Five Stages of Negotiating

Five Stages of Negotiating

1. Preparation and planning. Decide what you want and why. Gather data to support your position. Consider ways to present your arguments persuasively. Consider what the other party wants and why. Understand your and the other party's strengths and weaknesses and develop your strategy. Analyze their potential strategy and determine your BATNA.

2. Definition of ground rules. Determine your own guidelines or rules for the negotiation, determine who will be a part of the negotiation, and decide what issues are being negotiated, as well as when and how long and where the negotiation will take place.

3. Clarification and justification. Each party clarifies what they want, i.e., the interests behind the positions, and justifies why.

4. Bargaining and problem solving. Both parties actively and constructively engage in working toward solutions, give time for a creative, idea-generating process, and explore all possibilities for solutions, rather than try to focus too quickly on one fixed solution; interesting ideas and combinations of ideas may emerge.

5. Closure and implementation. The terms of the agreement that has been reached are formalized. Be sure to:

* Document what you agreed on

* Review the key points to avoid misunderstanding

* Discuss issues that were hedged on, describing clearly all stipulations of the agreement

* Get it in writing

* Both parties should read and sign the report to obtain commitment to what was negotiated

Strategies for Negotiating Effectively

* Scripting

One of the best ways to ensure adequate preparation time is to develop a script. Some aspects that should be clarified in the script:

o What are your interests--and those of the other party?

o What would you each ideally like to see come out of the negotiation? How would you each like things to end up?

o What are some ways in which that might be possible?

o What can you do to make this happen?

* Framing

A frame is a point of view or perspective we bring to an interaction such as a negotiation. Benefits of framing include:

o It focuses attention on the priorities you want to emphasize--on data and premises within the frame

o It establishes a "big picture" context for the