The secret of great Global Negotiators

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By Stephen Kozicki

In a consulting project in Beijing, the head of a global IT firm asked “What was the secret of being a successful negotiator?” In fact as they had global customers, “What was the secret of being a successful global negotiator?”

I shared many insights from past blogs, communication, planning, risk taking and cultural differences. She and her team listened intently and took many notes. At the end of the discussion there was plenty of agreement and nodding, but she still pressed for the one key item or the secret to success.

So let me share that with you. It is a secret passed down to me and all of us from Aristotle in his classic book called, Rhetoric.  This is a great book for researchers in the field of communication and negotiation, but a hard read. It’s a source of great knowledge for me in the quest of understanding the secret of negotiation success.

The secret is: balance your negotiation argument with logic and emotion.

I believe that Aristotle’s contribution, in his book Rhetoric, is one of the greatest foundation stones for better negotiation, persuasion, communication and argument that has been written. Sadly somewhere in our now insane politically correct world, the concept of argument as a tool for negotiators and communicators has become a negative word, but it is not.

If this was not a blog, I would spend pages talking about the battle that took place between Sophists, Aristotle and his buddies, (Socrates and Plato). Part of his basic premise was, using both logic and emotion stopped people trying to manipulate others. They could manipulate people with logic by omitting important information or by using guilt or fear to get someone to do something that is not in their best interest.

Aristotle saw the two elements were very persuasive because you the negotiator or communicator had to prepare with both knowledge (logic) and (emotion) to connect and persuade another person to reach an agreement. This took longer because the preparing meant that you had to understand who you were going to negotiate with and what you were trying to achieve.

If you want to read more, I would suggest that you purchase a copy of, “The New History of Classical Rhetoric,” by George A Kennedy, available in any good book store or through Amazon. It is a book that doesn’t just translate, it gives insights and active commentary for you. As noted by Wikipedia, it is generally regarded today as the standard scholarly resource on the classic book, Rhetoric.

To improve your negotiation planning, contact us on +61 2 9450 1040 or at mail@gordianbusiness.com.au .

The Kookaburra Effect©

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By Stephen Kozicki

What signals are you missing at the negotiation table?

Some 5 years ago my wife and our 3 daughters purchased a farm 2 hours north of Sydney.

The farm has been a place of hard work, reflection and joy in seeing the soil enriched with compost, the water working harder producing fruit and vegetables.

At the beginning of this year, I was slashing the paddocks on the farm and a permaculture friend looked up in awe when he saw 3 Aquila audax (wedge-tailed eagles). Once he stopped saying ‘wow’ he quickly assured me that we have a very healthy eco system to have such higher order predators using our farm for its prey.

So as time passes, at the beginning of May this year, I was up at the farm slashing again. This time of year as I slash I also make sure our 6 water tanks are full. So on a beautiful Australian autumn day, I hopped off the tractor and started to walk towards the top tanks to shift values and water. As I walked into the grass clearing 2 kookaburras flew over my head and up very close to me and into the trees.

It was so odd seeing them fly over and so close to me that I stopped and started to work on ‘why and this does not make sense!’

The message for us all in negotiation is the better prepared we are, the more intuitive we become during the actual negotiation. You are more aware of everything when you are not focused on yourself.

Back to the Kookaburras, as I started to look around I found just in front of me that there was a 1 metre red belly black snake sunning itself near my water tank. I stopped, stepped back and quickly got my ride on mower and looked to see which neighbour wasn’t home and gently chased the snake onto his property.

What signals are you seeing at the negotiation table, over the phone or through emails that gets your senses moving to feel that something is amiss? If your observations do not make sense, it is a good time to call a ‘time out.’

So the message here is clear, kookaburras are the good guys and we all need to prepare better for each negotiation.

Preparation can include:

• Listing all key stakeholders in the negotiation;
• Mapping all stakeholders and determining the decision makers on your list;
• Identifying their negotiation style;
• Preparing creative ways to persuade them during the negotiation;
• Looking for ways to reach agreement;
• Focusing on ways to ‘close’ the deal and ask for the business;
• Focusing on the next steps when agreement is reached.

Preparation means that you behave in a more confident way at the negotiation table, because sadly in major negotiations there are people who will be focussed on their outcome at your expense. You will at times during those major deals, like at our farm, encounter ‘snakes in the grass’ that are not focussed on a mutually beneficial outcome.

The message is don’t run, revisit your preparation, make changes and continue to negotiate!

If you want to improve the outcomes of your negotiations then contact us on +61 2 9450 1040 or  mail@gordianbusiness.com.au.

How prepared are you for your negotiation meetings?

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By Stephen Kozicki

Have you ever arrived for a negotiation meeting to discover that there are people whom you have never met from the client’s side ready to be involved in the negotiation?  Have you ever been given a specified time period (usually 1 hour) for the negotiation and find that almost all of the time is spent on the ‘wrong’ discussion?

These are just a few good reasons why preparation for the negotiation meeting is so necessary.  While you may have been involved throughout the lifecycle of the deal, preparation for the negotiation meeting is critical.  No doubt you do know a great deal about this negotiation.  Preparation for the negotiation meeting differs from the effort you have made throughout the deal.  This effort is very important to help you to prepare effectively for the negotiation meeting.

Preparation needs to include:

• to the best of your ability, confirmation of who from the client organization will be involved in the negotiation meeting;
• ensuring that you understand the role of each person involved in the negotiation meeting;
• preparing and forwarding an agenda for the negotiation;
• completing all internal negotiations in advance of the negotiation meeting;
• being fully aware of the time allocation for the negotiation;
• rehearsing how you will present your multiple equal offers (meos), after developing and titling these;
• carefully practicing how you will link the value of each offer to what is important to the client;
• knowing what ‘trades’ you have in reserve;
• rehearsing to ensure that the presentation of your offers is clear and concise;
• leaving time to discuss / negotiate with the client;
• assigning everyone from your side a ‘role’ during the negotiation;
• ensuring that one of the assigned roles is Scribe to capture all key discussion points, particularly any points made by the client representatives;
• anticipating any client push-back or concerns;
• considering the decision criteria for each key stakeholder;
• rehearsing and being ready to discuss each point;
• practicing how you will summarize the negotiation meeting discussion;
• being ready to ‘close’ the deal.   

Preparing for the negotiation meeting is just as important as the preparation that you give to understand the client’s needs and your determination to link your value to what is important to the client.  Excellent preparation can make all the difference to the outcome of your negotiation!

If you want to improve the outcomes of your negotiations then contact us on +61 2 9450 1040 or  mail@gordianbusiness.com.au.

How you Say No is as important as how you say yes!

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By Stephen Kozicki

A few blogs ago I shared with you some negotiation lessons that jumped out of the trees at me, whilst at the Daintree forest on holidays.

I spoke of “obligate mutualism!” and explained that most scientific definitions refer to obligate mutualism as a type of mutualism in which the species involved are in close proximity and interdependent with one another, in a way that one cannot survive without the other.

I used the blog to make the connection between the negotiation, the other people involved and how to look for joint gains.

I want to use this blog to focus on the part of your negotiation planning when you and your team have to ask this question, “What is the consequence of not reaching an agreement?” I use it when planning for live negotiations just before the team leaves the meeting to start the negotiation.

It is a powerful question because it helps you determine when you would call a time out to reflect on your decision and when you would say no to a particular deal.

This is important because as a negotiator you are dealing with the rational and emotional behaviour of the other side as well as the substantive issues in front of you. My experience is people often react harsher when you say no, then when you can’t reach an agreement.

So from a process view, if I sense that I am going to say no, I would take a time out, leave the negotiation and then come back in one day, one week etc, and share why I was saying no. I would frame it in such a way that the other person/s could understand why I was taking this decision. The key is to do it in a respectful way without blame for their behaviour or lack of a decision.

Over the past 2 years, when this scenario occurred, in the last 4 out of 5 negotiations, this careful approach allowed the negotiations to restart and end in an agreement that was better than either side thought possible. Interestingly by having prepared the answer to the original question, “what is the consequence of not reaching an agreement,” this part is easier because you have considered possible scenarios.

I frame using the loss/gain approach and here I tend to focus on the loss, this helps the other person/s truly understand the consequences of not reaching an agreement.

Your action plan from this blog is always ask the consequence question before you start negotiating, it will help you get better outcomes and you will be able to say no and not feel ‘guilty.’

To improve your negotiation planning, contact us on +61 2 9450 1040 or at mail@gordianbusiness.com.au . Refocussing your negotiation planning can help your company grow revenues and profit.

Negotiating and the Daintree Forest – Prepare for the Unexpected

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by Stephen Kozicki

“A skilled global negotiator will always connect at an emotional and rational level in the negotiation and will always be on the lookout for the unexpected to occur!”

Like many in the APAC region, our family’s holiday plans to Fiji were disrupted by Cyclone Evan in December, 2012 and instead we had our holiday in Port Douglas, Australia.

One of the highlights was flying into the Daintree Forest, in the far north of Queensland, by helicopter into a reasonably isolated part of the Daintree and being taken by a guide through the forest.

The Daintree forest is estimated to be over 180 million years old – tens of millions of years older than the Amazon rainforest in South America. The plant life is amazing and as other observers have noted, the Daintree is a living museum that catalogues the evolution of plant life on Earth. Covering 1200sqkm between Mossman Gorge and the Bloomfield River north of Cairns, the World Heritage-listed Daintree is the largest continuous rainforest area in Australia and is home to the traditional indigenous owners of the land and the current custodians, the Kuku Yalanji people.

The first lesson for me, as a negotiator, came from the appreciation and understanding of the history and greatness of the Daintree. Sometimes in major negotiations we are so keen to start negotiating, that we don’t really understand the context and the emotional connection of what we are negotiating and the other people involved.

As we alighted from the helicopter my wife Gillian, our youngest daughter Hannah and I met our guide, Prue from Coopers Creek. We started the tour and it was clear that not only was she passionate about the forest, she was also passionate about teaching us how to observe and see what we would normally miss. It was like walking on the scene of Avatar and Jurassic Park all rolled into one.

She pointed to a tree, a vine and a group of ants and said boldly, “Wow, this is a perfect example of obligate mutualism!”.  Obligate mutualism is a type of relationship in which the species involved are in close proximity and interdependent with one another in a way that one cannot survive without the other. Often key customers and key suppliers see themselves as independent from each other and fight over scarce resources, normally, what is the cheapest price. Then there are innovative suppliers who work with key customers as partners, who see themselves as interdependent to each other, they focus on value creation not price. For those of you looking for business examples the best would be 3M and P&G.

The final lesson relevant to negotiation is to prepare for the unexpected!

We finished the walking tour and Ryan, our pilot, carried the lunch and drinks down to the clearing in Coopers River for a swim and lunch. As we were swimming, Hannah noticed a small dark thing on her left little toe which was wiggling with great enthusiasm and when I lifted her foot it was clear it was a leech, trying as hard as possible to burrow into her toe. When I informed Hannah it was a leech, I am sure everyone in Australia heard her screams.

I finally removed the offending leech and Hannah jumped on my back still screaming. I did not expect her to do that, I expected her to rationalise that no matter where she was in the river a leech could attach itself to her.

Often in negotiations we believe that we can present a rational and compelling reason to reach an agreement and expect the other side to coolly examine our offer and, with the weight of evidence so great, say yes. Often in reality, the other side responds quite emotionally.

We have recently seen a great example with the fiscal cliff crisis in the USA. We know that prior to the end of 2012, President Barack Obama was looking for a way for the US Senate to cut a deal to lower the federal deficit through tax increases and spending cuts. Both sides of US politics believed that their requests were both rational and compelling. Neither really prepared for the unexpected, which was no deal! Both took strong positions and almost brought America to its knees, again.

Enough about negotiation lessons, wherever you are in the world, you should take a visit to the Daintree and put it on your bucket list.

Remember, when you do go to the Daintree, stay in Port Douglas, do the helicopter tour www.skysafari.com.au and book the tour guide Prue www.ccwild.com. More importantly watch where you step and swim, as the crocodiles love tasty humans and the leeches love fresh blood! Enjoy!