Transcript Economic and Financial Instruments for IWRM

Conflict Resolution and Negotiation
Skills for Integrated Water Resources
Management
Module 3: Negotiation:
Effective Communication
Goal and objectives of the session
OBJECTIVES
 To describe different methods of effective
communication.
 to emphasize the role communication in conflict
resolution.
OUTCOMES
 Knowledge of the important role of effective
communication in conflict resolution.
SKILLS
 As a mediator/facilitator/negotiator, the
participant will have understanding of the ways of
effective communication in conflict management
and resolution.
Presentation Outline
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3.
4.
Introduction (negotiation)
Effective communication during negotiation
Roles and responsibilities
Why we usually … eventually cooperate
A ‘dispute’
 Divergent interests that are incompatible
and non-reconcilable.
 May escalate into various forms of conflict.
 But conflict can be positive even necessary.
 From normal to pathological.
 Dispute resolution is the management of
conflict.
 Alternative Dispute Resolution emphasises
collective, win-win, participatory
approaches to dispute settlement.
Negotiation
Negotiation is the most common form of dispute
settlement
Adjudication Arbitration
Conciliation/fact finding
‘Good offices’/mediation
Negotiation consultation
Degree of formality
‘The Negotiator’
 Effective communicator
•
Active listening
• Talking clearly and precisely
• Demonstrates understanding
• Clarity of perception
 Techniques
• Reframes positions
• Uses open questions
• Separates the person from the problem
Conditions for Successful Negotiation
(in an ideal world…)
 Willingness to negotiate between/among
identifiable parties
 Interdependence
 Readiness to negotiate
 Parties have means of influence or
leverage
 Parties have agreed on something in the
past
Conditions for Successful Negotiation
(in an ideal world…)
 Will to settle
 Unpredictability of consequences of nonnegotiation
 Sense of urgency
 No major psychological barriers
 The issues must be negotiable
 People involved must have authority to
decide
Negotiation Styles
 Interest-based
• Collaborative
• Jointly meet each other’s needs and
satisfy mutual interests
• Identify interests before propose
solutions
• Search for a variety of solutions to
satisfy all interests
• Collectively select desired options
• Mutually generate agreement
Negotiation Styles
 Positional (power-based or rights-based)
• Present your interests/solutions to
other parties
• Frame desirable solutions as falling
within an acceptable settlement range
Bargaining attitudes
Interest-based
 Resources not limited
 All interests addressed en route to acceptable
agreement
 Focus on interests not positions
 Search for objective or fair standards
 View other negotiators as cooperative problem
solvers not opponents
 Keep people and issues separate (respect
people, focus on interests)
 Search for win-win solutions
Bargaining attitudes
 Positional
• Resources limited
• Other negotiators are your opponent: be
hard on them
• My gain is your loss (zero-sum)
• Goal is to win as much as possible
• Concession is a sign of weakness
• The right solution is my solution
• Always be on the offensive
Benefits of Interest-Based Approaches
 Focus on interests may help change
negative strategic climate
 Participation of all relevant stakeholders
helps find sufficient ground on which to
build enough will to act
 Satisfaction of all interests is recipe for
long term success
 Positional bargaining promotes extreme
positions
Stages of negotiation
 Evaluate and select a strategy to guide
problem solving
 Make contact
 Collect and analyze background information
 Design a detailed plan for negotiation
 Build trust and cooperation
Stages of negotiation
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Open negotiations
Define issues and set agenda
Uncover hidden interests
Generate options for settlement
Assess options
Final bargaining
Steps to be taken
 Identify substantive, procedural and
psychological interests that you expect to be
satisfied through negotiation.
 Ask why and how questions regarding needs
that are important to you.
 Speculate on the motives of other
negotiators.
 Begin negotiations by educating each other
on interests.
 Frame the problem as solvable through winwin approaches.
Steps to be taken
 Identify the general criteria that must be
present in any acceptable settlement.
 Generate multiple options.
 Utilise integrative option generating
techniques.
 Separate option generation from evaluation
process.
 Work toward agreement.
 Identify areas of agreement, restate them,
write them down.
With regard to water….
 What is this particular dispute about?
 Can it be dealt with on its own? Separated
from larger political and/or socio-economic
issues and settings?
 How specific is the dispute? (‘access’)
 Might ‘water’ be a proxy for something
else? Is dealing with this issue likely to lead
to log-rolling?
 What is the temporal setting?
With regard to water….
Five things to keep in mind
 Geography matters
 Power matters
 Sovereignty matters
 Polity matters
 Time matters
When a dispute arises
 Persistent (access)
 Intermittent (seasonal; once every 5-8
years)
 Unexpected (by one party)
 Unexpected (by all parties)
 Hypothetical (what someone might do)
Roles and Responsibilities
 Entrusted to act in best interest of group.
 Entrusted with pursuit of specific group
goals.
 Personal distance from the issue.
Roles: unequally
discourse
Government (gov)
business (com)
civil society (.org)
Multi-layered in transboundary issues
Unstated Communicators
Between ‘Equals’:
Permanent Secretary ---- Permanent Secretary
Minister --- Minister
Tech --- Tech
CBO --- CBO
But intercut with:
Age; Sex; Gender (masculine and effeminate
men), Race; Ethnicity, ‘style’ e.g. ‘the suit’
When a dispute arises:
What are the channels of communication?
Do parties to the dispute have access to each
other?
Is there an identifiable contact point?
MDC, anti-globalization movement, ’flower
power’
What is the institutional framework?
•Ombudsperson, ICJ, tribunal
Do parties know about these entities?
Facilitation and Mediation
Character of an effective mediator
• Ability to create trust.
• Ability to define issues at the heart of the
dispute.
• Patience, endurance, perseverance.
• Thoughtfulness, empathy, flexibility.
• Common sense, rationality.
• Others?
Facilitation and Mediation
 Mediation is flexible, informal, confidential
and non-binding.
 The mediator has no direct interest in the
conflict and its outcome.
 The mediator has no power to render
decisions.
 The mediator looks for alternatives based on
the facts and merits of the case.
Mediation styles and skills
 Facilitative/passive
 Intervening/active
 Willing and able to call on expert
knowledge and/or use decision-support
tools
 Meet with aggrieved parties jointly and
separately
 Elicits ideas from both sides
Mediation styles and skills
 The facilitator
• Assists in meeting design.
• Helps keep meeting on track.
• Clarifies and accepts communication from
parties to the negotiation.
• Accepts and acknowledges feelings.
• Frames a problem in a constructive way.
• Suggests procedures for achieving agreement.
• Summarizes and clarifies direction.
• Engages in consensus-testing at appropriate
points.
DO NOT…
 Judge or criticize
 Push your own ideas
 Take procedural decisions without
consultation
 Take up group’s time with lengthy
comments/commentary
When is mediation/facilitation likely to be
necessary?
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Within the river basin?
Between states?
Within states?
Within national governments?
Why states cooperate on water resources
Resource Characteristics:
 Shared biomes/ecosystems
 live within the resource base
 Water is essential
Why states cooperate on water resources
Characteristics of the Negotiation Setting:
 Negotiators never lack water.
 Sovereignty is a relative power balancer.
 Limited actors.
 Similar roles (e.g. technical experts,
Ministers).
 Other actors watching (and available)
(e.g. more powerful).
 States, IGOs, neighbours, civil society)
 International law/precedent.
 Other actors may mediate/arbitrate if
face-to-face fails .
Point-Source Disputes Resolved
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Water is essential
Live within the resource base
Use profiles embedded in local
structures
Reasons for violent national disputes
 Extreme power imbalances.
 Stakeholders have different water conceptions.
 All stakeholders don’t live within the resource
base.
 Governance structures contradictory and
variable.
 Many actors.
 Divergent roles, capacities and skills of actors.
 Myth of civil society – state interactions.
 No obvious route to mediation.
 Arbitration for negatively impacted parties.