The negotiation game that we did in class effectively brought to light one of the several issues that are common with negotiations; primarily the lack of clarity in communication especially, of the requirement and of the interests, among the parties involved. However, my interest today is not to reiterate this issue; nether is it to suppress its importance nor is it to enlarge the importance of another. My whole and explicit point is to negotiate a position for the ‘invisible’ part of the negotiations in the process of negotiations.
Well, issues like that of lack of communication will almost certainly be a minor factor when you consider extended negotiations; however a factor that will hold ground all the time and which always will is the part of the ‘requirement of the parties’ which forced the negotiations in the first place. For instance take the interstellar egg case that we shared in class; on the one hand ‘A’ needs it for his/her mother and ‘B’ needs it for his/her sister then would it not be wise to first implore the relation of ‘A’ with ‘B’. You may to your astonishment find that in a particular case, which is seldom uncommon, that ‘B’ turns out to be ‘A’’s long lost uncle in the distant galaxy, infrapm alpha.
My point is; you will be clear and simple, only if you need to.
This might not be easy to digest; so let me take up an example to highlight the point. The idea of negotiations between the two neighbors India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue has been in and out of the media lately. What is the purpose of such negotiations? What the people of Kashmir want is their peace and that, they can rest assured, can never be found if they were part of Pakistan as some among them claim. So why negotiate to change the borders? Well to me, it looks like everyone involved is just trying to buy time; dust up the files and leave us in the dark.
The talking of time compels me to write about a very interesting case of Caterpillar’s Solar Turbines Inc. Negotiations ended in favor of Americans (the owners) as their Russian clients fell for the sunshine of their neutral negotiation location in France. Such external factors are important and are often manipulated to take advantage.
Another curious case is that, which is quite common, when the Asian corporate personnel have negotiations with their American or British counterparts. The Asian, quite probably a master in English in his place, will use an interpreter to communicate. Ask for a reason and I will give you two; when he speaks, his counterpart listens to his interpreter and fails to see the non-verbal cues that he may have unintentionally given away by means of facial expression had he spoken directly. On the other hand when the Asian listens, he listens twice, ones directly from the American and then from the interpreter. Also he gets double the time to think and speak. Interesting right? But does this all matter at all to negotiations? The answer is quite unclear.
But where am I taking all this to? All the way to prove that negotiations are seldom solid. All negotiators are vulnerable.
The days is not far when negotiations will be done with the push of a button; for they are now a mere excuse; done by the feeble, to be mastered by the dumb.
Reference
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiation
[2]The Kashmir imbroglio: thinking the unthinkable, Dr Vithal Rajan
[3]Negotiating Power, Getting and Using Influence, Roger Fisher
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