In one line: Negotiate on the merits rather than on positions. Separate the people from the problem, dig for interests, create options before deciding, and judge the result against fair standards.
Core idea
Most negotiations default to positional bargaining: each side states a position, defends it, and concedes grudgingly. It produces poor agreements, takes a long time, and damages relationships. The alternative, developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project, is to treat negotiation as joint problem-solving. You can be soft on the people and still be firm on the problem.
How it works
- Separate the people from the problem. Address perceptions, emotions and communication directly, and treat the other side as a partner facing a shared problem.
- Focus on interests, not positions. A position is what someone says they want. An interest is why they want it. Different interests often hide behind opposing positions, and that is where agreement lives.
- Invent options for mutual gain. Brainstorm before evaluating. Look for trades where each side gives what is cheap for them and valuable for the other.
- Insist on objective criteria. Settle differences by reference to fair standards, such as market data, test results, precedent or expert opinion, rather than by force of will.
- Know your BATNA, your best alternative to a negotiated agreement. It sets the point below which you walk away, and it protects you from both overreach and capitulation.
In practice
Engineering negotiations are everywhere: scope against schedule with a customer, test time between two programs, an interface between two teams. A customer insisting on a feature by a date (a position) may really care about a capability being demonstrated at a review (an interest). A partial demo might meet that interest at a fraction of the cost. Objective criteria come naturally to engineers, so propose test data or an agreed standard as the tie-breaker.
Questions to ask yourself
- In my current disagreement, what is the other side’s interest behind their position?
- What is my BATNA, and have I improved it before negotiating?
- What objective standard could we both accept as fair?
Connections
- Choose the mode first: Conflict Styles. Handle the tough moment: Conflict Resolution Competencies.
- Related to: Influence Without Authority, Trade-off Analysis.
- Capabilities exercised: Negotiating and Compromise, Inquiry, Ethical Actions and Integrity.