Successful

Negotiation Essay
Diego Magaa
Jos Mario Corleto
June 10th, 2015
Escuela Cristiana
Oasis

The Successful Negotiation course is meant to provide the basic and most
important tools every negotiator should have and should know how to use.
The course was made by the University of Michigan, and it is imparted by
Professor George Siedel, who teaches at the Ross School of Business in the
University of Michigan.
The course in Successful Negotiation divides the negotiation process into
four main parts: Prepare Negotiate, Close, and Perform and Evaluate.
In the first stage, Prepare, you have to plan your negotiation strategy. You
have to determine which negotiation style suits you best and stick to it,
because when negotiating you want to appear natural and be at ease, not
constantly worried that you may vary from a set negotiation style that does
not suit you. You have to determine the whether the negotiation is positionbased or interest-based. In position-based negotiations the parties involved
lock themselves into a position and try to defend and impose their position
onto the other party, and it is common that both parties think only in their
own interests without trying to meet the other partys interests. In interestbased negotiation the parties involved state their interests at the beginning
of the negotiation and then work towards trying to meet both parties
interests. You also have to determine whether the negotiation is a disputeresolution or a deal-making negotiation. As its name suggests, in a disputeresolution negotiation the parties involved are trying to solve a dispute
between them, any kind of disagreement or problem that happened
between the parties involved. A dispute-resolution negotiation can be
conducted using several methods like Litigation, Arbitration, Mediation,
Power, Avoidance, or simple Negotiation. In a deal-making negotiation the
parties involved are trying to reach an agreement that will benefit both
parties. When preparing for a negotiation you want to set some guidelines
for you to follow and to not end up losing more than what you won. You have
to set a reservation price, which is the highest price you are willing to pay
for something or the lowest price you will accept for something, depending
on whether you are the seller or the buyer, your stretch goal, which is the
best price that is beneficial for you that you can imagine that is reasonable,
identify alternatives to the deal and the zones of potential agreement, the
range in which both you and the other party are willing to make a deal. You
also have to use decisions trees, tools that help you calculate the benefits of
the different options you have in a negotiation, to determine your Best
Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA). Your BATNA is basically the
option that you would take if the conditions of the deal you have right now
do not satisfy you. Your BATNA can either give more or less leverage, and
based on this you decide whether to reveal it to the other party or not.
While planning your negotiation you have to take into account the
differences that are present in cross-cultural negotiations. In a cross-cultural

negotiation it is advised to retain your normal negotiation style unless you

have extensive knowledge of the culture that you will be negotiating with,
because if you try to imitate their culture without a proper knowledge of that
culture you can make a mistake that could damage your standing with the
other party. Besides, you have to take into account the ethical issues that
may arise in some negotiations. There are two kinds of ethical issues: Legal
ethical issues and Moral ethical issues. Legal ethical issues are the ones that
are enforced by the law and that are explicitly prohibited unless you want to
face justice. These are not necessarily moral, but they have to be obeyed for
a contract to be valid. Moral ethical issues are the ones that cannot be
enforced by the law but that are frowned upon by other people. There are
several ways to solve an ethical issue. You can imagine someone telling your
family what you did during the negotiation and ask yourself if they would be
proud of what you did. You could also ask yourself if you want your actions
during the negotiation to be in the news and imagine what your mentors
would think of you if they found out what you did. The last thing discussed
in this module was whether to use agents for the negotiation or to do it
yourself. When deciding that you have to take into account several factors
such as how much time do you have available to dedicate to the whole
process of negotiation, if the agent knows the topic of negotiation better
than you do, and if he is a better negotiator than you are. All these things
are done before the actual negotiation; they are the preparations you have
to make beforehand.
The second stage, Negotiate, is the actual process of negotiating face to
face with the other party. First, you have to identify the amount of power
that you have and where it comes from. Your power usually comes from your
BATNA, and it is proportional to how good your BATNA is. If your BATNA is
strong, then you will have a great amount of power and you want to reveal
your BATNA to the other party, but if your BATNA is weak you want to keep it
hidden from the other party because it would show them that you have little
power. You can increase you power your power by making your BATNA seem
stronger, but you have to be careful not to lie, as it is an ethical issue that
we discussed during the first stage. You also want to be careful not to
diminish your power by making your BATNA seem weak. During a
negotiation you can use some psychological tools that will help gain an
advantage over the other party. Most people assume that when they enter a
negotiation their interests are at odds with the interests of the other party,
but if you keep a good perspective you can overcome this and use it to your
advantage in making the other party agree to what you really want without
them knowing, but you have to be careful to take into account their
interests too. Another mistake that most people often make is to take the
initial pieces of information and adjust their views to that information, which
is called anchoring. You can use this to your advantage by giving the other
party only the information that you know is beneficial to you and from that
information the other party will adjust all the other information to fit with
that view. You can also use a technique called framing. You can frame your
proposals so that they are more appealing to the other side. You can do this

by making your proposal and pointing out how doing that will benefit the
other party. Availability is another tool that you have at your disposal. You
can use the availability of certain information to create a bias in the
decisions of the other party. When you have reached a point in the
negotiation where you are not satisfied you can use a tool called escalation.
Escalation involves revising previous parts of the deal and change them to
your benefit. Escalation often irritates the other party, so you have to be
careful not to push too far, but if used correctly it can be a great tool. Some
other tools that you can use are reciprocation, the need that all humans
have to repay a favour; the contrast principle, which makes a proposal seem
more appealing after making a preposterous proposal; and not to lose sight
of the Big Picture. However, you have to be careful, because these same
tools that you can use to tip a negotiation in your favour can also be used by
the other party as traps to tip the negotiation in their favour.
In the third stage, Close, you are going to be creating a contract. A contract
is a binding agreement between two or more parties that is enforceable by
the law. When creating a contract you have to take into consideration the
source of contract law, whether it is civil law or common law, and the
different characteristics each of them has. To create a contract, both parties
must have come to an agreement beforehand. You cannot create a valid
contract if the other party has not agreed to those terms, and likewise, the
other party cannot create a valid contract if you have not agreed to those
terms. Also, for a contract to be enforceable by the law, both parties must
have given up something. If a party gives up something but the other party
has not given up anything that contract cannot be enforceable by the law.
Besides, your contract must be legal in the eyes of the law for it to be
enforceable by the law itself. For example, if you agree to sell a truckload of
cocaine to another person and the other person does not pay you, you
cannot take that case to the court because it is an illegal agreement. In
some countries it is required to have a written contract for it to be
enforceable by the law, but it is not always the case, and you can be bound
by a verbal contract. However, there must be proof that there was an
agreement and that the verbal contract was made, either by the confession
of the parties involved or some other evidence. And the written contract
does not necessarily have to be in twenty-page document, it can be written
in something as simple as a napkin.
When you are involved in negotiation, you always want to prepare
beforehand to the best of your ability. During the actual negotiation you can
use some of the many psychological tools at your disposal and be careful to
avoid the traps that the other party sets. And after the negotiation you have
to create a valid contract that is agreed upon by both parties and
enforceable by the law.