Learn how to create value while still staking your position with, Win-Win or Hardball: Learn Top Strategies from Sports Contract Negotiations, a FREE special report from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

win win situation

What is a Win-Win Situation?

In business negotiation, a win-win agreement may be the ultimate goal, but it can sometimes prove elusive. But you can create a win-win situation in even the trickiest negotiations.

In negotiation, figuring out who should get what is rarely easy, but creative solutions to problems in negotiation do exist. But approaching negotiations with a creative mindset will not only preserve a relationship but also add significant value for both sides creating a win-win situation.

Unfortunately, prior to and during a negotiation, people develop expectations about the type of deal they will receive, then automatically compare their actual outcome with the outcome they expected. Skilled negotiators manage expectations prior to and during a negotiation in order to create a true win-win negotiation. 

One solution is to explicitly convey your desire to work toward an agreement. Because public statements commit you to follow through (or be branded a liar), they can send a powerful signal. In fact, simply advertising the fact that you’re looking for a win-win situation may be half the battle.

Remember, too, that it’s a mistake to think you can “enlighten” your counterpart. When you communicate one-sided information about a project’s merits, you’ll come across as arrogant and oblivious to the other party’s concerns. Whenever parties are likely to disagree on the fundamental issues at stake, enlisting outside help for an unbiased view of the facts can be a crucial first step toward reaching a win-win deal.

Learn how to create value while still staking your position with, Win-Win or Hardball: Learn Top Strategies from Sports Contract Negotiations, a FREE special report from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

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The following items are tagged win win situation:

Win-Win Negotiation: Managing Your Counterpart’s Satisfaction

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

As the following points of win-win negotiation will demonstrate, ensuring that your counterpart is satisfied with a particular deal requires you to manage several aspects of the negotiation process, including his outcome expectations, his perceptions of your outcome, the comparisons he makes with others, and his overall negotiation experience itself. … Read More

Do Attitudes in Negotiation Influence Results?

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Many people consider negotiations to be stressful and threatening. Others view them as challenges to be overcome. Do these different attitudes influence the outcomes that people reach? Research by professors Kathleen M. O’Connor of Cornell University and Josh A. Arnold of California State University sheds light on this important question. … Read Do Attitudes in Negotiation Influence Results?

How to Use Tradeoffs to Create Value in Your Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

How do expectations of fairness and reciprocity at the bargaining table impact negotiator decisions regarding the strategies and tactics they use during bargaining? Sometimes talks get off on the wrong foot. Maybe you and your partner had a different understanding of your meeting time, or one of you makes a statement that the other misinterprets. … Read More

Coming Up with Win-Win Solutions at the Bargaining Table

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Even those who effectively engage in an integrative negotiations or mutual-gains approach to negotiation, a bargaining scenario in which parties work together to meet interests and maximize value creation during the negotiation process, can be stymied by the task of dividing up a seemingly fixed pie of resources, such as budgets, revenue, and time. … Read More

Win Win Negotiation: Different Cultures, Shared Meals

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

From movie moguls hammering out film deals in Los Angeles to publishers and agents assessing each other’s tastes in New York, the “power lunch” has become a familiar institution. Across the globe, negotiators often do business over shared meals, whether out of convenience or as part of a concerted effort to get to know one … Read More

Win-Win Negotiation with Bethenny Frankel

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In this negotiation scenario straight from reality television, Lu Ann de Lesseps, Ramona Singer, and Sonja Morgan test their negotiating prowess against reality tv network Bravo in their contract renewal renegotiations. Skinnygirl mogul and financial whiz kid, Bethenny Frankel, offers a template for bargaining for success on reality tv and beyond. … Read Win-Win Negotiation with Bethenny Frankel

Negotiation: Challenge or threat?

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

Adapted from “Do Attitudes Influence Results?” first published in the Negotiation newsletter, January 2007. Many people consider negotiations to be stressful and threatening. Others view them as challenges that can be overcome. Do these different attitudes influence the outcomes that people reach? Research by professors Kathleen O’Connor of Cornell University and Josh Arnold of California State … Read Negotiation: Challenge or threat?