Six Tips fo Women Negotiators

"1. Get optimistic and set yourself high goals
2. Be prepared. Look for information in unexpected places.
3. Create a support network and search out a mentor.
4. Negotiate the relationship – just how do you want them to see you ?
5. Look for signals that your being a woman is the (unspoken) issue.
6. Work on projecting confidence."

Read more in EuropeanPWN - Do women negotiate differently from men?

Designing an Effective Workplace Dispute Resolution Program

An excellent article from Strategic HR Lawyer about the importance of design in administering workplace dispute resolution (DR) programs contains the following insights:

"The design of the program is critical to its success...The most effective programs are those that focus not only on legal compliance and litigation avoidance, but also focus on fairness. In addition, organizational support and the availability of professional resources to assist employees will promote this goal. Some of the systems characteristics that are important include:

-Availability of expert resources to aid employees in
the processing of their grievances
-Level of input employees have into the process
-Impartiality or degree of independence from management
of the person making the actual decision
-Timeliness and speed of the process
-Consistency with which complaints are resolved
-Degree of top management and line management support
of the program
-Extent to which the process fits the organizational culture...

Organizational research clearly demonstrates that the most effective DR programs are those that promote fairness and objectivity. Often, employees are less concerned about the outcome than they are about the process itself. Thus, if employees view the process as one that is fair and equitable, they are less likely to doubt it or ultimately challenge its findings.

The following are some suggested concepts to discuss when designing a DR program:

-Are the individuals who are charged with administering
the program properly trained?
-Are the individuals charged with administering the program
trustworthy?
-Is the outcome of the process clearly explained to the complainant?
-Is there an appeal mechanism that is administered consistently and fairly and more than merely a “rubber
stamp” for management?
-Are delineated timelines realistic and followed consistently?
-Are employees involved in the administration of the system?
-How impartial or independent of management is the
fact finder in any investigation or review of a complaint?
-How impartial or independent of management is any
decision-maker?
-Does the process itself fit within the organization’s
culture?
-Does top management support the program, or does it
exercise discretion to resolve matters outside of the program in a seemingly arbitrary manner?

Legal standards of compliance for DR programs do not necessarily effectively address all of these due process issues. The gap between passing legal muster and one that
addresses these due process issues is often the hallmark of a successful program versus a merely adequate program."

Business Tools for Negotiation

These BNET: Business Tools for Busy Leaders cover everything from initiating a conversation to uncovering lies to getting everything in writing, including the following:

"Strategic Sourcing: Contract Negotiation
Good contracts thoroughly document the business and legal agreements that govern a business relationship, and they should be relatively easy to follow and understand. This article defines eight critical issues to consider during the negotiation and documentation of successful contracts.

Ten Lessons in Detecting Deception
Most people think they can detect deception, but most over-estimate their ability to do so. For the negotiator, this misapprehension can have severe consequences. This article offers suggestions for understanding the limitations of perception and better identifying and dealing with deception.

Using the Six Laws of Persuasion During Negotiation
To be successful in negotiations, you have to "sell" your ideas and, in a win-win situation, provide the other side with a fair deal. You must appeal to the intellect using logical and objective criteria as well as engaging the emotions of the negotiators. The result of a successful negotiation is that all parties should believe they got a good deal.

What To Watch For When It's Time to Get the Deal in Writing
Most people think of negotiating as the verbal give and take that brings two opposing parties to a point of agreement. That is the heart of negotiating, but just as important is the transition to the written contract that formalizes the verbal agreement. This article outlines key steps in developing a written contract.

27 Principles Of Negotiating
If people ask for something before a contract is signed, it is called negotiating. If they ask for something after a contract is signed, it is called begging. In business, it's better to be a good negotiator than an expert beggar. This concise article covers the basics of negotiating, including some fundamental principles and negotiating tactics."

Overview of Negotiations and Conflict Resolution Principles

This webpage of Professor E. Wertheim, College of Business Administration, Northeastern University, provides an excellent overview of relevant concepts and suggestions for more effective negotiations, including the following:

"Pay particular attention to these generalizations:

Conflict is an ongoing process that occurs against a backdrop of continuing relationships and events;

Such conflict involves the thoughts, perceptions, memories, and emotions of the people involved; these must be considered.

Negotiations are like a chess match; have a strategy; anticipate how the other will respond; how strong is your position, and situation; how important is the issue; how important will it be to stick to a hardened position

Begin with a positive approach: Try to establish rapport and mutual trust before starting; try for a small concession early

Pay little attention to initial offers: these are points of departure; they tend to be extreme and idealistic; focus on the other person's interests and your own goals and principles, while you generate other possibilities"

and

"Keys to Integrative Bargaining

Orient yourself towards a win-win approach: your attitude going into negotiation plays a huge role in the outcome

Plan and have a concrete strategy...be clear on what is important to you and why it is important

Know your BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Alternative)

Separate people from the problem

Focus on interests, not positions; consider the other party's situation:

Create Options for Mutual Gain:

Generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do

Aim for an outcome based on some objective standard

Pay a lot of attention to the flow of negotiation;

Take the Intangibles into account; communicate carefully

Use Active Listening Skills; rephrase, ask questions and then ask some more"

Coming At Conflict With Compassion

"To resolve conflict, no matter how exasperating the disagreement at hand, we should approach our adversary with an open heart laden with compassion. Judgments and blame must be cast aside and replaced with mutual respect. Conflict is frequently motivated by unspoken needs that are masked by confrontational attitudes or aggressive behavior. When we come at conflict with love and acceptance in our hearts, we empower ourselves to discover a means to attaining collective resolution...

Make a conscious effort to release any anger or resentment you feel...This can help you approach your disagreement rationally, with a steady voice and a willingness to compromise...

Examine your thoughts and feelings carefully. You may discover stubbornness within yourself that is causing resistance or that you are unwittingly feeding yourself negative messages about your adversary. As your part in disagreements becomes gradually more clear, each new conflict becomes another chance to further hone your empathy, compassion, and tolerance."

Read more in this DailyOM post.

Conflict Resolution in Ten Steps

Darren Rowse offers these 10 Steps to Conflict Resolution in the context of attempting to resolve disputes among bloggers. He notes that the points come out of a resource by the ‘Prepare/Enrich’ marriage counselling program and are designed for couples working through specific areas of conflict in an ongoing relationship. He contends, and I agree, they have more general application. The ten steps are:

"1. Set a time and place for discussion...
2. Define the problem or issue of disagreement...
3. How do you each contribute to the problem?...
4. List past attempts to resolve the issue that were not successful...
5. Brainstorm. List all possible solutions...
6. Discuss and evaluate these possible solutions...
7. Agree on one solution to try...
8. Agree on how each individual will work toward this solution...
9. Set up another meeting. Discuss your progress...
10. Reward each other as you each contribute toward the solution..."

Mediation is Good for Business

"Madison, Wisc.-based attorney, Terry Peppard, says that mediation, 'is now an exceptionally well-proven business process, and there should be no business executive anywhere in America who is not intimately familiar with the mediation process and its benefits.' Peppard, who recently published Arbitration and Mediation of Business Disputes says, 'You can't be a good executive if you don't know that this is out there and what it can do for you.' According to Peppard, there are several instances when mediation is the 'best way for a business to go.' These are when:

• It is important to maintain a valuable business relationship between the parties while still resolving the dispute.

• It is important for a client to avoid disclosure of confidential business data.

• It is important that the case be resolved as fast as possible to avoid disrupting business operations."

For more, including links to attorney Peppard's article and other related links and items, see this National Arbitration Forum Blog post.

Conflict is Unavoidable; Suffering is Optional

"Conflict is an unavoidable part of business life...If disagreements or misunderstandings between team members or departments is hurting productivity, it's time to find a solution. It's easy to hope things will blow over, but that rarely happens. You need to open lines of communication, resolve differences, and put the focus back on getting work done.

These BNET resources will help you improve your own conflict resolution skills and avoid the worst conflicts in the future:

Alternative Dispute Resolution...
Alternative dispute resolution, particularly if it is entered into voluntarily by the parties rather than being forced on them by a court order, can bring with it substantial savings in time, money, and the expenditure of human resources that would otherwise be needed to engage in a long and stressful court battle.

Is Conflict Prevention the Same as Conflict Avoidance?
Some people think that prevenging conflict is the same as avoiding conflict, which is not the case. This article describes the difference between the two approaches, and how conflict prevention involves the elimination of unnecessary conflict in the workplace.

Conflict Coaching for Leaders
Conflict arises from a clash of divergent perspectives and ideas on a particular issue. Several methodologies are available for amicable resolution of conflicts. Conflict coaching is an individualized approach towards imparting conflict resolution skills in leaders and managers. It provides a practical forum for those whose effectiveness suffers due to the lack of conflict competence. The paper examines the nuances of conflict coaching and discusses issues involved therein.

Conflict and Cooperation in the Workplace
In the workplace, you are likely to find two forms of conflict. The first is conflict about decisions, ideas, directions and actions. The second form, "personalized conflict" is often called a personality conflict. In this form, the two parties simply don't like each other much. This article reveiws elements of both types conflict, how they escalate over time, and how to use a few general strategies to deal with them.

Seven Tips for Cross-Cultural Conflict Resolution
Team members work in increasingly diverse environments. They include age, gender, race, language, and nationality. Beyond these differences, there are also deeper cultural differences that influence the way conflict is approached. One reason that teams fail to meet performance expectations is their paralysis through unresolved conflict. The paper discusses the impact of culture on the prevention and resolution of conflict in teams and suggests seven ways to resolve problems.

Tough Conversations at the Top
Managers spend an inordinate amount of time putting out fires, particularly interpersonal ones. It is not uncommon for a manager to spend 20 percent of his or her time managing conflict of one degree or another. Conflict is not something to be suppressed in an organization, nor is it to be ignored. There is a strong link between the ability to resolve conflict effectively and being perceived effectiveness as a leader. Managers who resolve conflict by perspective taking, creating solutions, expressing emotions and reaching out are considered to be more effective. Executives who demonstrate these behaviors are seen as successful and more suitable for promotion.

Conflict Resolution Training Helps...
Most senior managers and line managers do not recognize the incredible cost of conflict to organizations. Conflict resolution programs can defuse problems before they escalate to strikes or lawsuits, as well as improve employee morale, increase productivity, decrease absenteeism, and lower turnover. Employees can resolve some issues without involving senior management, and without increasing tensions on the floor."

Technorati Tags: mediation, adr, negotiation, disputeresolution, alternativedisputeresolution

Stages of Collaboration

"A typical collaborative process has three well-defined stages, each containing a number of steps, tasks or objectives...

Stage 1: Getting Started: The Pre-Deliberation Phase
A stakeholder or a trusted outsider raises the possibility of collaboration and initiates the process. Following initiation, the pre-deliberation, or planning stage, should be carried out with a group of stakeholders who are knowledgeable about, and committed to the issue and are willing to participate in the process from the beginning...


Stage 2: Searching for Agreement: The Deliberation Stage
Once all the stakeholders have been contacted, the first meeting convened, and the protocols ratified, the participants can begin to deliberate the substantive issues...

Stage 3: After the Agreement is Reached: The Post-Deliberation Phase
Once an acceptable solution has been identified, it must be approved and implemented by all responsible parties..."

Read more in this NC State webpage.

Guy Kawasaki on Negotiation

"How to negotiate. Don’t believe what you see in reality television shows about negotiation and teamwork. They’re all bull shiitake. The only method that works in the real world involves five steps: (1) Prepare for the negotiation by knowing your facts; (2) Figure out what you really want; (3) Figure out what you don’t care about; (4) Figure out what the other party really wants (per Kai); and (5) Create a win-win outcome to ensure that everyone is happy. You’ll be a negotiating maven if you do this."

From this Guy Kawasaki post

Technorati Tags: mediation, adr, negotiation, disputeresolution, alternativedisputeresolution

Detecting Lies

"Watching facial expressions in order to determine whether a person is lying might just save you from being a victim of fraud, or it could help you figure out when somebody's being genuine. Jury analysts do this when assisting in jury selection. The police do this during an interrogation. A lie detector of course does this, but is a little heavy to carry with you. Therefore, you have to learn the little facial and body expressions that can help you learn to recognize a lie from the truth."

Read more in this WikiHow article.

Negotiation Fundamentals

"Nearly all negotiations are characterized by four phases - preparation, opening, bargaining and closing...

Most negotiations are defined by 3 characteristics:

There is a conflict of interest between two or more parties. What one wants is not necessarily what the others want.

Either there is no established set of rules for resolving the conflict, or the parties prefer to work outside of an established set of rules to develop their own solution.

The parties prefer to search for an agreement rather than to fight openly, to have one side capitulate, to break off contact permanently or to take their dispute to a higher authority...

The actual negotiation process depends on the following factors:

The goals and interests of the parties
The perceived interdependence between the parties
The history that exists between the parties
The personalities of the people involved
The persuasive ability of each party...

There are two types of negotiation process that differ fundamentally in their approach and in the relative prospects for the stability of the agreement that is reached.

The first is called the integrative or win/win approach. In these negotiations the prospects for both sides gains are encouraging. Both sides attempt to reconcile their positions so that the end result is an agreement under which both will benefit - therefore the resultant agreement tends to be stable. Win/win negotiations are characterized by open and empathetic communications and are commonly referred to as partnership agreements.

The second is called the distributive or win/lose approach. In these negotiations each of the parties seeks maximum gains and therefore usually seeks to impose maximum losses on the other side. This approach often produces agreements’ that are inherently unstable..."

Read more in this Negotiating Skills Online Tutorial.

Groucho on Contract Negotiation

ContractsProf Blog provides a link to a classic clip of the Marx brothers on contract negotiation and formation from A Night at the Opera.

Adopt an Outsider's View of Negotiations

"Just as intuition biases your vision, it can sabotage your negotiations without your awareness. This article [from HBS Working Knowledge] explores why we often think irrationally—and why, even when the stakes are high and mistakes are costly, we sometimes are unable to overcome our psychological biases..."

The article stresses the advisability, particularly in complex and emotionally charged situations, of resisting "System 1" thinking and employing "System 2" thought.

"System 1 thought describes our intuition: quick, automatic, effortless, and influenced by emotion. By comparison, System 2 thought is slower, more conscious, effortful, and logical."

The authors offer four strategies "to help you guard against falling back on your intuition during times of stress and indecision in negotiation.

Strategy 1: Make a System 2 list...identify situations that call for extra vigilance...

Strategy 2: Don't let time pressure affect your decisions...

Strategy 3: Partition the negotiation across multiple sessions...

Strategy 4: Adopt an outsider lens...the outsider uses rational, System 2 thinking...

Ask yourself this simple question: If someone I cared about asked me for my opinion in a negotiation such as this, what advice would I give?"

Avoiding Litigation Means Sometimes Having to Say You're Sorry

"Doctors' apologies for medical mistakes may not be a cure-all for litigation, but explaining unforeseen outcomes and making early settlement offers have proven effective, say lawyers who have participated in the process in the last decade.

The concept is called "full disclosure/early offer," and it's spreading...

Plaintiffs attorneys and defense attorneys agree that the program -- often referred to as Sorry Works! from The Sorry Works! Coalition, a Glen Carbon, Ill., advocacy group -- is a sound strategy miscast in the public perception as a touchy-feely ritual.

Sorry Works! founder Doug Wojcieszak said that health care providers "willing to admit when they have made an error and quickly get on top of it ... cut down on the anger that leads to litigation."

Read more in this Law.com article found via this Death and Taxes - The Blog post

International Negotiation Tips

"Just as in domestic negotiations, for international negotiations it is important to:

* Take time to learn the local customs and culture
* Know foreign expectations
* Have a well developed Negotiation Plan
* Take time to socialize before working
* Make sure opening demands are not too modest
* Provide enough time so as to not have to settle too quickly
* Avoid the attitude of “America’s way is best way”
* Not be afraid of silence
* Not disclose too much too soon
* Negotiate face to face
* Use win-win tactics"

Read more in this article from nextlevel purchasing.

Fear No Mediation

In a PLI All-Star Briefing, Judge Howard A. Tescher (17th Judicial Circuit, Broward County) examines why lawyers are suspicious of mediation and argues that they should not be, stating:

"Mediation offers the opportunity to explore the strengths and weaknesses of a given case or dispute with a neutral 'expert' trained to see if the matter can be resolved on terms that each party can accept, given the uncertainties of the arbitration or litigation process.

If you accept that mediation is a natural part of the dispute resolution process, as opposed to an alternative dispute resolution process, you will initiate discussions with opposing counsel about scheduling a mediation conference in the same manner that you would normally discuss setting discovery deadlines and final hearing or trial dates."

Global Dispute Resolution Resource

Baker & McKenzie has launched Dispute Resolution Around the World, an on-line global dispute resolution information resource. The site contains information on the legal systems of more than forty (40) countries, as far apart as Belarusse and Venezuela. The site "includes details of:

* the structure and authority of the various courts
* the organization and practice requirements of the legal profession
* essentials of litigation, from commencement of proceedings to allocation of costs through appeals
* enforcement of judgements, including recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements
* arbitration law and options for alternative dispute resolution."

From this LawFuel .com post.

Technorati Tags: mediation, adr, negotiation, disputeresolution, alternativedisputeresolution

International Commercial Arbitration Offers Advantages

"International arbitration has two major advantages over litigation in national courts.

First, international arbitral awards are far more readily enforceable worldwide. More than 130 countries are signatories to the New York Convention 1958, which facilitates the recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award within each signatory country, notwithstanding that the award was rendered in a foreign jurisdiction.

Court judgments, on the other hand, are simply bare judgments which are unsupported by a multilateral enforcement treaty. By way of example, the United States is not a party to any treaty providing for the enforcement of its courts' judgments abroad.

The second major advantage of international arbitration is neutrality. Most corporations do not want to submit their disputes to a foreign court, and they certainly do not want to submit their dispute to the courts of their counterparty and thereby give away "home advantage."

International arbitration allows the parties to refer their dispute to a neutral forum which is acceptable to both parties, even if they are from entirely distinct legal and cultural backgrounds."

Read more in thisarticle from law.com that provides a practical guide to international commercial arbitration from the inception of the arbitration to the enforcement of a final award.

Found via this InhouseBlog post

The XYZs of Negotiating Tactics

"If you want to win at the game of negotiations, then you need to know the ploys, tactics and gambits that will give you an advantage over your opponents." So starts “The ABC of Negotiation Ploys and Tactics” by Eric Garner that explains the following useful negotiating concepts, ploys and tactics:

A is for Aristotle’s Appeals
B is for BATNA
C is for the Coquette Principle
D is for Dumb Is Smart
E is for Emotional Ambush
F is for Fait Accompli
G is for Gallipoli
H is for Hot Potato
I is for the Iroquois Preparation Method
J is for Just See If I Don’t…
K is for Knowing Your Opponents
L is for Later
M is for Modest Diffidence
N is for Needs Not Positions
O is for Obligation
P is for Power Ploys
Q is for Questions
R is for Reluctant Player
S is for Salami
T is for Tentative Overtures
U is for Uncertainty
V is for Variables
W is for Writing the Agreement
X is for Xchanging Concessions
Y is for Yikes, You’ve Got To Be Kidding
Z is for Zipped, or Keeping Your Mouth Zipped

Technorati Tags: mediation, adr, negotiation, disputeresolution, alternativedisputeresolution