Art of Negotiation

Negotations - how can anyone live without it. Every day and in every walk of life, we use different negotiation forms on a personal and  professional level.
Kids negotiate with their parents on what they want to (or dont want to) watch/eat/play? (and somehow always win...hhmmm i wonder why?..)
We negotiate with our better halfs on whether we eat the leftover cold pizza for dinner or dine out (Guess who wins there?)
At work, we negotiate with our bosses for better career roles, better projects, salary, promotion etc.
While on a project we negotiate the project deadlines, the workscope, experienced resources with skillsets matching the requirements etc etc. In a sales role, we negotiate with the prospects on the RFP Scope and costs. After bagging the project we negotiate with the client on Scope, timelines of the current project.
Well the point here is, Negotiations happen everywhere.

What is Negotiation?
Negotiation is a process where 2 or more parties get together and work towards a mutually acceptable solution to an issue in question.
This is also something that is closely associated to "Workplace Politics". Now generally the term politics is usually referenced or viewed in a negative sense, but it need not be the case. Politics is about talking, negotiating, convincing your Team, resources, stake holders to understand your point of view. For a person to really understand workplace politics, you have to invest your time into it. I mean really invest into it.
For this there are certain necessary steps that you have to take like,
You have to be really interested in people, their likes and wants, their concerns. This helps develop a level of trust and credibility between the 2 parties involved and this Trust is what makes it easier for the other party to understand you, accept you and your viewpoints
But this is not always an easy task to accomplish. But it is an art that can be learned, honed and sharpened with time.

Pre-Steps to a Negotiation
In any type of negotiations, there are certain guidelines to be followed. For e.g.,
1> Invest some time in genuinely understanding the other person or party. This may not always be possible but if you have a chance to do, please do it.

2> Do not deal any negotiation from an emotional angle. Always be ready to have alternatives, walk away solutions

3> Think and work on alternatives that are Win-Win for both.

4> Always make sure you have the deal makers or the actual decision makers at the negotiation table

Rules of Negotiation
1> Listen, Listen, Listen
  - When on the Negotiation table, Sincerely listen to understand the other party, their viewpoints and beliefs. Many a deals and arguments are lost because one party did not try to understand the other party.
  Always remember, when an person acts, (he may be right or wrong from your perspective) it is because he BELIEVES this is the right thing to do at that moment in time. So step in his/her shoes and things will be easier from that point on.
 
2> Do not take anything personally
  - Negotiations can be stressful, tempers may rise and unwanted and harsh words may be thrown around. Try to keep your calm and focus on the situation rather than the person.

3> Focus on Relationships
Always be empatic to the other person. Focus on strengthing relationship with the other party
  - Not all negotiations will end the way you want. In some cases you may get your way and in other cases, you may not. But always remember in the end, people matter more than the deal in hand so do not try to win any negotiation at the cost of losing people.

4> Backup plan
And last but not the least, always remember to work out a back up plan if your current project negotiations fail.

Negotiation Types
Any type of negotiation falls in either of these negotiation styles,
1> Accomodating
   - This mostly leads to a Lose-Win situation in which first party is more emphatic to the other person's problems and issues and ultimately succumbs to a compromise.
   This happens more so, when first party is more concerned about preserving the relationships with the other party rather than the Negotiation in hand.
 e.g. Consider that you as a Project or account manager are siting at a negotiation table with your prospect and are discussing and finaling the project deal. You are leaning and advocating 'X' dollars per hour more than the Prospect But a savvy negotiator would give in wherever possible if there is a prospect of a better deal/s in the future.
   or
   You are in the last few weeks of developing your Policy and Billing System and now you are told about a new change that business wants to push in, since you want to be in the Good books of the business director and are also a non confrontational person, you may agree to the change (with the accepted risk of quality compromise, elongated Testing Cycle leading to extended timeline possibility) and log more work hours for your Team .
   This usually leads the compromising party feeling resentment and short changed

2> Avoiding
   - This is a more of a Lose-Lose situation where the first party may try to move away from any contradictions and issues that exist in the negotiation. This may seem as a skillful act by the other party but is actually not. As in the end, both parties tend to lose if the actual issues and problems are simply swept under the carpet.
   Consider that on your Policy System implementation project, you want to integrate to a Third party medical Bill review system but the system vendor does have a good delivery record. When you are discussing budgeting and Vendor procurement for this integration with your Business Sponsors and avoid talking about the issues with Vendor performance and delivery, you tend to lose on a larger scale. Becuase when you are actually implementing the project that is when the actual realtime problems will hit you head on.

3> Collaborating
   - This negotiation style leads to more of a Win-win situation than other Negotiation tactics for the simple reason being, both parties are willing to collaborate and understand each other's problems and come up with a middle ground
   Consider that in your Claims Implementation project, you are developing a Legal evaluation solution in the application, but the business requires this functionality be linked to another third party application which actually feeds overnight to a (say) reporting data warehouse.
   You as a project manager understand that, the Legal Evaluation functionality is required in the application for the business to complete their claims entry and processing workflow, but at the same time the business Team understands that you cannot complete the third party system integration in this short time frame without compromising on quality. So you both adjust your scope to implement the UI functionality in the shorter term, but not the integration atleast for the current release and then commit a later release date for the integratin piece of it.

4> Competing
   - This leads to a Win-Lose situation wherein the first party negotiator looks at the negotiation as a 'Must Win' game and will try any all creative tactics to win at the game. In this type of behavior the first party negotiator tends to lose on the relationship aspect with the other party as the other party may feel short changed later in the whole deal and may not want to do business with you ever again.
  
   e.g. In your Policy System implementation project, the client wants to implement the endorsement functionality before project release, but you do not want to give in, in any case and will come up with 'n' reasons and workarounds to 'NOT' do the change. In the end, you may win this negotiation, but lose your relationship with the Business Owner or jeopardise future long term deals with the Client,

5> Compromising
   - This Negotiation style again may lead to a Lose-Win Situation because the first party wants to close to deal as soon as possible and not look at other possible alternatives and solutions. This may serve to the other party's advantage at the best.
   Consider an example where you are working on a Client contract bid and are negotiating the proposal with the Client Business Manager. The Client does not agree to the implementation approach and may want to cut corners by shortening the Testing phase, now based on this concern, the first party instead of trying to come up with some creative alternatives, will begin to lean and then agree towards corner cutting and closing the deal which may not benefit your project and organization as a whole in the long term.

Negotiation Tactics
People who are skillful negotiators or have sufficient street smarts will use various negotiation tactics. Inept or unskilled people may not recognise these. Here are some such techniques used,
1> Playing Good Guy-Bad Guy
- There are 2 guys on one side of the table and one of them will be pro-deal and other one will be anti-deal guy.

2> Competitor Threat
- Negotiators may try to squeeze benefits from the other party by throwing other cometitor names in the mix.

3> Delay
- Skillful negotiators will try to delay and lengthen the negotiation process by using unnecessary questions, viewpoints and delays thrown in the whole mix. The whole purpose of doing so is to tire you out mentally and emotionally so you will agree to the other party's demands.

4> Not enough Authority
- Skilled negotiators never impress on the other party that they are the decision makers and will always leave some wiggle room to think over things. That is why always make sure you have the right decision making people at the negotiation table

5> Low balling
- Skilled negotiators will always try to low ball a deal and will offer you something that is much below the actual deal price (Although this may not always be true). So make sure you do your homework about the deal in question, the market position etc

Negotiation always happen between people (You do not negotiate with a robot, atleast not yet in the real world). This means each party/person will come with his own bag and baggage of emotions, goals and objectives etc. It is therefore mandatory and beneficial to come to a negotiation with a clear mind. Your attitude and perception sets the tone on the Negotiation table (atleast partially, if not completely). Please comment on whether you agree to these points or you feel there is anything else to add here.