Description of Challenge
Learning to negotiate for a mutually beneficial outcome with another person or a group of people is
a core human skill. Your attitude, knowing what you want and how much you are prepared to
compromise is crucial to every negotiations success.
“By fighting you never get enough, but by yielding you get more than you expected.” Dale
Carnegie
Solution
This is a metaskill and used in nearly every human situation where people have to share
resources. Some people treat human relations as a war and so negotiation is a war. For others,
where ensuring the best possible outcome for everyone is at the heart of the negotiation process,
a very different approach is used. You need to listen attentively to what the other person wants. In
some negotiation approaches, teachers or trainers suggest you learn as much about the other
person before you communicate your needs. For others, it’s just about getting as much information
out on the table as possible, as clearly and transparently as possible. When as much information
is out on the table as possible, and when the questions you want to ask have been answered, then
often the decision that benefits each party or group presents itself automatically. In situations
where there is deadlock or when either party or group is not conceding, then patience is at the
centre.
References
Web: theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiation
practice http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/negotiation.html
Exercises / courses:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/negotiationskills
Submitted by W Graham Stewart, Wind Harvest International
Developed in collaboration with
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