2 – Preparation and planning
2
Preparation is the most critical phase of the entire negotiation, and the 80/20 rule applies here as well.
Success depends 80% on preparation and only 20% on the actual negotiation.
So remember, the more you prepare, the more creative and constructive you’ll be, and the more options you’ll bring to the table. When you have more tools at your disposal, you have a better chance of solving the problems you encounter. And if your tools are of higher quality, you’ll be able to come up with more effective and interesting solutions.
Excerpts from Black Moves First
Negotiators usually express two regrets, one before the negotiation and one after.
“We didn’t have time to prepare better” is the first.
“We could have negotiated better if we had prepared more thoroughly” is the second.
Over the years, I have found that even when a negotiator thinks about preparing, he or she does not follow an appropriate method. Often the mistake is more serious: there is no preparation at all.
It does not matter whether the negotiation is about managing an internal conflict or a multimillion-dollar contract, the annual salary review or the closing of an acquisition, a union contract or an international peace treaty.
Every negotiation requires serious preparation, and the lack of adequate preparation will affect the outcome, regardless of the stakes and the skills you have acquired over time.
Many limit their preparation by focusing only on what they want to achieve; when I observe negotiations, I find that the preparation has focused on making a list of one’s wishes, adding at most an alternative plan to be used in case of emergency; in this way, the result is poor because the negotiation is limited to making demands and concessions.
Preparation is much more than that.
First, ask yourself what your interests are.
What do you want, what are you looking for, what do you need, what are your needs, your hopes, your fears?
When I make a list of interests and then order them by priority, perhaps adding the motivations behind them, I find it very useful to answer a simple question: “Do I really care about this? Is this really what I want?”
Make an effort to come up with a list of at least five items, no less. It will be difficult the first few times, but then it will get easier and easier.
Then, using the same logic, identify their interests.
What do they want? What do they need, what are their needs, hopes, fears… in short, ask yourself the same questions you asked yourself, but put yourself in the other person’s shoes; empathize with them!