Negotiation Recap
By: Mesfin Asfaw
The full-day session commenced with the facilitator pairing up attendees to connect by sharing details about themselves. Following this, Mesfin outlined the day’s agenda before delving into what negotiation is and its significance in various aspects of our lives.
Negotiation is the process of reaching an agreement with other parties so that we can achieve our goals. It has various tactics and instances such as Position, Concession, Win-lose, and Win-Win. Mesfin outlined the three essential components that must be in balance with each other while negotiation is taking place. These three components are power, information, and time.
Negotiation has three main phases these are:
- The preparation phase is where there are negotiation scopes and contexts we should bear in mind while preparing for negotiation including time and place, price, and cost involved.
- The meeting phase is where the actual discussion and bargaining take place between the parties involved. This phase involves the opening stage, the testing stage, the proposal stage, and the bargaining stage.
- The agreement Phase is where the negotiation is finalized and an argument is reached. In this stage, we need to formalize the agreement by documenting it and legalizing it.
Major Take Aways
- Negotiation involves four main modes: Position, Concession, Win-Lose, and Win-Win, crucial for achieving mutually beneficial outcomes.
- Negotiations require a balance of power, information, and time to be successful.
- Power in negotiations can stem from organizations (organizational power) or individuals (personal power), impacting negotiation dynamics significantly.
- Common negotiation mistakes include underestimating or overestimating one’s power, assuming the other party’s knowledge, and misjudging the balance of power.
- Negotiation consists of three phases: preparation, meeting, and follow-up, each with specific goals and strategies.
- Effective negotiation tactics include starting and ending points, use of silence, emotions, logic, and threats.
- A good negotiator possesses qualities such as logical thinking, patience, creativity, empathy, confidence, networking skills, and effective communication abilities.
Mesfin Asfaw is the Managing Partner at Paradigm Consultancy
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