit, I signaled to her with a smile, and a couple of nods, then loosened my hand, and we were on our way to earning millions.  Surprisingly, others in the audience around us sat at a standstill.

For the next exercise, we received handouts that included a Negotiation Preparation Template and a fictional negotiation scenario that audience pairs role-played.  The preparation template included the below framework to kick-start creative problem solving and brain-storming before entering a negotiation.

1.)    Interests — Identify Yours, Theirs, and Relevant third parties’ interests
– Do your research and know what is important to your counterpart

2.)    Options – What different options meet the various interests of all parties?
– Being CREATIVE is the key to successful negotiations
– Options allow people to move away from cold hard cash, and stubborn positions
– Creative brainstorming opens people up to the possibilities.

3.)    Legitimacy – What objective standards can be used during negotiations to assess fairness?

4.)    Alternatives – Identify the alternatives available if you don’t close this deal
– Knowing your alternatives give you the power to walk away from the table
– Without alternatives, you may feel trapped and be persuaded into a bad deal

Additional tips to keep in mind during negotiations:

1.) Commitment – Be clear on what you are committing to
2.) Relationship – Be mindful that everything you do before and after the negotiation affects the relationship
3.) Communication – Clearly communicate and test assumptions to understand each other’s interest

What resonated the most about the workshop was Katherine’s emphasis on focusing negotiations on interests rather than positions.  With positions, negotiations tend to be more territorial and ego-based, i.e. if you win, I lose.  When focusing on interests, everyone can walk away feeling like a winner.