Effective Negotiation From Research to Results

We negotiate a great deal – far more than we realise. Sometimes it goes smoothly, and sometimes it seems difficult. While there is much advice around about how to negotiate and be a winning negotiator, our actual experience does not seem as straightforward as books suggest. Why? Because negotiation is a complex process. This book grapples with these complexities while recognising the idiosyncrasies of both the negotiation process and the negotiator. There are some features of negotiation that are like its DNA and that need to be working well if the negotiation is to progress. There are also some tasks that need to be undertaken, tasks that make up the phases of the agreement-reaching process. Because the negotiation process is complex it is not easy to fully describe or understand one aspect of it without first understanding everything else – for example, how do we know what it means to be cooperative without first understanding what it means to be competitive (and vice versa)? So this opening chapter presents an overview of what the negotiation process involves which, we hope will lay a foundation for later chapters.