Negotiations: An Important Third of our Day

Many people think of a negotiation as something that happens during mergers and acquisitions, while others think of car or home purchases.  But the reality is that most of us spend a large part of our day negotiating.  Webster defines negotiation as “a dialogue intended to produce an agreement.”

Our negotiations during the day may include where we will eat, how much to price services and products we sell or buy, discussing our children’s weekend plans, or talking about the economy and what it means with a colleague of differing opinion.  The list is endless.

Some think of negotiations as being useful in getting more than a fair deal than they might have otherwise, or it may have a negative connotation in relation to difficult sales people they have encountered.  But the fact is that improving negotiating skills is important in helping you achieve the best outcome in situations in which the result is in question. 

Great negotiators are those people that can arrive at fair deals for both parties and when those deals are analyzed five years later, the deal still seems to be fair.  Also, great negotiators protect themselves from making arrangements that they themselves would regret.  But many people don’t spend any time learning about negotiation.

There are hundreds of negotiating books out there, some focusing on tactics, some on strategy, and some just on telling the “story” of past negotiations.  I was recently discussing this with a colleague of mine.  He had been trained in negotiation at both Wharton Business School and Harvard University.  He shared a very quick version of the key things that had stuck with him and then took me through a short exercise where he had learned to apply the concepts.  I found it brief, practical and helpful. 

Please contact me if you would like to learn more about negotiation skills or would like a recommendation for an excellent book to read on the subject.