Q & A Table of Contents
What's It All About?
From: Wollie, South Africa
Question: Is negotiation all about achieving the best for yourself or our
company .... or is there more to it?
Response: In one sense, negotiation is indeed all about achieving the best.
However, and this is critical, reaching a one-sided result is definitely not
'achieving the best'.
When people negotiate for themselves, their companies, or other groups they
represent, unless they reach an agreement to which both they and the other
negotiating parties are committed, the negotiation is a failure. Virtually
every negotiation should be viewed as an episode in an ongoing relationship
whether it is business or personal.
Thus a negotiator should aim at achieving the best for the parties to the
negotiation as well as their constituencies. If only one party gains and
others feel they have lost, the deal may fail to be fulfilled by the
disappointed parties. Moreover, if the negotiation process leaves one or
more parties grumbling, your reputation for fairness may suffer and folks
will not want to do business with you in the future.
Achieving the best is a good goal if it is not one-sided. Achieving a wise
resolution or agreement is probably a more accurate statement of the goal of
good negotiation.
Good luck and good negotiating,
Steve
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