Negotiation Skills Company, Inc.
 
Negotiation Skills Company, Inc.

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Q & A Table of Contents

We Don't Write Term Papers

From: Dawn, Singapore

Question 1: The method of principled negotiation can help a negotiator to overcome the problems that arise from standard strategies of positional bargaining. Do you agree ? ( please give examples)

Question 2: The " intangibles " in a bargaining situation are just as important to negotiation as the actual substance of the negotiation problem. Do you agree ? (give context in real estate negotiations)

Response: If you're not writing a term paper, please forgive me for having drawn an incorrect inference from the way your questions were phrased.

1. In your first submission you question the efficacy of 'principled negotiation'. That phrase is a bad one to use, if only because it communicates the belief that a person who uses the methodology which some call 'principled negotiation' is somehow superior to a person whose negotiation philosophy is different.

The better term to use is 'interest-based negotiation' because the philosophical basis of that approach is to focus on parties' interests and not get thrown off if they take a positional approach.

In any event, the answer to that question is: YES, using interest-based approaches can overcome positional bargaining.

Your request for examples makes it sound as if you are writing a term paper. We don't write term papers for other people.

2. The answer to your second question, which looks to the relative importance of 'intangibles' versus 'substance' again is YES. After all, what is substantive to me may be intangible to you -- and neither of us should judge the other's conclusions.

Again, your request for examples, in this case from real estate, makes your question sound like it comes from a student's term paper assignment. If your question is based on a real life situation, perhaps if you spell out some details, it would be easier to offer you a cogent answer.

I will say that whatever is important to a party to a negotiation must be treated as 'substantive' whether it is ego, money, or a factor such as timing. As someone who spent twelve years negotiating in commercial real estate, I am comfortable in saying that real estate is certainly an area where that is true.

Have fun with your negotiations.

Steve

The Negotiation Skills Company, Inc.   P O Box 172   Pride's Crossing, MA 01965, USA   
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