Q & A Table of Contents
Do We Need To Establish A Formal Internal Negotiation Process?
From: Rosario, San Salvador, El Salvador
Question: I read that a best practice for ensuring internal alignment is to establish a formal negotiation process that is communicated to managers. Are there any points that should be included? How effective do you think this is?
Response: Internal negotiations are generally more important than external negotiations in business. Unless people representing different elements of a business agree on policy/prices/procedures individuals will not be confident of their capacity to deliver on promises negotiated with outsiders.
The most successful internal negotiation processes include consideration of the interests of every possible stakeholder within the organization — and how those interests can be brought together to yield agreements each party will willingly fulfill. Asking questions diplomatically rather than undertaking confrontational approaches is critical to developing needed common understandings.
Establishing a formal process, however, could be well carrying things too far. Each negotiation has unique characteristics and issues — and a single template cannot possibly cover all of the possibilities. It is far better to have a common negotiation philosophy rather than a pre-determined formal process. Many items may belong on some checklists — but not in every negotiation. Where people are in fundamental philosophical agreement on how to reach collaborative decisions, successful negotiations are far more likely.
The better approach is to work up a series of questions each negotiating party should ask themselves — as well as the kinds of questions they should ask other parties. If one understands one’s own interests — and keeps those interests at the forefront of negotiations — s/he is far more likely to negotiate wisely. Moreover, asking good questions to learn about other parties’ interests shows respect and makes it so the negotiation process has a better chance of yielding an agreement each party will willingly fulfill.
Remember that the purpose of negotiation is to exchange information that will add value to the situation each party faces. Wasting time on formality will not do the job nearly as well as spending time developing a common philosophy.
Good luck,
Steve
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