Case Study on Extreme Negotiations

Case Study – Interview on Implementing Strategies in Extreme Negotiations

The following case study given by the lecturer is a summary of an interview of Jeff Weiss and Jonathan Hughes regarding their article published in Harvard Business Review on "Extreme Negotiations". 

As stated in the case study, extreme negotiations are defined as instances with high risk factors. People tend to carry out extreme negotiations when they feel susceptible or see a weakness in the other party. These types of negotiations can lead to long term damage to relationships among parties and should be handled with care, which can be difficult to initiate under extreme pressure and stress of the situation. It’s important to understand the motivations and reasons of the party enforcing extreme negotiations so that reasonable and trustworthy outcomes can be obtained through a range of solutions that will benefit both parties.

In order to lead a successful negotiation in an extreme condition, questioning in respectful, direct and non-threatening manner which will be easier and comfortable to answer should be followed. This will help to understand the reasons for the aggressiveness of the other party and thus prevent arriving at wrong conclusions about them. Suggesting resolutions and inviting them to critique it and also conducting background research on the situation is another approach on understanding the motives of the other party. This will help in learning the possible outcome that the parties expect through an extreme negotiation. It is important to stay calm and not overreact in these situations in order to avoid further clashing. It is also important to understand and follow the relevant cultural aspects, as there can be instances that the reasons may lay within them. An important factor to develop in an extreme negotiation is trust. It is important that the trust between people/parties should be at a reasonable level in order to face extreme negotiations successfully.

In order to launch a successful extreme negotiation, the parties must be prepared well before hand instead of relying on the spur of the moment actions. A negotiator can develop qualities such as focusing on disciplined preparations, practicing with low risk negotiations prior, developing ability to view situations in different perspectives when needed, reviewing the negotiations done by you as well as getting feedback from others and to teaching others. It is also important to know how to be persuasive and convince the other parties without being too aggressive by presenting them with reasonable facts and fairness.

In order to implement these strategies in an organizational level, negotiations can be treated as a process where developing strategies, preparing pre-negotiations, conducting negotiations, midcourse correcting, closing negotiations and reviewing and quality assuring is done.  Leaders should be selected and should be trained to possess a correct mindset throughout the negotiation. There should be a shared vocabulary and tools such as play-books with strategies, metrics and dashboards for and processing, and sophisticated development programs for negotiators. It’s best to encourage the negotiators with motivation and preparation as well as sharing prior success stories that can be used as learning options.

Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) is an important phase where there is a backup plan in hand when dealing with negotiations. Following BATNA method means to investigate to all possible options and to compare amongst them in order to arrive at the most suitable decision. Many companies tend to use this method as this tends to present successful and positive results.

There are numerous situations that can lead to extreme negotiations and it is important to learn the best ways to handle these as individuals as well as organizations. 

Link of the case study - 

http://hbr.org/web/ideas-in-practice/implementing-strategies-in-extreme-negotiations