Negotiation!!! A do Without.

Negotiation is like eating. It is a necessity that cannot be neglected or undermined. It is fundamentally the premise of every social interaction. Every day, people all over the world go about their daily lives without realizing that they engage in one form of negotiation or the other. Some of these daily hagglings are minute and may not involve care nor conscious thought.It is quite a fascinating thing that many folks don’t even realize that they are negotiating; they think they are either just talking, or reading other peoples body language. Or in most cases, that they are merely stating a fact, or disagreeing and in some cases trying to find out what’s wrong.

Very many persons use various terms and medium to describe their actions; the trending terminology nowadays is called “difficult conversation.” or “essential conversation.”  And these terms are used because there are maybe various fractions with different points of view.But whatever the case, they are all one form of negotiations or another. the lack of this awareness hinders a lot of people from using the powerful insights and research done in the field of debate.

Anyone armed with negotiation skills will be able to use informed and tactical methods and assessments in other to come out at the right side of any deal with high stakes. Below are a few pointers to having to a good bargain.

See it as a game

To be able to win diplomatic deals, it is apparent for us to consider the art of bargaining as a game. And here are some reasons why:

• We can understand a game; every bargaining process can be analyzed, it is not a random process that occurs, but rather, a well-tailored and systematic approach to stir the unsuspecting opponent to the desired outcome.
• There are opponents/players in the game; like every sporting activity or competition, there are one or more opponents, and who or what they are, plays a significant role in determining the strategy and tactics we utilize when playing.
• There are rules in a game; every debate(which is bargaining) has set rules and regulations which must be abided to, some can even be in the form of a contract or set of procedures and processes that one must follow.

If for instance, you attend a car auction and the starting bid is for maybe $20,000, you cannot make an opening bid for $15000 as the instruction indicates how much, at which one can start the bidding process.

In the example above, you can see that the bargaining has a preset pace, but not all negotiation is as formal as that. It can also be informal and sometimes without specific rules.

• A game has a series of a predictable pattern of activities; many folks that don’t understand the art of haggling, sees it as a chaotic and heated turn of events. Which to some extent is true—because it is impossible to predict human behavior accurately at any given point in time, but never the less, the whole debate process generally follows a definite and precise pattern.

What not to do

A lot of people who have no experience with diplomacy—when partaking in any form of negotiation—tends to shoot tantrums and expect that amidst the chaos, they will be able to achieve some type of needed outcome, which often times than not, don’t usually go as planned. Here are things you shouldn’t do when dialoguing

Never bargain if don’t have a clear goal or outcome:

It can be pressure from your boss or some financial difficulty that may make you want to get things done so that you can move-unto-something else. But whatever the case might be, you should always go prepared with a clear vision of what your desired results should be.

Don’t over-cling to an objective:

we just talked about having a pre-determined result before engaging in any form of diplomacy, which can be tricky because if one is not careful enough, you can become obsessed and rigid with a desired idea to the point of jeopardizing the whole process.

One must endeavor to be flexible to some extent, considering that the other party (opponent) also came prepared with some form of needed outcome. The art of diplomacy is all about reaching a compromise, and this should be at the back of the mind of any negotiator.  

Don’t change your objective midway into a negotiation:

Following what we said earlier about going into a bargain with a laid out plan—not preparing or having a definite plan can make one change object in the middle of a haggle, which will be a clear indicator to the opposing party that one is not prepared.

Be collaborative:

collaboration is the direct opposite of competition, and this type of negotiation skill is needed when dealing with someone within our social web, like family or work (notably bosses).

This type of dealings involves close reasoning in which information is laid-out, and you pay closer attention to the other person’s concern over yours. Collaboration requires productive, consistent communication and joint problem-solving.

the easiest way to know that you are an excellent collaborator is that You talk more, you try to listen harder, you ask a lot of questions and most of all you make fewer declarations

Conclusion

Remember what we said earlier, as negotiation being a game, and in a game, there are winners, as there are losers. But in haggling, winning can mean different things—It can mean getting a better outcome than your other opponent, or it could mean getting the outcome you desire and helping others also to achieve their targets.

If both parties share a different goal, they could both WIN, in that there will be little or no conflict of interest.

If you want to become an excellent negotiator, then have this engraved in your heart—that the more you picture winning as a way of helping both or several parties involved in a resolution process to succeed and strengthen their relationship, the more fruitful your negotiations will be.