William Ury wrote the book Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations ten years after and in response to his book Getting to Yes. People wrote to him stating they wanted to get to yes, but how do you do that if the other side says no. Getting Past No breaks down the negotiation process into five basic steps called Breakthrough Negotiation.
In the Overview Section of the book titled “Breaking Through the Barriers”, Ury defines negotiation as “the process of back-and-forth communication aimed at reaching an agreement with others”. (p.4) He brings to our attention the negotiations we face each day. While I was reading the book, I thought about situations that I find myself negotiating with others.
The book states there are “Five Barriers to Cooperation”. The first is “Your Reaction”. Your reaction to the problem has an effect on the outcome. Whether you give in or you strike back can end the negotiation. The second barrier is “Their Emotion”. This is the way they react to the situation. “Their Position” is the third barrier. Their thinking is you give in or they give in and they certainly do not want to do that. The forth barrier is “Their Dissatisfaction”. The other party “may not see how it will benefit them”. (p.9) Even if their interest is satisfied in the negotiation, “they may fear losing face if they have to back down”. The fifth barrier is “Their Power”. They may see it as power play and they will show their power to get what they want.
Preparation is the key to every negotiation and creates the foundation for your argument. You can’t afford not be prepared even if that takes time away from the negotiation. According to Ury, you should spend a minute of preparing for every m...
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...n. I enjoyed reading the book and comparing how it relates to what we have been studying. I found the book to be easy to read in its step-by-step format. He gave many examples to prove his point and to show how the steps could be carried out. While I was reading the book I was thinking of events in my everyday life that I find myself negotiating with people, whether it be a family member, my supervisor, or a customer.
I would recommend this book to anyone in high school or older, as these steps could be used in everyday encounters as Ury describes in the book. I believe it will take practice to be able to negotiate confidently.
I was left with the question on how to negotiate when you do not have a BATNA that you could realistically use. Sometimes we find ourselves in situation that we need to negotiate and we do not have an alternative.
Many situations present the important synchronization of internal versus external negotiations. Many individuals have studied how each side in the negotiation is able to manage the internal opposition to agreements being negotiated. This can also be known as “on the table”, or what exactly is on the line in a heated argument. Each individual involve in an argument has a particular position to be managed, and often times own personal interests are widely expressed. This paper will expand upon the case of Fischer collecting needed funds from Smith with proposals and ideas for a manageable negotiation.
Communication skills are important in professional negotiations and in personal life. This book discusses why we find some dialogue difficult, why we avoid it, and why we often address it ineffectively. Most important, the authors suggest methods for more effective, productive, and rewarding, interaction.
Fisher, Roger, William Ury, and Bruce Patton. Getting to yes: negotiating agreement without giving in. 2nd ed. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 1991. Print.
The first common theme is the importance of clear strategic intent and big picture thinking in negotiations. Before taking the Negotiation Behaviour unit, I always perceived negotiation as a fixed-pie, a zero-sum gain situation, where one party wins and the other party loses. This belief has often led me to a competitive behaviour in negotiation by trading the big picture thinking with the need to win, getting too detailed too quickly, leading to a positional approach instead of having a broad goal and explore for ways around problems to create value and get the best outcome.
This book is a very interesting read, if you have some self discipline. I mean that you need some self discipline because this book didn’t really captivate me in the sense that I couldn’t put it down. But after reading it for a while, I started to appreciate the author’s way of describing the characters and actions in this book.
Whether or not we are aware of it, each of us is faced with an abundance of conflict each and every day. From the division of chores within a household, to asking one’s boss for a raise, we’ve all learned the basic skills of negotiation. A national bestseller, Getting to Yes, introduces the method of principled negotiation, a form of alternative dispute resolutions as opposed to the common method of positional bargaining. Within the book, four basic elements of principled negotiation are stressed; separate the people from the problem, focus on interests instead of positions, invest options for mutual gain, and insist on using objective criteria. Following this section of the book are suggestions for problems that may occur and finally a conclusion. In this journal entry I will be taking a closer look at each of the elements, and critically analyse the content; ultimately, I aim to briefly bring forth the pros and cons of Getting to Yes.
Negotiation, as we’ve learned, is the process of communicating where parties can discuss problems and/or targets and attempt to solve them via dialogue in order to reach a resolution. While many individuals feel successful negotiations are due to a natural skill, the truth behind reaching a prime agreement is preparation. You need to know the issue, know yourself, and know your party. This type of preparation also includes knowing your needs and limits, understanding what the other party wants and anticipating their limits, asking the right questions, and being creative in your counteroffers.
Negotiating styles are grouped into five types; Competing, Collaborating, Comprising, Avoidance, and Accommodating (Colburn, 2010). Even though it is possible to exhibit different parts of the five types of negation styles in different situations, can see that my tendencies seem to default to, Compromise and Accommodating. In reviewing the course work and reviewing my answers for Questionnaire 1 and 5, I find that the data reflects the same assumption. The accommodating profile is one where relationship perseveration is everything and giving what the other side wants is the route to winning people over. Accommodators are well liked by their colleagues and opposite party negotiators (Colburn, 2010). When analyzing my accommodating tenancy in negations, I find often it is easier to give into the demands when they are within a reasonable range. I often consider it the part of providing a high level of customer service. It has been my experience that continued delaying and not coming to an agreement in a topic will only shorten the window in which you will have to meet the request since. The cons to this style are by accommodating highly competitive styles the accommodator can give up to much ground in the process. “Giving away value too easily too early can signal to your negotiation counterpart that you've very deep pockets, and your gift is just a taster of bigger and better gifts to come”. The other negations type I default to is compromising. Compromising “often involves splitting the difference; usually resulting in an end position of about half way between both parties’ opening positions” (Colburn, 2010). In the absence of a good rationale or balanced exchanged concessions, half way betwee...
Fisher, R & Ury, W (1991). Getting to Yes: Negotiation Agreement Without Giving In. Penguin: New York
Lewicki, R., Saunders, D.M., Barry B., (2010) Negotiation: Readings, Exercises, and Cases. 6th Ed. McGraw-Hill Irwin. New York, NY
During this course, I have learned a lot about negotiating. We learned about almost every negotiating technique there is. We learned about cross-cultural negotiations, body language, Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA), variables in negotiating, and many more. Before this course, I did not know that much about negotiating. I thought that negotiating was just about trading or convincing someone to give you what you want and you did not care about the other side, resulting in a win-lose. I now know that negotiating is about getting what you want, but also giving the other side what they want as well to result in a win-win. This paper is about how I am going to improve my negotiating skills over the next six months. In order for me to improve my negotiating skills, I believe I need to improve the following skills- my body language, communication, planning, and my interpersonal communications. By improving those skills, I can become an effective negotiator.
McCarthy, A. (n.d.). 10 rules of negotiation. Negotiation Skills. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://www.negotiation-skills.org
...w to apply these tactics into practice. Understanding the meaning of each tactics is just the first stage, flexibility in the use of appropriate tactics in future issues is more important. Besides, I need to make a detailed plan before the negotiation. Firstly, analyzing the interests, perspectives and weak points of the opposite side and selecting suitable tactics. Secondly, preparing several response strategies will help me to control the situations. Thirdly, setting the minimum level what I can agree on the issue is also essential part of negotiation.
Lewicki, R. J., Barry, B., & Saunders, D. M. (2007). Essentials of Negotiation. New York: McGraw-Hill/ Irwin.
Negotiation approaches are generally described as either distributive or integrative. At the heart of each strategy is a measurement of conflict between each party’s desired outcomes. Consider the following situation. Chris, an entrepreneur, is starting a new business that will occupy most of his free time for the near future. Living in a fancy new development, Chris is concerned that his new business will prevent him from taking care of his lawn, which has strict requirements under neighborhood rules. Not wanted to upset his neighbors, Chris decides to hire Matt to cut his grass.