Negotiating For A Better You

William Ury’s Negotiating for Sustainable Agreements presentation discusses the strategies he has developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project for creating sustainable agreements in diplomacy and business. Ury discusses how much time we already dedicate to negotiation in our everyday lives. Conflict has been suppressed over the years and is now coming to the surface. We have a choice to resolve conflict through family feuds, lawsuits, and wars. Or we can deal with conflicts constructively through listening, dialogue, collaborative problem solving and non-violent actions. You can learn from Ury’s presentation that objective criteria can be used in more ways than just preventing wills from clashing. Using a third side to way in concerns for both parties can also use objective criteria to express concerns in a negotiation that can benefit all negotiators. Learning not to react and gaining the ability to listen will take any negotiation to the next level. This allows you to focus on interest and not positions to learn what is wanted and better assess the direction of a negotiation.

Getting to Yes Negotiation 2nd half presentation discusses the negotiation techniques presented in the Getting to Yes book. These negotiation techniques range from topics such as objective criteria, separating the people from the problem and BATNA. You can learn from this presentation the uses of an objective criterion, which in this presentation is based on independent industry standards. You learn that industry standards can be used as a sword to persuade the other side why your proposal is fair for them. You can even use industry standards as a shield to protect and explain why their proposal doesn’t feel fair to you. Negotiation techniques can also help in separating the people from the problem. This can be accomplished through being hard on the problem and soft on the people. So in negotiations focus on the problem not the person you are negotiating against. Additionally, learn from this presentation that negotiating preparation is key in knowing what you will do if you walk away from the agreement. Having a BATNA can accomplish this. So know your best alternative to a negotiated agreement, explore your alternatives and consider the sides of the other negotiators BATNA.

Entrepreneurship Part 7 Negotiation podcast deals with negotiation for entrepreneurs and basic practical tips used in negotiating. Topics such as the concept of your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, The values of objective criteria and inventing options of mutual gain are all critical topics used in this podcast and through negotiating. You can learn from this podcast that in negotiations both parties have something they want to get out of the negotiation. During negotiations if you find that it is not going to benefit you, then you would still have the option available of using your BATNA. In the podcast objective criteria teaches us the value of appealing to objective standards and avoiding a contest of wills. Instead of relying on a contest wills we can use independent third party standards to make an unbiased decision. In negotiations you need to prepare an outside objective in advance and focus firmly on it but be flexible to the standard of the idea. Win-win negotiations are the only way to get any lasting agreement that will work for both parties. When negotiating have empathy for the other parties and broaden the options to decide on the best option that will allow for the most amount of mutual gain.

After reviewing these presentations I learned that the negotiation techniques discussed could be applied to my industry. As a film score composer I can apply objective criteria in my negotiations with potential clients. This technique will help me when negotiating the price I charge to compose for a project. Additionally, this same technique can be used when dealing with how long will be needed to accomplish the project. Using this technique will keep me from being stagnant in negotiating by relying on independent third party standards to make the decision. Separating the people from the problem is another technique that can be applied to my industry. I can use this when conducting business for new ventures such as a script for a film or opening a business. Focusing on the problem and not the person can be accomplished when getting permits and licenses and conducting ratios of how well the product or service will sell. Having a BATNA is one of those interesting techniques that will become most useful during my career. When in negotiation for a job as a composer for film, I can prepare in advance a BATNA incase the agreement doesn’t go as planned with the client. Lastly, mutual gain is another important technique that I will use during my career. I believe if you don’t have mutual gain in an agreement then the agreement will not end well. I will practice this technique in all of my negotiations to ensure that all of my negotiations are presented fairly for both parties to acquire mutual gain.