interests

A partyÕs basic needs, wants, and motivations that are potentially at stake in a negotiation. The measure of success in a negotiation is how well your interests are met. (David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius, 3-D Negotiation [Harvard Business School Press, 2006], 69)

The following items are tagged interests.

Keeping the Game Out of Court

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Sometimes those on opposite sides of a bitter dispute can achieve great gains – if only they can spot the ways in which they are similar.

In 2001, the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association (MIBA), an organization of five New York-area colleges best known for staging college basketball’s National Invitation Tournament, filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). MIBA allege that certain NCAA rules governing team participation in preseason and postseason tournaments restricted school’s participation in MIBA tournaments, in violation of various antitrust laws. After four years of litigation, the two parties announced not only that they would settle a lawsuit but also that the NCAA would purchase the rights to the MIBA preseason and postseason tournaments.

Negotiation Tips: A Value-Creation Checklist

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

By following these tips in your next negotiation, you’ll improve your chances of meeting everyone’s interests.

Before you sit down at the bargaining table, imagine a wide-range of options and packages, including some that may seem far-fetched.
When talks begin, remember that getting down to business too quickly can stand in the way of building trust.
Emphasize to your counterpart the importance of separating the “inventing” from “deciding,” as Fisher, Ury, and Patton suggest in Getting to Yes.
Don’t worry about adding complexity. Bringing new issues, options, and parties to the negotiation is likely to create value.
Avoid artificial deadlines, though it can be helpful to decide when it’s time to concentrate on the packages you’ve identified.

Negotiating the Fiscal Crisis

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

How can we avert a full-throttle drive over the fiscal cliff? Despite some promising signs of movement on both sides of the aisle, the current negotiation approach – positional bargaining – is bound to bring us dangerously close to the edge.