Negotiators and conversationalists adapt to each other’s needs, reflecting mutual consideration (if they desire a successful outcome). Negotiation is a conversation, and the manner of engagement varies by person. Our involvement changes the context. It is easy to focus on the person in front of us and their age, nationality, or language. A person’s sex is the most basic of our classifications. But using that approach is deceptive.
The most critical point in your negotiation for a job will come before you ever focus on salary. Your guideposts are your goals. What are you looking for, in addition to salary? What is your alternative, such as staying in your current job?
A donkey and an elephant uniquely represent two different political parties in the U.S. Yet, the symbols leave much undefined. Does a particular member agree to this or that principle? Can members of one party believe in the principles of the other? A single word can convey different meanings, to different people, at different times, and in different places.
We negotiate to get somewhere and want to finish sooner rather than later. Job offers are no exception. Joining a social enterprise like a company may seem daunting; a David vs. Goliath journey. Yet, negotiations are between people, not things. Our visible and routine interpersonal skills pave the course.
Over the past 500 years, native peoples experienced the global expansion of European nations. British decedents used treaties with native peoples to settle the land in the U.S. and New Zealand. However, those two countries ultimately developed different relationships between their colonizing and indigenous peoples. Differences in negotiations before 1815 in the U.S. and 1872 in New Zealand influenced this outcome, particularly how each adapted to change.
Negotiation includes a ‘chicken or the egg’ dilemma similar to the geodynamo at the heart of our planet. As magnetic and electric fields are intertwined, we teach preparation precedes and accompanies engagement. But only encounters deliver results. Is one possible without the other, and where do they start?
The Expanse is a science fiction series set several hundred years in the future. Man has spread throughout the solar system and taken first steps to other worlds but has brought Earth’s very human conflicts with them. Even imaginary negotiations offer situations worth analyzing, providing entertaining lessons for the practicing negotiator.
In 2015, seven countries signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), expecting to constrain Iran’s nuclear weapon program. With the U.S. Congress neither ratifying nor disapproving the plan, U.N. Security Council resolution 2231 implemented the agreement. In 2018, a new U.S. administration unilaterally withdrew. In 2021, yet another new administration signaled re-engagement. What should be the path forward?
Our roots for negotiation extend far deeper and farther back than we often recognize. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by historian Yuval Noah Harari (Vintage, 2015) presents all human beings' collectively exceptional skills. These skills make us innately proficient at extraordinary communication, such as negotiation.
Culture in negotiation is more than the familiar interpretation of national entities. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by psychologist Jonathan Haidt (reprint edition, 2013) provides the attuned negotiator an additional, and indeed required, dimension for understanding behavior.
Preparing for a negotiation is a more deliberate activity than it first appears. Often, we focus on our objectives, glance at our context, and expect another’s interests to align with ours for a common solution. Our blinders are so deeply attached that they are usually invisible.
Culture is our system for understanding the world around us. Our culture may be a nation, a company, or a family. It is also our individual perceptions and our definitions of right and wrong behaviors. Culture can be very personal.
The Cold War between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. prompted negotiations to lower the risk of nuclear war. The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty reinforced the idea of nuclear deterrence through mutually assured destruction: without missile defense, destruction was more likely. Everyone also agreed, having fewer missiles around was a good idea.
In 1973, the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland joined the European Economic Community (EEC; predecessor to the European Union, EU) to address difficult economic issues. Common depressed economies and perceived inequalities between communities precipitated open violence in Northern Ireland, a UK nation sharing a 310-mile border with Ireland.
Seven countries, including Iran, agreed in 2015 to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), constraining Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons. After signing, the U.S. Congress did not enact a resolution of disapproval for the JCPOA by their own self-imposed deadline. Without this disapproval, the JCPOA came into force under United Nations Security Council resolution 2231. Yet, in 2018, a new U.S. administration unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico took effect in 1994, operated for 25 years, and was superseded by ‘USMCA’ in 2020. NAFTA functioned throughout a turbulent global era, was both hailed and maligned for most of its history, and produced threats for its unilateral termination. Yet USMCA substantially followed NAFTA’s example with a needed update rather than a radical departure: “NAFTA v1.1.”
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US government passed in March 2020 the world’s largest economic stimulus at 13% of US GDP. One-third of a year later, the funds had been mostly exhausted with the S&P500 hovering near an all-time high and economic recovery varying widely across industries. Yet unemployment continued to exceed that of the 2008 Great Recession, and US deaths approached 150,000.
In March 2020, the US government passed three bills providing financial support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The $2.3 T stimulus package was the world’s largest at 13% of US GDP. However, this was not all; the Federal Reserve Bank (‘Fed’) loosened monetary policy and dramatically reversed interest rates, while the largest bill, the CARES Act, made funds available until the end of July. It was clear that panic over economic health overlapped with that over physical death.
Negotiators face a dizzying array of behaviors. When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures by communication consultant Richard D. Lewis (3rd Edition, 2005) focuses on the most familiar definition of culture and, as such, is a valuable resource for developing negotiation skills.
Culture is our system for understanding information, and negotiations advance by detecting the signs of different perspectives. However, many of these are hidden from view, surfacing only in our movements and tone. Complicating the picture, people usually react innately, driven by subconscious processes out of their immediate control.
Sometimes it is not easy to recognize just how commonplace negotiation is, and how often we deploy our unique tools for success. Negotiating a solution depends on proficiency in getting ideas from one mind into another, especially when the stakes are high and time short.
There is a tendency to consider speech and script as a single tool. Talk is a linear, sequential pattern that mimics written communication. And although we interpret both language channels with many of the same mental processes, they are not the same.
Elections in the US are regular affairs. In democracies (‘the many’) like the UK, Israel, Germany, Japan, and India, elections can happen quite frequently, based on established rules. However, elections in oligarchies (‘the few’) and autocracies (‘the one’) occur based on rules that the governments themselves change.
Curiosity and imagination weave tightly together to create the insight needed to deliver future answers. Negotiation relies on other people, requiring us to imagine others intending to do their part. People imagine especially about what other people might do.
Democratic elections like those in the US, UK, and Israel may be messy but proceed under transparent rules and timing. In the US, there is a definitive schedule; in the UK and Israel, there are well-understood triggers. As oligarchies (‘the few’) come to resemble autocracies (‘the one’), the rules become clouded and doubted, as in China and Russia. Participatory and responsible citizens require a clear understanding.
Negotiators seeking successful and lasting partnerships need reliable guidance to improve their skills. Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People by business professor G. Richard Shell (Reissue ed., 2000) is my second bookend reference in this category.
People in a culture build and modify language according to their own cultural meanings. Some of the most apparent cultural constructions are idioms—phrases that mean much more than their words. Meaning exists in the mind more than in a dictionary.
Citizens value elections, whether their government is a democracy (‘the many’), oligarchy (‘the few’), or autocracy (‘the one’). Already, upcoming US elections are referred to as pivotal or flawed, clear-cut or competitive. UK citizens are counting on their government to effectively interpret Brexit, the yes-no vote to leave the EU. Israel finally has a stable government after three back-to-back elections; Belarus contests their one; Russians wonder about their next.
We transmit information using language and work to understand that information with culture, all on the way to finding solutions. Our perception highly influences our understanding, meaning the view you have of the situation can and will differ from others'. Moreover, perception creates expectations.
News about America’s November 3 elections consumes attention, with in-person speeches trimmed to social media sound bites, even more so this year due to COVID-19. The UK hurtles toward Brexit from the EU at the end of 2020, having attempted course-correcting elections nearly every two years since 2015. Elections in other democracies like Israel, Germany, and India consumed yesterday’s news, as did elections even in oligarchies and autocracies.
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