By James A. Baker
Founder
Baker Communications
In today’s business world, more negotiators are striving for win-win outcomes. It’s easy to understand why: as more and more companies enter into long-term business relationships and partnerships, win-win agreements are becoming indispensable. Companies that depend on each other need to maintain positive relationships and conduct transactions that are mutually beneficial. As a result of this shift, traditionally trained win-lose negotiators are left wondering how to achieve win-win results.
In their landmark book, Getting to Yes, Dr. Roger Fisher and William Ury proposed a systematic framework to increase the likelihood of reaching a win-win agreement. A critical element of this system is an understanding of the distinction between positions and interests.
Positions vs. Interests
Interests and positions are not the same thing. A position denotes what each party wants ?#147; or thinks it wants ?#147; from the negotiation. Interests are the underlying reasons why their demands are important to them. Thus, a position may be a means to satisfy an interest, but a given position is not necessarily the only, or even the best, way to do that. Put simply, positions are negotiable; interests are not.
Focusing solely on positions in negotiations can lead to the underlying interests going unsatisfied, or even unrecognized, which makes a win-win virtually impossible to achieve. Position-focused negotiation can also damage the business relationship, as each party digs in and defends its position at all costs. This can lead to deadlock or a breakdown in negotiations. Both parties will generally have differing positions and they are not likely to be fully compatible. However, the parties may have interests in common, which they can work towards together, or differing interests that are not in conflict, which facilitates a collaborative solution.
It is most conducive to a win-win outcome if the focus is on each party’s interests ?#147; the why of the negotiation. Uncovering these underlying interests helps the negotiators to determine whether there is more than one way to satisfy their true needs. The only way to achieve a win-win outcome is to satisfy the interests of both parties.
Working Towards the Win-Win
Before you even walk into a negotiation, you should have outlined your own interests and made some educated guesses about those of the other party. Set your priorities beforehand and determine what is negotiable and what is not.
Depending on what you know or guess about the other party’s interests, you may be able to identify in advance some areas where you can make concessions that are of more value to them than they are to you, and vice versa. This is an ideal opportunity to create value and to find ways you can each gave up little to gain a lot. This approach is a valuable strategy for reaching a win-win agreement.
Concessions are the terms, conditions and dollars that may be traded in order to reach a win-win. The exchange of concessions is what moves a negotiation to a satisfactory conclusion. Here are some general guidelines for trading concessions:
Through effectively using concessions you can eliminate the zero-sum game, win-lose mentality, by increasing the size of the pie. By focusing on interests instead of positions, creative concessions become a key tool for reaching mutual satisfaction and achieving win-win outcomes in negotiations.
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