Transcript Conflict resolution

CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND
PRINCIPLED NEGOTIATION
GLEON Fellowship Program
August 2013 Workshop
Based on Getting to Yes
by Fisher, Ury, and Patton
of the Harvard Negotiation Project
Today’s talk and tomorrow’s discussion
• Introduce traditional bargaining: positional negotiation
• Outline an alternative strategy: principled negotiation
• Example-based
• Tuesday: academic case studies
We negotiate every day…
• With a friend about where to go to dinner
• With a supervisor about a deadline
• With your landlord about the terms of your lease
The Problem
Positional negotiation
• Positional bargaining involves successively taking- and
then giving up- positions
• Shopkeeper example
The Problem
Positional negotiation
• Soft: Make
concessions on
position to preserve
relationship
• Hard: Insist on
position at the cost of
the relationship
When was the last time you engaged in
hard bargaining and/or soft bargaining?
The Problem
Positional negotiation
• Hard bargaining
• May produce unwise outcomes
• Inefficient
• Endangers ongoing relationships
• Ineffective for multiple party disputes
• Risk of losing face or getting locked into stated position
• Soft bargaining
• More efficient
• Vulnerable to hard bargainers
• The major problem in many negotiations is that people
assume positions as either hard or soft bargainers
The Method
Principled negotiation
• Fisher, Ury, and Patton suggest it is possible to
be soft on the people and hard on the problem
• People: Separate the people from the problem
• Interests: Focus on interests, not positions
• Options: Invent multiple options looking for mutual gains
before deciding what to do
• Criteria: Insist that the result be based on some objective
standard
Separate the people from the problem
Recognize that emotions and egos can become entangled
with the problem in negotiations. These can adversely
affect your ability to see the other party's position clearly.
• Union example
• Clarify perceptions
• Pay attention to core concerns
• Recognize and legitimize emotions
• Communicate clearly
• Listen first to understand, then speak to be understood
Separate the people from the problem
Many emotional responses are driven by ‘core concerns’
• Autonomy: the desire to make your own choices and
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control your own fate
Appreciation: the desire to be recognized and valued
Affiliation: the desire to belong as an accepted member
of some peer group
Role: the desire to have a meaningful purpose
Status: the desire to feel fairly seen and acknowledged
• Ignoring these concerns can generate strong negative
emotions
Focus on interests, not positions
Explore the true interests underlying the positions of each
side, rather than a focus on the superficial positions with
which parties come to the table. The initial positions
presented may obscure what the parties really want.
• Tenant-landlady example
• Ask questions to explore interests
• Talk about your own interests
Invent options for mutual gain
Parties set aside time together to generate alternative
candidate solutions. The idea is that parties contribute
together creatively to generate possibilities for mutual gain
(a ‘win-win’ agreement).
This step involves:
• Brainstorming
• Broadening options
• Looking for mutual gain
• Making their decision easy
Obstacles to inventing options
Premature judgment
• Creativity can be difficult when under scrutiny and
immediate judgment
• The fear that inventing options may reveal
information that may jeopardize your bargaining
position may limit creativity
Obstacles to inventing options
Searching for the single answer
People often try to create solutions that narrow the
gap between positions, rather than broadening
options available
• “I’ll pay $200”
• “$250 is the best deal I can offer”
• Options need not lie on a single dimension
• Racing to the single answer may cut short a wiser
decision making process selected from a large number of
options
Obstacles to inventing options
The assumption of a fixed pie
Many of us often assume a ‘fixed sum’ game,
assuming very limited potential outcomes
• Orange example
Obstacles to inventing options
Solving their problem is their problem
Each side is most concerned
with their own immediate
interests
• There is often a psychological
reluctance to legitimize the other
side’s interests because of the risk of
weakening one’s own position
• Failure to detach from your own
position will narrow your ability to
come up with solutions that satisfy
both parties
Prescriptions to the obstacles
• Separate the act of inventing options from the act of
judging them
• Broaden options on the table rather than looking for a
single answer
• Look through the eyes of different experts
• Change the scope of the agreement
• Search for mutual gains
• Dovetailing differing interests
• Invent ways of making the other side’s decision easy
• Iraqi farmer example
Photo credit: Reuters
Using objective criteria
Use an objective criteria for evaluating the candidate
solutions. Options should be consistent with
• Fair standards or procedures
• Precedent
• Market value
• Independent third party
• ‘One cuts, the other chooses’
• Cake example
• Law of the Sea example
Knowing your alternatives to negotiating
• If there is a large power imbalance, you may feel destined
to be on the losing end of the deal
• You may be pressured into accepting an outcome that is
not beneficial to you
• You may be too committed to reaching an agreement
• E.g., you have invested a lot of time negotiating a deal
Know your best alternative to negotiated agreement
(BATNA)
Knowing your alternatives
• The reason you negotiate is to produce something better
than the results you can obtain without negotiating
• Selling the house example
• Knowing you BATNA will allow you to weigh potential
outcomes against your alternatives
Knowing your alternatives
• Sharing your BATNA with the other side may strengthen
your bargaining power
• Knowing the other side’s BATNA will allow you to have
realistic expectations for the negotiation
Generating a BATNA
• Invent a list of actions you may take if no agreement is
reached
• Improve the promising ideas and convert them into
practical alternatives
• Select the alternative that seems best
• Job offer in Chicago example
Knowing your alternatives
Cautions
• Considering the aggregate of alternatives
• Salary raise example
• BATNAs may be more favorable than any negotiated
outcome
The Method
Principled negotiation
• Be soft on the people and hard on the problem
• People: Separate the people from the problem
• Interests: Focus on interests, not positions
• Options: Invent multiple options looking for mutual
gains before deciding what to do
• Criteria: Insist that the result be based on some
objective standard
• Know your BATNA
Based on Getting to Yes
by Fisher, Ury, and Patton
of the Harvard Negotiation Project
Image credit: Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/book-getting-to-yes.png