“… it takes two to make peace and only one to make war …”
David Jones
At the end of July 2020, 27 EU nations with hundreds of individual participants negotiated for more than 90 hours, emerging with a 7-year budget, approval for billions in pandemic recovery funds financed by the first-ever collective debt, measures to enhance the rule of law, and steps to ensure economic reforms. Unprecedented; seemingly of another world.
We watch the news and wonder whether governments and famous leaders’ trials and tribulations apply to us. We understand their decisions impact us, but how they find solutions seems hidden from our view.
Negotiations take place through preparation and engagement. Negotiators repeat these steps until they reach an agreement. The skills for negotiation are present in all of us, available to all, hidden mostly by unfamiliarity.
Shared Interests Bridge Positions
UK upheaval and uncertainty over Brexit played a silent role in the negotiations. This constant reminder of the ultimate risk, refusing to agree, tempered each party’s positions and reinforced the need to find a common vision. The EU taxes nations but also disperses rebates, funds economic growth, and supports reforms. Working together benefits everyone.
Countries as much as individuals have their own particular interests. Yet civilization builds upon ever-larger groups of people agreeing to work together despite incremental disadvantages. Going solo is a higher risk.
Approaching a negotiation as win-lose merely divides an existing basket of goods. And win-lose, or win-at-all-costs, outcomes create incentives for getting even. A mutual goal is more powerful than one pursued alone.
Negotiation Patterns are the Same Whether Large or Small
In the 4 months preceding the EU negotiations, individual nations negotiated their own internal stimulus plans. Parties within a nation aligned their interests; populations and politicians formulated tax and spending policies, while individuals determined household budgets and spending. The same familiar task, happening across the continent, on different scales.
A standard negotiation model is a two-party interaction: me and you, or perhaps a monolithic us and them. The number of parties certainly matters, but other issues dominate. The more parties, the more unfamiliarity plagues negotiation.
Negotiations for more than two parties use the same principles but are simply less familiar. Imagine a Rubik’s cube: complexity begins to resolve as soon as colors align. Unfamiliar becomes familiar. Understandable.
Negotiation Skills Arise From Training and Practice
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron created a core proposal out of their divergent views in the 4 months preceding July. They held their positions for a combined 18 years beforehand. Civil servants on the sidelines had risen through the ranks. Leaders came to the EU budget and stimulus summit with experience, after long practice.
As experience with negotiation grows, skills improve, and confidence increases. Appreciation of the nuances in complicated negotiations expands. Individual elements of the Rubik’s cube move as one.
Individual countries, as much as individuals, naturally form and dissolve associations based on common interests. Recognizing important patterns is the route to training one’s innate capabilities in a complex world.
Achieving Something Impossible Without Each Another
The EU budget and stimulus negotiations included the Visegrád Four, Frugal Four, and other ad hoc alliances. There were disagreements, differences in vision between Germany and France, between integration and national values, between spending and saving. However, every nation got something, even if only to pursue their case another day. Success.
Shared goals are paramount for partnership. Additional complexity reflects increased rewards possible from multi-party negotiations. Alignment is critical to a negotiator’s success, whether at home or between nations.
The Keys to Negotiation™ of language, culture, and solutions are in us all, waiting for recognition and practice. The result of a successful negotiation is partnership and the continuing, iterative deployment of preparation and engagement.