Negotiation Innovation

Get right with your interactions!

Learn to apply a consistent behavior in your negotiations.

Take time for renewal in your interactions.

Building trust is essential for doing business (and maintaining relationships) in a connected world. This podcast episode brings some research to bear on real stories of trusting, and not trusting organizations.

Some incredibly interesting research calls into question the drivers behind gender differences in negotiated outcomes. This episode is meant to spur some questions, as well as push for some critical thought about how our genders approach negotiation.

New research shows that providing more information can impact the long-term benefits in a negotiation much more than previously thought. Providing a negotiating partner with information that can provide them with more profit, at your own expense, can impact trust and long-term relationships in a way that can dramatically impact your negotiation. This research even looks at the impact of providing the other negotiator with your reservation price, a previously unthinkable strategy.

Recent research has found that negotiators approach their interactions differently depending on the number of parties to the negotiation. Specifically, the negotiators change their strategy when faced with a multiparty negotiation, rather than a dyadic negotiation. In this episode I break down the research and give you some practical applications.

Learn to manage the impact of incidental emotions on your negotiation.

Continuing the series exploring research, this episode examines the value of research over anecdotal learning. I talk about some pertinent research on offers, trust, and lying in negotiation.

Continuing the summer look into current research in negotiation, this episode explains some research on fairness perceptions in online negotiation. After the last episode covered the efficacy of face to face negotiation, this episode tackles the inevitable online negotiation.

All through the summer I am going to break down some relevant research to help you negotiate better. In this episode I look at current research from the Journal of Neuroscience that supports the idea that face to face negotiation is superior to negotiation over Zoom or other technology.

After a difficult year, many of us have had a time to reflect on our values and beliefs. Alignment of values and behavior is something that takes a great deal of deliberate work. Your relationships and interactions deserve that alignment. This episode reflects on some important considerations for proper alignment of values, beliefs, and behavior.

We live in a global economy, but that doesn't mean we can ignore cultural differences. But we need to acknowledge that culture is more than national or ethnic culture. Understanding culture at a deeper level takes more effort. Additionally, we need to understand the individual representing the culture with whom we are doing business. If you understand the culture, you can use it as a starting point to understand the individual.

Outside of the context of relationships, rules don't carry a lot of meaning. Learn to build the relationships in your (business) life so that the rules of negotiation can carry you to greater gains for everyone involved.

Every now and then you need to take stock of your interactions and strategically reset them.

Winning isn't relevant to negotiation, but gaining is. Shift your focus and change your interactions (and your life).

Winning isn't relevant to negotiation.

We all make a choice about our identity, every day. Sometimes the identity we believe we have is incongruous with the identity others have for us. This podcast will challenge you to take control of your identity, to understand that others may see you differently, and to be ok with that.

In this episode I revisit a subject that I addressed at the beginning of the pandemic, mental health. The pandemic has caused a lack of connection with others and this is impacting our mental health. In this episode I get a little preachy in my discussion of our collective and individual mental health.

We all make decisions based on set a set of conscious or unconscious parameters that we set for ourselves. This episode will help you understand your decision making process and will give you some clarity about those decisions moving forward. Additionally, this episode wraps up the series on strategic negotiation.

When negotiators talk about a score or winners and losers it's an attempt to put language and understanding on an outcome that is often difficult to define. We try to use comparisons, but others in the negotiation don't share our interests, nor do they measure the outcomes against the interest in the same way. In our culture that relies on scores and gamification to understand interactions, learn to set your self free from those restrictions in your negotiation.

Don't let the outcome take care of itself. Be strategic in the way you approach outcomes in your negotiation. Be aware of things that stand in the way of creative outcomes, and be courageous in working toward those outcomes.

Business and life depend on trust. In today's online, connected world building trust is a more difficult proposition. It takes deliberate, consistent actions to build trust, but just a small problem to cause suspicion. This episode will help you develop a strategic approach to building trust and managing suspicion.

Relationships are important to achieving more in society.With- out a relationship, there is no possibility for interdependence in the negotiation. If we remove the relationship and the interdependence, we are in a zero-sum, or win-lose, negotiation. This doesn't mean there is no opportunity to negotiate, but it does mean that there is no opportunity to maximize the gain. How we value our relationships is important to the process. Each relationship grows our reputation, and the reputation we carry is important for the process and the outcome we can achieve. This episode focuses on managing our relationships to positively impact our negotiations.

Power - those who don't have it, want it. Those who do have it, want more. Power, when used to impact, change, or threaten, is almost universally negative. Power, when used correctly, can be very useful in guiding, educating, and increasing outcomes. This episode explores some different ideas for the use of power in negotiation.

We negotiate to achieve gains greater than we could alone. Each of us has resourcesfrom which we pull to achieve the outcomes in life that are important to us. However, if we want to maximize our gains, we need to also draw from the resources controlled by others. This exchange of resources is facilitated by working with others. We say “working with others” because the reality of interdependence is giving up control in the interaction. We need to be willing to relinquish control to others in order to achieve the gains that are possible. Interdependence means that neither party has dominance over the other. Those who enter the negotiation willing to share appropriate information, create value, and build the relationship are in a much more powerful position than those who are reticent to share information, don't create value, and disregard the relationship.

While there's nothing inherently wrong with being selfless, there is also the reality in life that we're trying to achieve some outcome. Additionally, those with whom we negotiate are also trying to achieve an outcome. The competitive view of negotiation puts these outcomes at odds, producing a winner and a loser in the negotiation. So, how can negotiators balance getting their own outcome and benefitting the others in the negotiation, without it becoming an altruistic endeavor? This episode examines the thought process behind competitive versus collaborative negotiation and how to maximize gain, while benefitting others.

Collaboration is a motive in your actions, not a behavior. Most people would express a desire to be collaborative, but when faced with the reality of a negoti- ation situation research shows that they drop into a competitive mindset within five minutes of the start of the negotiation—regardless of the mindset they have entering the negotiation. Collaborative negotiation is the path to higher joint gains. Most people negotiate competitively to be sure that no one takes advantage of them. Why do negotiators think they are at risk of being exploited? It's because they don't have a clear idea of their interests, they are too focused on the positions in the negotiation, and they know they will have to give on the positions to achieve an outcome. Collaboration is the process of working with others to find the ways to increase outcomes for all involved.

There is a link between your cognition and your behavior – that is, what you think impacts what you do. If you think that you can control or impact your outcomes in the organization with the work that you do, that will impact your behavior. If you enter every negotiation with the desire to win, it can impact your behavior in ways that may not be evident. This episode examines the typical win motive and points to a better way.

This episode examines the offers and concessions that we prepare before the negotiation and how to strategically use those. This includes answering the question about making first offers, strategically using your reasons for negotiating to open up creative outcomes, and using those reasons appropriately to achieve the best outcome.

In the continued series on Strategic Negotiation, this episode examines some of the causes of ambiguity in our negotiations. Much of the ambiguity stems from differences in the information that the participants have, as well as differences in the interpretation of that information. I walk through some of the common causes of these differences and lay out some plans to address information ambiguity in a positive way.

The first episode in a series on Strategic Negotiation examines the preparation of interests for your interaction. Most people prepare for negotiation, but without a clear focus on the interests, the reasons why for negotiating and the outcomes. This episode is focused on developing a strategic approach to those interests and shifting your focus from what you want, to why you want it.

Everyone was taken by surprise when the pandemic forced us into a new way of doing business. Some adapted really well, some adapted really poorly. The difference between having a plan and having a strategy could make or break you in your interactions. Since we all negotiate, we all need a strategy. A plan can help you as long as things don't deviate from the plan. A strategy can save you when things don't go as planned. In this new season, I am going to spend the first 15 episodes on developing a strategy covering the topics of Preparation, Motivation, Process, Interaction, and Outcome. At the end of this series you will be able to develop a comprehensive strategy for maximizing your negotiation interactions.

Everyone tells a story in their interactions. Knowing that and managing it are two different things. This episode (the last episode of 2020) addresses managing your story in a genuine way. We don't want to be fake, but we do want to manage our impressions, our professionalism, and our reputation. Have a plan and manage your story to impact your interactions and your outcomes.

In order to level up your negotiation skills you need to be strategic. This episode will give you some focus in strategic preparation, strategic communication, and strategic process.

Not every negotiator enters an interaction with the motive to achieve an outcome. Some negotiators are interacting to get information without agreement, some to stall an agreement, and some negotiators are actively trying to sabotage an agreement. This episode examines these insincere motives in light of some recent research on the topic and provides guidance on dealing with (and using) insincere tactics.

There is always something to be thankful for, if you look at the big picture.

Positional bargaining is a typical way to negotiate. However, there are better ways to achieve your outcomes. In this episode I walk through three ways to move you beyond positional bargaining and into more productive negotiations.

Some say to remove all emotion from your negotiations, but that emotion is important. This episode focuses on using that emotion in a way that will allow for more productive negotiations. If you understand the emotional content you can impact the creativity and innovation, you can improve your relationships, and you can better understand the process.

Special Election Day episode. Learn to disagree well.

We often move through negotiations at a breakneck speed. In this episode, I spend some time breaking down some of the reasons for our rushing, as well as providing some prescriptive advice to address our timing. This will give you some opportunity to evaluate your negotiation timing and slow down!

Political behavior exists across a wide spectrum of organizations. From small local organizations to the national stage, politics can be very divisive. In this episode I give you four methods to diffuse political activity in your organizations and move toward positive relationships and positive outcomes.

What you say and how you say it can have a profound effect on the interactions you have and the outcomes from those interactions. Are you deliberate about how you present information? Do you think about whether you are presenting the opportunity as a gain, or as a loss? Do you know the impact of each of these frames? This episode takes a deeper look at the impact of framing in our interactions. Based on Nobel Prize winning research and ideas from research in the area of persuasion, I will help you frame your discussions for maximum impact.

Don't settle for less, settle for more. Fight to get gains in your negotiation. This podcast will give you three strategies to develop as you grow into a fierce collaborator.

Sometimes we get stuck in a cycle of small offers and small concessions as a defensive response to other negotiators. In this episode I make the case for getting beyond that haggling view of negotiation and rather looking for ways to accept the offers of others and provide them with extravagant outcomes. It's only possible if we stop thinking defensively, and start thinking big.

Most of the time when a negotiator proclaims something to be unfair, they are complaining that they didn't get what they wanted. Typically, that's due to fear or ignorance (generally not being knowledgeable about the possible outcomes or ways to maximize value). This episode gives you some ideas about avoiding this behavior and controlling the perception of unfairness for others with whom you interact.

We live in a society that prioritizes goals that are superficial, shallow, and poorly focused. This causes us to pursue behavior that doesn't fit with the the organizational, and sometimes the personal, goals. We need to measure differently. We need to measure better. This episode shines the light on some of those missed opportunities and points the direction forward for both individuals and organizations.

This episode will help you understand where trust comes from in our interactions. Since trust is such an important aspect of negotiations, and most every interaction, I will also look at how trust is built and how trust is maintained. I also talk about the impact of trust in our decision-making process.

Everyone wants to gain in their interactions. Communicating that to the others involved is an important step in building trust, developing relationships, and maximizing gains. This episode will address these ideas and build some support for transparency in our interactions.

Do you want to be a strong negotiator? Do you know what that means? I explain three characteristics of weak negotiators and contrast that with three characteristics of strong negotiators. It may not mean what you think it means to be a strong negotiator.

Our interactions can always be better. Lately I've noticed that many of our interactions are strained because of anxiety and isolation. This podcasts examines the interactions and suggests four steps to address that strain for the better. Bonus material, I'll teach you how to navigate a four-way stop.