Reconciling interest

• Interest are needs, desires, concerns, fear, or wants

• Involves probing for deep-seated concerns, devising creative solutions, making trade-
offs and concessions where interests are opposed
• Negotiation - back-and-forth communication intended to reach agreement
• Negotiations that focus primarily on interests are interests-based negotiation (vs.
rights-based and power-based negotiations)
• Interests-based negotiation = problem-solving negotiation

Right based
• Right define under law, contract, or socially standards
• Rights are not clear and sometime contradictory
• Use 3rd party adjudication
• Public court
• Private arbitrations

Power based
• Power - the ability to coerce someone to do something he would not otherwise do
• Exercise power - impose costs on the other side or threaten to do so by 2 common
forms: (1) acts of aggression and (2) withhold the benefits that derive from a
relationship
• Power procedures: 2 types (1) power-based negotiation (an exchange of threats) and
(2) power contests (parties take actions to determine who will prevail)

1. Definition:
 Negotiation takes place when 2 or more ppl, with differing views, come
together to attempt to reach agreement on an issue
 It is persuasive communication or bargaining
“Negotiation is about getting the best possible deal in the best possible way”
(chỉ negotiate khi muốn chung 1 common ground và mình willing to make concession.
Chung sẵn r thì k cần ))

CHAPTER 2: INTERNATIONAL TRADE NEGOTIATION OPERATION

cứu cô pass 61 slide đầu ))
I. Key factors to determine the types of strategy
 Analyze your own position and other parties’ position at the contextual issue of
negotiation
 Preparation allows you to choose suitable strategy, other than (avoiding)
negotiate blind
 Right combination of strategy increases the chance of successful outcome.
 Relationship concerns:
o Whether there is a relationship
o Whether the relationship is positive
o Thinks of future relationship
 o The history of relationship
o Level of commitment
o Degree of interdependence
o Open communication
 Outcome concerns: Importance of the outcome of negotiation

phân biệt giữa compromise và collaborative:

 Win-win strategy: Cả hai bên cùng đạt lợi ích tối đa, tập trung vào hợp tác và
tạo giá trị chung.
 Split the difference: Thỏa hiệp bằng cách chia đôi sự khác biệt giữa hai bên,
thường dẫn đến kết quả trung gian nhưng không tối ưu cho cả hai (mỗi bên
nhường 1 ít quyền lợi)

II. Types of strategies

1. Avoiding Strategy (Lose-lose)
 Loss in terms of outcome and relationship
 The avoider refuses to negotiate
 Reasons for avoiding strategy
o Neither outcome and relationship is important.
o Negotiation is costly (in terms of time, money, and relationship)
o Avoid trigger an angry from the other party
o Having a strong alternative outcome

2. Accommodating Strategy (Lose to Win) (nhượng bộ)

  Sacrifice the outcome for better future relationship
 A short-term loss in exchange for a long-term gain
 Be aware of competitive (Win to lose) partner
o Use damage control and reconnection strategy to overcome the situation.
 Normally is not a formal strategy in negotiation

3. Competitive strategy (Win to Lose)

 Gain on short-term outcome while lose on (endanger) the relationship and long-
term outcome
 Reason:
o One-time relationship
o Poor/not important future relationship
o The partner is hard bargaining or dishonesty
 Character:
o We-they attitude: emphasize on differences between parties

4. Collaboration strategy (Win-Win)

 Key important of collaborative strategy is commitment
 Both parties committed
o To understand the other party’s needs and objectives.
o To provide free flow of information
o To find the best solutions to meet the needs of both sides
 Developing and maintaining a relationship is important
 Both parties are willing to understand the other party’s
needs and objectives.
 Finding a long lasting, creative solution is required

5. Compromising strategy (Splits the differences)

 Both parties gain something in both dimensions
 Parties are in short of time or critical resources to get to collaboration strategy
 Require: high degree of trust, openness and cooperation
 Open and accurate communication

III. Factors to choose strategy

 Situation
 Preferences
  Experiences
 Style
 Perceptions and past experience
 Other factors
“Don't bargain over positions”: Đừng thương lượng dựa trên các lập trường cứng
nhắc (positions)  tập trung vào lợi ích thực sự (interests) của các bên (back lại
slide 7-51)

Eg:
 Bargaining over positions: "Tôi chỉ bán với giá 100$!" - "Tôi chỉ mua với giá
80$!"
 Focusing on interests: "Tôi cần giá 100$ vì chi phí sản xuất cao." - "Tôi muốn
giá 80$ để đảm bảo lợi nhuận."

Cách này giúp tìm giải pháp sáng tạo thay vì đối đầu trực tiếp.
Nếu stick to position  cannot negotiate

 Any method of negotiation may be fairly judged by 3 criteria:

o It should produce a wise agreement if possible
o It should be efficient
o It should improve or at least not damage the relationship between parties

 Arguing over positions:

o Produces unwise agreements
 When negotiators bargain over positions, they tend to lock
themselves into those positions (the more you clarify your
positions and defend it against attack, the more committed you
become to it)
 More attention is paid to positions, less attention is devoted to
meeting the underlying concerns of parties
o Is inefficient
 Take a lot of time
 Create incentives that stall settlement reached is favorable to you
(the more extreme the opening positions and the smaller the
concessions, the more time and effort it will take to discover
whether or not agreement is possible)
o Endangers an ongoing relationship:
 Becomes a contest of will (each side tries to force the other to
change its position)
 Bitter feelings generated by one such encounter may last a
lifetime
 When there are many parties, positional bargaining is even worse:
 o In fact, almost every negotiation involves more than 2 persons
o The more people involved in, the more serious the drawbacks to
positional bargaining. (Since, to whom you make a concession?)
 If some 150 countries are negotiating, as in various United
Nations conferences, positional bargaining is next to impossible
 In such situations, positional bargaining leads to the formation of
coalitions among parties who shared interests (such as the North
and the South, the East and the West)
 Being nice is no answer:
o Soft negotiating game emphasizes the importance of building and
maintaining a relationship.
o Soft negotiating game tends to be efficient since it produces results
quickly
BUT produces a sloppy agreement
o Soft negotiating game make you vulnerable to someone who plays a
hard game
o In positional bargaining, a hard game dominates a soft one

 Which game should we play?

Soft Hard
 Participants are friends  Participants are adversaries
 The goal is agreement (kẻ địch)
 Make concessions to  The goal is victory
cultivate  Make concessions as a
 the relationship condition of the relationship
 Be soft on the people and the  Be hard on the people and
 problem the problem
 Trust others  Distrust others
 Change your position easily  Dig in to your position
 Make offers  Make threats
 Accept one-sides losses to  Demand one-sides gains as
reach agreement the price of agreement
 Search for the single answer:  Search for the single answer:
the one they will accept the one you will accept
 Insist on agreement  Insist on your position
 Try to avoid a contest of will  Try to win a contest of will

 There is an alternative (thay cho 2 cái trên): Principled negotiation /

negotiation on the merits
 The answer: “Neither”. Basic 4 points:
o People: Separate the people from the problem (soft on people, hard on
problem)
 o Interests: Focus on interest, not positions (explore interests & avoid
having a bottom line)
o Options: Generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do
(develop multiple options to choose from & decide later)
o Criteria: Insist that the result be based on some objective standard
(reach a result based on standards independent of will (ko phụ thuộc ý
muốn) & be open to reason)

16/1/2025
** BATNA – Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement (Phương án thay thế tốt
nhất)
- Avoid feeling you must accept but not reject
- Bottom line vs BATNA (more reasonable, realistic)
- In order to develop BATNA, you have to think all about the options you have and
choose the one you like the most and compare with your BATNA.
- BATNA protects you from accepting or rejecting the offer
- Bottome line: lowest offer that you can accept / worst acceptable outcome
eg: sell house no less than 4 billion  bottom line – you won’t sell the house lower
than 4 billion. BATNA: if you can’t sell the house, you have to choose the most
attractive alternatives: keep the house, lend it, convert it into…

** One-text procedure
- 3rd party can help you through this procedure (if you can’t reach the agreement)
Eg: couples want to design the house but they can’t decide  the 3rd party: architect
uses one-text procedure  ask husband and wife about their interest (focus on interest,
not the position)  develop the list of options and ask for critism or recommendation.
** Taming the hard bargainer
 How to negotiate about the rules of games
- Separate people from problem: don’t attack people personally + question the tactic
(not their personal integrity)
 It’s easier to reform the negotiating process than to reform those with whom you’re
dealing.
** Common tricky tactics (Slide)
I. Introduction to international and intercultural negotiations
II. Stages
1. Preparation stage
2. Beginning negotiation
3. Indentify and explore issues
** Identify and agree on issues to be discusseed
* Establish the agenda  priorotize the topic for both parties. Some criterias:
- Different cultures will favor different strategies, often logical order
- When emotion runs high  place early in the agenda  handle obstacles and have
psychological steadiness for later negotiation
- Importance of the issues to one or more parties  address earlier (sometimes
exception)  flexible method, depends on context and preferences
- Perceived difficulty or ease of reachig agreement: most difficult  place first OR
less difficult  place first  build positive atmosphere and trust btw each others.
 flexible method, depends on context and preferences, relationships
- Balance approach: start with sth important but not too big
- KEY: FLEXIBLE, no golden rules
- Settlement of an issue as a prerequisite for agreement making on another (slides)
- Commonality with other issues: grouping the common issues prevents hopping btw
issues  easier to check the process and see connections btw different points 
solutions  efficient decision making and agreement.
- Independent issues, OR issues linked with others included as part of settlement
package (dependent issues)
* Develop the agenda (formal/informal/detailed)
- Ad hoc discussions:
+ one party raise and issue, parties agree and work together until they reach agreement
 move on to another issues
+ risk: 1 party gain ads by controlling flows of negotiation
- Group discussion: best when there is no rush, both parties have time and value open
discussion before making decision.
* Deal with unacceptable issue: direct culture  reject directly / indirect  avoid, try
another way to shift the focus
- Unacceptable issues: ask other parties to keep the limit. Check carefully
- Advice: you might want to reject the issues, not reject it immediately. (slide 3 ways)
* Approaches for discussing and processing issues
- Agree on the structure of conversation and on the analysis of the topics (decide
structure and how to analyze it)
- Positional approach
+ Parties make proposal or counterpoposal
+ new in4 is gained and exchanged
+ ….
- Interest-based approach:
+ identification of each’s needs, interests and concerns
+ development of possible solutions
 win – win outcome
4. Cultural patterns in information exchange
6. Influence and persuasion strategies
7. Assessing options