Negotiation Tips & Articles

Wikileaks expose dysfunctional Family of Nations

By Clive Rich|December 7th, 2010|Blog|Comments Off on Wikileaks expose dysfunctional Family of Nations

The ongoing Wikileaks concerning international relations have a fascinating impact on diplomatic negotiations.

Revelations as to Saudi Arabia’s real views about Iran and the USA’s true views about the leaders of a range of allies including Britain and Italy have to a certain extent rocked the normally genteel world of international diplomacy. Diplomacy has often been referred to as “lying in State”, so in some ways the revelations of hypocrisy in the conduct of international relations could scarcely be regarded as surprising. And yet there is still something a little shocking in hearing explicitly that nations and governments which pretend to be cordial or neutral in fact loathe each other.

From a negotiation point of view this kind of exposure makes deals a bit harder to do going forward. Effective negotiation depends on trust for two reasons. Firstly a lack of trust tends to create a “hostile” or “cool” negotiating climate in which it may be more difficult to make progress. Furthermore, this loss of trust often takes a long time to recover. Secondly, effective negotiation requires that each side believes that the other means what it says. If the other side’s statements are not believed, then any proposals based on those statements will carry no credibility. Lack of conviction or credibility in making proposals means they are unlikely to be accepted, which in turn makes deals harder to conclude.

Politicians are often thought of as a cynical bunch and to a certain extent this may help them discount the impact of the leaks. Nonetheless, the next time affected parties such as Iran sits down to negotiate with Saudi Arabia, or the US sits down to negotiate with any number of its allies, (or […]

Cancun failure will generate Climate of fear

By Clive Rich|December 10th, 2010|Blog|Comments Off on Cancun failure will generate Climate of fear

This is the last day of the Climate talks in Cancun and it doesn’t look as if a deal is likely to get done. The complexity of striking a deal among so many participants with differing points of view is defeating the process and a simpler approach will need to be adopted if progress is to be made in future.

This may be the last chance to put a new climate change deal in place before the Kyoto Climate agreement expires at the end of 2012. But, when that deal was structured in 1997, it was easier to arrive at consensus.

Then, the industrialised countries clearly accounted for the bulk of the world’s CO2 pollution. The US accounted for 25% on its own, and the OECD countries of Europe accounted for a further 20%. The industrialised world as a whole was responsible for three quarters of emissions. So, it was not difficult to sign up to an agreement that everybody should act in accordance with their “common differentiated responsibilities”. This meant that the Industrialised countries agreed to take on legally binding commitments to reduce their emission of greenhouse gasses, and the developing countries agreed that although this was an important topic, they would not have to make any commitments at all.

The story of the failure at the Copenhagen summit last year and the Cancun summit so far, is the story of the developing countries wanting this agreement to be renewed, and the industrialised countries saying that the world has changed, and the developing countries now have to sign up to pledges of their own. The reason for this hardening of attitude amongst the industrialised countries is that now the developing countries are contributing far more to […]

Clegg pushes Lib Dems to the edge

By Clive Rich|December 12th, 2010|Blog|Comments Off on Clegg pushes Lib Dems to the edge

The internal negotiations over the lifting of the cap on University tuition fees among the coalition partners have been fascinating to watch.

Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg are natural “pullers” in the way they behave as negotiators. They are usually prepared to focus on the needs of the other side in order to get a deal done – listening, exploring, disclosing – that is how the coalition deal got done in the first place.

However, in this instance they have needed to “push” their MP’s in order to win the vote permitting a substantial increase in tuition fees. This has been less of a problem for David Cameron (only 6 Tory MP’s voted against the Government yesterday), but it has been a real headache for Nick Clegg, whose party had pledged not to increase tuition fees at the election, and he has had to work extremely hard to get enough of his MP’s to vote in favour of the proposal.

What “push” tactics has Clegg had to use in order to overcome a natural reluctance among Lib Dem MP’s to avoid being seen to renege on their promise to the electorate?

He has used deadline pressure, culminating in a make-or break vote in the Commons on Thursday. This kind of pressure can force people into making decisions they would rather not make.

He has also used “budget buster” tactics, making the argument that he really would love to accommodate his reluctant MP’s, but the public purse just won’t stretch to keeping the tuition fees cap in place. This kind of pressure tactic is very frequent in business deals – how often do you hear the phrase – “We’d love to accept your proposal but unfortunately we just can’t […]

Bad weather creates poor negotiating climate for BA

By Clive Rich|December 23rd, 2010|Blog|Comments Off on Bad weather creates poor negotiating climate for BA

It is interesting to see how the bad weather has disrupted the climate of ongoing dealings between BA and its customers during the height of the snow – mainly for the worse, but occasionally for the best.

I was due to fly down to Lyon University a couple of weeks ago with my stepdaughter, when the snow first kicked in. We turned up at Heathrow Terminal 5 in plenty of time for check-in. There was a massive queue and clearly not enough check-in staff – down to the weather or bad planning or ongoing staff cuts?

It took so long to get to the front of the queue we were only 20 minutes from our scheduled departure time when we got there. We needn’t have worried. We were then told that our flight had been cancelled. Like hundreds of other people standing in that queue we had been waiting for over an hour to check in for a flight that didn’t exist. Shame nobody had told us earlier.

We were directed to another counter to deal with re-booking our flights. We went over there and of course there was another massive queue. Again, we needn’t have worried. A BA lady standing by the counter told us that the counter was about to close anyway and so we had no option but to fend for ourselves for the evening.

The problem with this kind of customer service is that, whatever the cause of the disruption, the impression is given that BA doesn’t care about its passengers. This is a very win/lose attitude and doesn’t encourage passengers to travel with BA again as nobody likes to feel like a loser.

To give BA credit, the next day I had a great […]

Who holds the Aces in your deal?

By Clive Rich|January 22nd, 2011|Blog|Comments Off on Who holds the Aces in your deal?

Good example of the dynamics of bargaining power at a recent “Speed Awareness” Course I attended in Ealing. This course is run by the Police for those who have committed minor speeding offences – just a few miles over the limit. If you go along you are spared 3 points being added to your license.

There were 20 attendees and 1 presenter. At these kinds of events a tacit negotiation always goes on between the presenter and the audience for the audience’s attention. Even if she had been a black belt in karate she could not have prevented us from all getting up and walking out of the door if we had wanted to, so we held the advantages of scale and size in the negotiation with the presenter for our attention.

However, she had a couple of aces too. She had lots of expertise, and she also had the power of the Police behind her – having “law, rules or regulations” on your side is always a good source of bargaining power.

So I would say this was a negotiation where each side held 2 aces. Result? A win/win deal. She worked very hard to keep our attention and we responded by being as good as gold for the whole 4 hour duration of the Course.

It’s always worth working out at the outset who holds the aces of bargaining power in your negotiation. He who holds the Aces normally calls the tune in a deal, so if the Aces are evenly divided a harmonious result like this one is a likely outcome.