Introduction to Principled Negotiation

From Peacebuilding

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Negotiation is a basic way of getting what you want from someone else, usually using verbal communication. We all negotiate every day – with a vendor at the market, with our friends or relatives in deciding what to eat or where and how to travel.

American authors Roger Fisher and William Ury developed a model of business negotiation in 1981 that has become extremely popular. Essentially, they propose four principles of negotiation:

1) Separate the people from the problem. The relationship (the “people”) is separate from any substantive conflict (the “problem”) you have. By disentangling the relationship from the problem, you reduce the possibility of miscommunication and emotions negatively affecting the negotiation. You want to establish good working relationships in negotiation. Deal with relationship issues, if they exist, separately from substantive issues.

2) Focus on interests not positions. Interests are underlying needs, desires, concerns, wants, values, or fears. Interests motivate people, but often individuals will state a position. For example, many countries have a position that “we will not negotiate with terrorists.” This is a position, but the underlying interests probably relate to concerns and fears about personal security. In conflict, individuals and groups often state only one position. It is usually difficult to negotiate compromises on positions. Behind positions are multiple interests, and focusing on interests allows negotiators more room to generate solutions acceptable to all parties.

3) Invent options for mutual gain. This requires creativity and the commitment to brainstorm options that will be acceptable to both parties. In brainstorming, negotiators need to separate the stage of evaluating options from the stage of generating options. Both parties need to broaden the number of possible options and not search for just one option. Both parties also need to think about options that will satisfy the interests of the other side.

4) Insist on using objective or mutually acceptable criteria. Often it is possible to identify several relevant standards or criteria by which parties can evaluate the fairness or acceptability of a negotiated agreement. Negotiators can brainstorm criteria or standards in the same way as they brainstorm options.

Fisher and Ury also invented the concept of the BATNA. This is a term that refers to the Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. An alternative is different than an option – it refers to a possible course of action if you do not reach a negotiated agreement. The BATNA functions as your bottom line as a negotiator and helps you determine whether or not negotiation is your best option. In order to make a BATNA useful, negotiators need to carefully analyse the costs and benefits of the BATNA, and to evaluate costs and benefits of the negotiated agreement against those of the BATNA. If individuals or groups think they can accomplish their bottom line using other methods (e.g. like a strike, violence, legal options) they will resort to those methods and not use a cooperative model of negotiation.

This model of negotiation is presented with several caveats. First, this is a culturally specific model of negotiation, developed originally for American business culture. Some cultures do not value direct confrontation, which is one of the assumptions of the model. This model of negotiation is a very direct way of dealing with conflict. Some cultures might value the use of indirect methods, using an intermediary or third party such as with mediation. In addition, this model does not take into account how other cultures apply different negotiating techniques. In presenting this model to trainees, you will want to elicit cultural elements and variations in negotiation during debriefing exercises. Second, this model does not deal with power issues or imbalance.

Source: Fast, Larissa, Neufeldt, Reina, et al., Peacebuilding: A Caritas Training Manual, Vatican City, 2002, pp. 113-114.