Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22 - Issue 7

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September 2016 // Canadian Government Executive / 25
This can be as simple as calling for a coffee break. He likes to in-
vite the counterparty to go for a walk together outside. It can be
effective to walk in step and talk through issues in a softer, more
relaxed fashion.
The book is jammed with ideas and tips. Some of it will be fa-
miliar (although not necessarily advice you have been following)
and some of it new. It’s presented in a friendly, conversational tone
that will ease you through the pages.
bias is to appoint a person of trusted experience and perspective
to your team to provide daily feedback about your performance.
And then you really need to accept their comments and advice,”
he says. Check your sense of the specifics of the meeting against
that person’s viewpoint, avoiding the tendency of overconfident
negotiators to not check in enough with others and trivialize con-
trary conclusions.
Lawyers learn to use precedents to substantiate their point of
view. Judges adopt multiple perspectives to ensure they thor-
oughly understand the information before them. Academics are
expected to understand and assess the contrary point of view
when making an argument. Negotiators need similar discipline,
testing their positions using precedent and contrary arguments.
Neediness can also get you in trouble. Dingwall tells of the car
salesman who once suggested he take a new silver Taurus station
wagon home to “try it out.” It proved an ingenious negotiating
technique because by the time his wife and three children had
seen what they considered their new car he wasn’t considering
any alternatives and the salesman knew it, not having to lower
the price to make the sale.
Needing to get a deal done quickly can be a killer. It will lead to
early, foolish concessions. “Of the signals negotiators send that in-
dicate they are needy, the one I have seen most often is non-stop
talking,” he adds. “If you find yourself talking at length, recognize
it and stop.” To combat neediness, you must swap need for want,
distinguishing between what you instinctively think or emotion-
ally feel you need and what you actually need.
Often we believe that reality is exactly what we believe, the
facts plain for everyone to see, and anybody rational will agree
with us. Such “naïve realism,” as he calls it, is fourth demon to be
alert to. It can serve as a trap, since often others will have differ-
ent facts and a different version of reality.
“Accept complexity–there is no such thing as a single, obvious
reality. Respect the flexibility of facts–they mean different things
from different perspectives. Grant the rationality of others–you’re
not the only one who can think and reason,” he notes. Again, he
stresses the importance of testing and assessing, finding the gaps
in your position and knowing how to address them.
The fifth demon is assumptions. Entering any negotiation pro-
cess with an assumption of what matters to the other side can be
folly. Indeed, don’t even assume you know what matters for your
side. “Assumptions about the appropriate price without confirma-
tion of market value, the quality of the product without objective
reports and testing, or the timing of shipments without the track
record of the delivery company can lead to difficulty,” he says. Fol-
low the immortal words of Ronald Reagan (based on a Russian
proverb): Trust, but verify.
To help shape a deal, he recommends limiting choice since
when overwhelmed with options people can close down, over-
whelmed. Remember the power of testimonials: The more you
can offer supportive commentary about your proposals from indi-
viduals and organizations the greater likelihood you have of win-
ning the other party over. Focus on problem-solving. “My experi-
ence is that negotiators who adopt a problem-solving approach
are more likely to sway their counterparts than those who are
adversarial and contrarian. This means presenting your options
or scenarios as possible solutions that meet the needs of both
sides,” he says.
Mix up the environment: It can be very effective to change the
setting of your negotiations in order to get out of a rut or logjam.
web
Ego-creep is the first of five demons he
cites that can bedevil your negotiations.
“Watch for the creep–it usually comes
from feeling intimidated or insecure,”
Dingwall writes.
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