Transcripts

Daniel Shapiro:
I think negotiation is a creative endeavor. People often exclude creativity from negotiation. But one of the most powerful skills a person can have is to bring creativity into a negotiation.

Daniel Shapiro, co-author of the book, Beyond Reason Using Emotions As You Negogiate.

Once I understand your interests, your concerns, once you understand mine, we can then start creatively brainstorming options that meet both your concerns and my concerns at the same time.

And this style of negotiating works much better in most cases than the typical adversarial negotiation.

And the rules of adversarial bargaining are very simple. Start with an extreme demand, concede stubbornly and demonstrate a greater willingness than the other side to walk away from the table. The problem is that, that approach does not work well when you have multiple issues other than just money. When quantitative and qualitative issues are a part of the negotiation. When you care about the other person for example. You know I can't simply say to the other side, "I'll give you 20% less humiliation if you give me 60% more pride."

Daniel says when you start to think about negotiating differently you'll likely come up with better solutions.

Too many negotiations fail when they don't have to fail. When there are options, that if they just put their heads together and were able to create the environment for creative thinking, they could come up with some sort of agreement.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net, I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.