Negotiation Tips

Once interested in going to school for psychology and now moving my interest to attending law school, I sat down with a mediator to discuss her business experience. Dealing with an assortment of clients and situations, she discussed her problem solving tactics:

      As a big Yankee fan, she used baseball to explain how she always dealt with clients over the years. She stated simply “you have to play the game” it can be your game or their game, either way you have to play. If it is their game, she said, you should learn it and learn it quickly so you can use it to your advantage. Listen. To be able to adapt to the situation or negotiation at hand, you have to listen to what the other person is saying. You also have to read between the lines. She said this is the best way to learn their game. If you’re playing your game, stay confident. If you are sitting down to negotiate, it’s probably because you are already doing something right. As long as you stay confident and listen to what the other person has to say, play ball. I found her baseball analogies ironic.

     Most importantly, she said, keep things simple. People tend to get caught up in the details and then lose focus on the actual problem at hand. This can be due to people not separating the people from the problem. People will have the tendency to take things personally, especially when dealing with their work. If you lead with what is most important, not only to you but also the other person, you will avoid negative emotions.

     Suggesting focusing on mutual benefit is the best way to play the game.  Yes we are back on the baseball analogies. If I’m happy and you’re happy, then everyone is happy and the negotiation went well. Sometimes it is important to help convince the other person the conclusion of the negotiation was a mutual benefit.  As I was listening to her explain about her opinion on mutual benefit, I found it difficult to imagine trying to convince someone of mutual benefit. Though I greatly appreciated her trying to use baseball to explain her experiences with negotiations, I remembered is there not only one winner at the end of a game?