Wednesday, September 12, 2012

DISCUSS THE VARIOUS TACTICS AND TECHNIQUES OF NEGOTIATION WITH AIM OF OBTAINING LONG TERM PEACE.

INTRODUCTION Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties, intended to reach an understanding, resolve point of difference, or gain advantage in outcome of dialogue, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, to craft outcomes to satisfy various interests of two people/parties involved in negotiation process. Negotiation is a process where each party involved in negotiating tries to gain an advantage for themselves by the end of the process. Negotiation is intended to aim at compromise. Negotiation occurs in business, non-profit organizations, and government branches, legal proceedings, among nations and in personal situations such as marriage, divorce, parenting, and everyday life. No technique or negotiation trick can replace the value of proper preparation and planning for the delegation’s negotiation. Knowing as much as the delegation can about the other parties to the negotiation and their interests is essential to achieving a favorable outcome. The delegation must fully understand the delegation’s goals and interests and develop an understanding of what the other parties think the delegation’s goals and interests are. During the course of the negotiation the delegation should strive to update the delegation’s information about the other parties, their interests and goals, and what they perceive as the delegation’s interests. This can be accomplished by applying the under mentioned tactic and techniques; First of all encouraging dialogue between the negotiating parties by asking open-ended questions as these encourage the other side to provide unsolicited information to you. Use open-ended questions instead of "why" questions, which could imply interrogation. If you do most of the talking, you decrease the opportunities to learn about other person. Effective open-ended questions include, "Can you tell me more about that?" "I did not understand what you just said; could you help me better understand by explaining that further?" and, "Could you tell me more about what happened to you today?" Secondly promote active listening as you focus on the speaker and what is being said. Respond to the speaker’s views; do not rely exclusively on prepared remarks. Use body language to encourage the speaker and signal interest. Examples include leaning into the speaker, nodding and occasionally orally expressing understanding. Do not interrupt, let the speaker finish. Ask non-threatening questions to confirm the delegation’s understanding. Thirdly you need to apply the tactic of eye contact. Here maintain eye contact with the other parties as it shows the delegation is paying attention and listening to them. Caution should be taken here as far as cultural differences in which eye contact may be inappropriate or may even send the wrong message. Further more showing interest in whatever you are negotiating about is very crucial because this proves that you are listening by using body language or brief verbal replies that show interest and concern. Simple phrases such as "yes," "OK" or "I see" effectively show you are paying attention. This encourages the other person to continue talking and relinquish more control of the situation to the negotiator. More so paraphrasing is another way of telling the other party in the negotiation process what you heard them say, either quoting them or summarizing what they said. Additionally is the factor of emotion labeling. This means attaching a tentative label to the feelings expressed or implied by other person's words and actions. This shows you are paying attention to the emotional aspects of what other person is conveying. When used effectively, emotion labeling is one of the most powerful skills available to negotiators because it helps identify the issues and feelings driving the other person's behavior. Another essential tactic in negotiation is mirroring which refers to repeating the last words or main idea of other person's message. This indicates interest and understanding. For example, a subject may say, "I'm sick and tired of being pushed around," to which a negotiator can respond, "Feel pushed, huh?" Mirroring can be especially helpful in the early stages of a crisis, as negotiators attempt to establish a non-confrontational presence, gain initial intelligence and build rapport. In negotiation, negotiators have to avoid being provoking when they express how they feel about certain things the other person says or does. Using "I" statements lets you ostensibly shed the negotiator role and react to the subject as just another person. For instance, you might say, "We have been talking for several hours, and I feel frustrated that we have not been able to come to an agreement." This is also an effective tactic if the other person verbally attacks, because it lets you respond with, "I feel frustrated when you scream at me, because I'm trying to help you." Remember never to get pulled into an argument or trade personal attacks with the other party as this might hamper the peace process. Effective pauses also constitute a tactic to negotiation. Any good interviewer knows the power of the long, awkward silence. People tend to speak to fill spaces in a conversation. Therefore, you should, on occasion, consciously create a space or void that will encourage the other person to speak and, in the process, provide additional information. Further still documents play an important role in negotiations. Negotiations are typically managed through the use of various documents, including agendas, position papers and settlement agreements. Documents are also useful to both persuade and illustrate your delegation’s position, which may include photographs. Finally the use of experts can be useful in negotiations involving complex or technical issues. There are two distinct ways to effectively use experts in negotiations. Use an expert that is not perceived to be affiliated with any party to provide persuasive arguments and solutions for complex issues. For such an expert to be effective all parties must have confidence in the expert’s neutrality and in the usefulness of such expert’s opinions. Such an expert will be more effective if perceived by the other parties to be neutral. Your delegation should recognize that no expert is truly neutral. However sometimes parties will use unethical or unpleasant tricks in an attempt to gain an advantage in negotiations such as good guy/bad guy routines, uncomfortable seating, and leaks to the media. The best way to respond to such tricky tactics is to explicitly raise the issue in negotiations, and to engage in principled negotiation to establish procedural ground rules for the negotiation. Fisher and Ury (1981) identify the general types of tricky tactics. Parties may engage in deliberate deception about the facts, their authority, or their intentions. The best way to protect against being deceived is to seek verification the other side's claims. It may help to ask them for further clarification of a claim, or to put the claim in writing. However, in doing this it is very important not to bee seen as calling the other party a liar; that is, as making a personal attack. Another common type of tactic is psychological warfare. When the tricky party uses a stressful environment, the principled party should identify the problematic element and suggest a more comfortable or fair change. Subtle personal attacks can be made less effective simply be recognizing them for what they are. Explicitly identifying them to the offending party will often put an end to suck attacks. Threats are a way to apply psychological pressure. The principled negotiator should ignore them where possible, or undertake principled negotiations on the use of threats in the proceedings. The last class of trick tactics are positional pressure tactics which attempt to structure negotiations so that only one side can make concessions. The tricky side may refuse to negotiate, hoping to use their entry into negotiations as a bargaining chip, or they may open with extreme demands. The principled negotiator should recognize this as a bargaining tactic, and look into their interests in refusing to negotiate. They may escalate their demands for every concession they make. The principled negotiator should explicitly identify this tactic to the participants, and give the parties a chance to consider whether they want to continue negotiations under such conditions. Parties may try to make irrevocable commitments to certain positions, or to make-take-it-or-leave-it offers. The principled party may decline to recognize the commitment or the finality of the offer, instead treating them as proposals or expressed interests. Insist that any proposals be evaluated on their merits, and do not hesitate to point out dirty tricks. Conclusively, negotiation aims mainly at getting the parties together, identifying key issues, distinguishing rational from emotional objectives, preparing the agenda and negotiating the peace agreement, are all key functions of peacemaking. Players in negotiations should strictly observe tactic and techniques of negotiation to achieve ever lasting peace for the good of our society. REFERENCES Ury, F. & Fisher. R (1981): Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in. New York, NY: Penguin Group. Waal, F.( 1979): Reconciliation and consolation among chimpanzees. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

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