Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

By Karen S. Walch

In classic power strategies of negotiation, CC&D (concealment, camouflage and deception) activities are often used. This phrase comes from the world of military intelligence as efforts by rivals to control access to key information. Negotiation preparation in the classic sense focuses on how to lie, hide or omit what may be true. Many of the preparation tasks in classic power strategies have been focused around how to manage information, behavior and image via flawless CC&D measures. This week’s law will explore how integrative preparation strategies can counter and manage such deception techniques used by potential negotiation counterparts.

In many cases, negotiators lack awareness or skill about how to pursue something other than CC&D strategies in return. However, we will explore how integrative preparation and strategy can counter even the most devious negotiator.

Law 34 begins our series on integrative strategy theories, practices, and options. Throughout the next several weeks, we will advance our understanding of leverage and the necessary practices required in order to accomplish your own goals without the tricks of intentional lying and deception. We will begin with a focus on the awareness, knowledge and practices involved in integrative theories, in general, and how this specifically relates to the field of negotiation.

As an educator in the field of negotiation, I have studied and observed how many students and clients increasingly view integrative negotiation strategy as the most preferred low cost and high performance practice adopted today. Integrative strategy is also referred to as mutual gain, nonzero sum, cooperative, or problem solving negotiation.

At the core, this strategy requires an integration of a negotiator’s physiological, social, psychological, cognitive, and spiritual dimensions of their lives, in general, with their negotiations, in particular. Central to this integrative strategy is a discipline about enhanced personal integrity through mindfulness about the conscious and unconscious ways a negotiator thinks, behaves, feels, performs, and believes.

In the last several weeks, we have explored how leverage can be improved even in the most powerless situation. Fundamental to the balance of power is a discipline to prepare for a negotiation (formal or informal) by integrating the disperate components of a negotiator’s life as part of a negotiation plan. The awareness of, alignment of, and preparation about one’s own needs, values, and goals are the first step of the integrative negotiation strategy. In the next several weeks, we will explore the critical nature of the integrative negotiation strategy in the context of not only professional, but also personal negotiations in the contemporary negotiation environment.

Today, there are trends in many fields of study which address an integrative approach to a subject matter. Such a development I observe in negotiation also coincides with a movement toward integrated theories in other disciplines. In many academic schools of thought, there is a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to how problems are defined and how solutions are designed.

For example, in medicine, I discovered from my own experience how integrative medicine is utilized in cancer treatments. Integrative medicine centers and treatment programs can be found in most major cities today. Surgical, homeopathy, psycho-spiritual elements in cancer treatment today is in high demand and yielding significant results. The integration of conventional treatments with alternative therapies in cancer and other health issues are studied or treated though integrated methods of treatment. The most significant health care advances today are through the design of holistic prevention and healing therapies.

I also observe an increasing focus in the theory and the practices in the field of psychology, sociology, and neuroscience. Psychological health of social groups, organizations, and individuals now integrates disparate schools of thought in psychology and sociological studies. Trends in the treatment of psychological and brain health now bring together the affective, cognitive, behavioral and physical elements into a holistic approach toward the treatment of trauma, injuries and disease.

There is also a development in the field of electronics. Recently, a former student who is an engineer was speaking to me about the trend in integrated circuitry (IC) in his field. IC theories and practices have revolutionized the electronics industry. An integrated circuit now combines individual semi conductor devices and bonds and incorporates them to one circuit board. The integration of a large number of transmitters into a small chip has enormous impact relative to manual assembly and operation of circuits using separate electronic components. We see the creative impact of this revolution in everything from the computer I now write with to the phones we use everyday.

IC serves as a great metaphor for the negotiators today who assess, develop and design an “integrated circuit board “concerning their negotiation goals and strategies. No longer can negotiation preparation focus on merely the cognitive dimensions of preparation about how to deceive others. The strength of integrative strategies requires an awareness and integration of the physiological, psychological, behavioral, and spiritual elements of a negotiator’s life. (See Laws 2 – 14). As a result, negotiators become more adaptable and swift in an environment of stress, fear, deception and rapid change. Today’s negotiators increase the chances of accomplishing their goals not so much through CC&D preparation, but through IC.

Law 34 Exercises

1. Assess how your physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs align with the way you think about your current negotiation strategy.

2. Where is there a lack of alignment with your values and your behavior as a negotiator?

3. What goals would you like to set for yourself in order to align the various dimensions of your life, in general, with your negotiation goals, in particular?

Extra Credit

For a humorous look at a serious subject, read Frauds, Spies, and Lies: and How to Defeat Them by Fred Cohen (ASP Press, 2009).

48 Laws for 21st Century Global Negotiators: Join Thunderbird Professor Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., as she explores the laws of power for 21st century global negotiators. Each Monday she discusses one law and provides an exercise to identify and enhance individual negotiation power. Go to the main menu for the series.

By Karen S. Walch, Ph.D.

Many years ago as a graduate student, I learned about the role of self-interest in the pursuit of power. In my studies about classic power, research consistently concluded that we are all surrounded by people who have absolutely no reason to cooperate with us unless it is in their self-interest to do so — unless you are an altruist, which we will discuss later in the series. In short, if you as a negotiator have little to offer a counterpart, you will simply be seen as a competitor to defend against or an annoyance to be disposed of in a world of limited resources and time.

Indeed, Machiavellian negotiators have long asserted that “powerful negotiators are those who can unlock the stranger’s heart and mind, seducing him into their corner, and if necessary, softening them up for the punch.” A key to classic hardball negotiation persuasion skills, for example, is to “work on a counterpart’s emotions and play on their intellectual weaknesses.”

We all know that every negotiation requires us to prepare to “claim value” in any agreement so we can get the best possible deal for ourselves. “Claiming value,” or the primary assertion of our own self-interests relative to others, is classic in negotiation power games. In order to assert our own interests, negotiators must prepare, for example, to structure first offers, how to respond to offers, determine how far to push the other side, and how to maximize value and outcomes for ourselves. We need to prepare strategically to negotiate for what we deserve.

Today, dynamic and destructive forces continue to compel us in almost primal ways to be constantly vigilant about how to claim value and protect our own self-interests. The complexity and sophistication of multiple party negotiations, economic uncertainty, and threats of litigation, war, corruption, fearful emotions, and irrationality confront us every day both personally and professionally. Many negotiators I have interviewed and observed often question what “win-win” could possibly mean today in the face of situations that are mere battles for survival and self-preservation.

Ironically, just as these forces defeat some people, I have witnessed many who have become increasingly aware of how important, more than ever, it is to learn the skills to “create value,” as opposed merely to claiming value, and cooperate with their counterparts in negotiation. Their own self-interest is protected and advanced when they make a choice to use their “brains to change their brains” about fear and egoistic self-interest.

Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman emphasize in their research that “genius” in negotiation requires knowledge, understanding and mindful practice to systematically think about creating value in negotiation. Such habits, expectations and strategies will cultivate more creativity and skills which overcome panic, misplaced superiority, or naïve optimism. An investment in understanding interdependent self-interests in complex negotiation situations is the most practical and effective mechanism there is for allocating resources, balancing competing interests, and resolving complex conflicts. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Man hopes; genius creates.”

Recently, I had an opportunity to work with someone who might qualify as one of Malhotra and Bazerman’s genius negotiators who wants to create value in one of the most primal situations which makes cooperation difficult. This individual is a senior official in one of Iraq’s most important government ministries who faces a devastating environment of post war Iraq. He wants to help lead his ministry and team to continue the rebuilding of Iraq through excruciatingly small steps. Violence in Baghdad is down but still rampant, and unemployment ranges into the 50 percent range. Residents have not had electricity run for a 24-hour period in six years. The private sector, under the 25-year dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, was almost crushed by embargoes.

Although the effects of three decades of war and conflict affect every aspect of his ministry’s life, he is committed to partnerships with the international community to negotiate new value in a highly technical global economy. As I observed this official and his hope for Iraqi officials to create value, I was inspired by his ability to think like a “negotiation genius.” He saw that the preservation of his own self-interest and a single focus on claiming value at all costs may help his country survive, but he aspires to be more creative and capable of achieving stability and security with those who also have an interest in the fate of Iraq. With his avowed interest in professionalism, anti-corruption and the development of young officers in his ministry, he asserts a motivation to lead by example as someone who has the courage to “create value.”

Law 15 Exercise: Reflections on self-interest

1. Think about a negotiation you have previously been involved in and recall how you thought about how to protect your own self-interests.

2. From those past experiences, can you identify and recognize how you defined your self-interest relative to your counterpart.

3. Can you name or list your claiming or creating value behaviors and how you balanced your self-interests with those of your counterpart?

Extra Credit

For further reading on negotiation: Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond, Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman (Bantam Books, 2007).

48 Laws for 21st Century Global Negotiators: Join Thunderbird Professor Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., as she explores the laws of power for 21st century global negotiators. Each Monday she discusses one law and provides an exercise to identify and enhance individual negotiation power. Go to the main menu for the series.

By Karen S. Walch

Historic classic power approaches have tended to focus on material things: “guns, butter, men, money, oil …” Classic negotiation strategic rules are designed to be secretive and intimidating to pressure, maneuver and lead a counterpart into submission. The goal has been to win: control resources and outcomes to guarantee one’s own security. This week’s Law will conclude the Laws of Power series with a focus on how to design a plan to win in the 21st century.

Success and security have taken on a whole new meaning as global and economic uncertainties and social justice have become fundamental components in the world economy. The Laws of Power outline the design of an alternative system of rules that work more effectively than the classic power tomes of the past.

It is true that in negotiations where outcomes may not require positive professional or personal relationships, “ruthless, selfish, manipulative, deceitful ways” may continue to serve as rules to live by. However, in situations where social, political and economic problems are the result of complex relationships, the power of understanding, “soft” power, and integrative negotiation rules have come to be the tools of choice.

The Laws of Power have outlined what these rules are and how they can produce more successful, prosperous and satisfying agreements.

The Laws’ design principles outline ways to be more energy efficient and how to manage the time and stress of negotiation preparation. Laws 1 – 14 outline an effective and coherent preparation method in order to know what you need and how to accomplish your goals. An alignment and coherence of the physical, social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual dimensions have a positive impact on increasing clarity, stamina, power and leverage as a negotiator.

Laws 15 – 20 explore the psychological, strategic, and social implications of self-interest for the practice of effective integrative and problem solving negotiation.

Operational tactics and sources of leverage are addressed in Laws 21-33, along with exercises and further reading to develop and encourage practice and tactical mastery. In these Laws, powerlessness and negative negotiation practices are transformed through awareness, practice and feedback. These are critical rules to explore since ineffective classic power approaches continue to prevail in negotiation.

Laws 34 -43 assist negotiators with the design of a strategy, which addresses both one’s needs and rights’ protection in a negotiation. These Laws are especially critical when negotiating with classic, hardball counterparts.

Laws 44 – 48 conclude with a focus on why and how to design an integrative negotiation architecture that addresses the full spectrum of emotional, social, mental and political implications of negotiation. Skills of mindfulness, compassion, appreciation and tolerance of others not only can create value for others, but can also positively impact your own immune system, economic and mental health and security.

A design plan with a focus on internal self-management and alignment is important since this can generate energy for fundamental physical performance and quality brain function required in negotiation (Laws 2 – 8). A negotiator’s design plan to include self-management and coherence of emotional and strategic planning is one of the most critical steps in today’s multicultural world.

The “noise,” dissonance, turmoil, pressure, conflict, and misperceptions found in many negotiations today require more than a linear, analytic plan. A negotiation plan today must be designed to be flexible, practical and inclusive of diverse viewpoints and situations. Analytic knowledge or linear planning is necessary, but not sufficient.

The Laws have outlined ways in which mindfulness and disengagement from automatic classic power mental models or emotional reactions can increase negotiation power and leverage today. Distorted perceptions and high levels of emotional anxiety decrease efficiency, cooperation and productivity for even the best problem solving negotiation plan.

A plan to guide coherence and alignment of both the ‘mind’ and the ‘heart’ assists negotiators to create more vitality and unique and practical results (see examples in Laws 18-43). Time is saved when negotiators can disengage from inefficient mental or emotional reactions while adopting more effective cooperation behaviors.

Not only do these practices increase power and success for negotiation, they also reduce stress, lead to better health, and impact meaningful personal growth. These skills are required not only for negotiators, but also for anyone who lives in a fast paced and complex world, in general.

This kind of design plan generates negotiation innovators. Curiosity and engagement of opposing and diverse points of view lead to what designers call ‘breakthrough’ thinking. When negotiators can create a culture of collaboration and inclusion, they are able to encourage others, seek support from others, and lead an effective analytic and problem solving process in order to create practical new solutions.

Skills of mindfulness, self-awareness, feedback, self-disclosure, problem identification, listening, and empathy are critical components to innovation, creativity and power for the 21st century.

During this last year, we have dismantled much of the negative mythology that surrounds negotiation power in our vocabulary. You can continue to increase your power and leverage by reviewing any or all of the Laws. Continue to practice the concrete steps and look at the suggested readings. I am grateful for all of the feedback, stories, and questions about the Laws of Power.

There are many more questions to ask, stories to share, and creative ways to apply the Laws!

I look forward to continued participation in this emerging learning and practice community. We will all continue to inspire, provide insight and become involved in supporting others who create value in their personal and professional negotiation and mediation.

Power, more than ever, is unleashed when talented negotiators create value where none existed before!

Law 48 Exercises

1. Take time every day to focus on the sources of power and leverage you possess.

2. Spend time connecting with positive and uplifting people who support human potential.

3. Seek out the counsel of others when you need to develop options and solutions to powerless situations.

4. Remember to prepare for power on the physical, social, emotional, intellectual and spiritual level.

<img src=”http://knowledgenetwork.thunderbird.edu/worldcafe/files/2009/09/powerwords.jpg” alt=”powerwords” width=”103″ height=”43″ align=”left” /><strong>48 Laws for 21st Century Global Negotiators: </strong>Join Thunderbird Professor Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., as she explores the laws of power for 21st century global negotiators. Each Monday she discusses one law and provides an exercise to identify and enhance individual negotiation power. <a href=”http://knowledgenetwork.thunderbird.edu/worldcafe/power/” target=”_self”>Go to the main menu for the series</a>.

By Karen S. Walch

Classic negotiation strategies pursue the protection and security of self-interests through hardball methods.  Traditional Track 1 diplomacy, for example, pursues negotiations at the official governmental level to protect interests and rights through the power of coercion and balance of power.  Nonmilitary classic negotiation strategies may not rely on the same level of technical and military capabilities for absolute power and safe keeping, but they do rely on “hard” power to achieve security goals. This week’s law will address the limits of pursuing security through the use of “hard” power approaches alone.

Like trends in security policy, in general, “soft” power capabilities are gaining legitimacy and efficacy as contemporary negotiation best practices, in particular.  Negotiators who know the sources and benefits of “soft” power have the ability to protect their rights and interests through less coercion, but with much more significant impact.

Throughout the Laws series, we have addressed how disciplined problem solving skills and social and emotional capabilities can increase power and impact for negotiators. These capabilities and values of collaboration are critical elements of ‘soft’ power.  Through the power of understanding tactics and leverage (Laws 21 – 33), for example, negotiators are able to “attract” others to problem solve, create value, and increase security for themselves and others.  The idea of attraction as a form of power dates back to ancient philosophers, such as Laozi in 7th century B.C. China.

The primary currencies of soft power are a negotiator’s mindset, values, cultural adaptation, and coordination skills which attract others to “want what you want”.  Any meaningful definition of power must highlight the way in which these currencies can be converted into impact and outcomes.  For negotiators, soft power is defined both as the behavior (affecting others to obtain preferred outcomes) and as a measurable result (quantifiable resources and enhanced state of well-being and security).  High levels of soft power increase the ability to attract; attraction leads to compliance and cooperation; which leads to favorable, secure outcomes.

Track 2 level of diplomacy in international affairs is an example of how private citizens, business professionals, and unofficial educators and community leaders use soft power to increase security.  Track 2 efforts strive to reduce conflict, within a country or between countries, by lowering the anger, tension, or fear that exists, through improved communication and understanding.  This human security approach asserts that the traditional concept of security is no longer appropriate or effective in a highly modern interconnected, interdependent, and dangerous world.

Currently, we often read about the official Track 1 Israeli and Palestinian negotiations to address traditional Middle East security threats.  Not as visible are the Track 2 diplomatic efforts in this region to address the threats of poverty, environmental degradation, and citizen participation as the underlying causes of violence and insecurity.  One of the leaders of Track 2 diplomacy is Herbert Kelman, Emeritus at Harvard University, who is known for his work in the Middle East, including a 1989 off the record meeting between the PLO and Israeli politicians.

He has been instrumental in bringing the opposing sides closer on important human security issues in the region.  Much of his work and others at the Track 2 level have had significant impact on the current Track 1 level of official negotiations.  Much of the work done at the Track 2 level of human security and needs have been fundamental to the mutual recognition between the PLO and the state of Israel, for example.  The growing numbers of unofficial citizen interactions over the last several decades have helped to persuade Israeli and Palestinian leaders of the necessity to negotiate a compromise.

There have been extensive Track 2 diplomatic efforts and ‘public peace process’ involving Israeli and Palestinian lawyers, teachers, students, victims of war, and other common citizens.  Many of Professors Kelman’s problems solving workshops over the years have facilitated participant communication and understanding in the historical context of anger and fear.

Most workshop skills building focuses on identity issues and, despite the experience of violence, how they can assess and manage their raw emotions.  Many participants have been able to inspire, influence, and support others in the region as they cultivate sympathy and empathy for their enemies, and maintain positive relationships.

Through intense interaction between Track 2 and Track 1 levels of diplomacy, the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has emerged.  Public opinion polls, for example, now consistently show that majorities on both sides support a two-state solution.  For Palestinians, obtaining their own state means an end to more than four decades of occupation, acknowledgement of their past suffering, the fulfillment of their national aspirations and an opportunity to shape their own destiny.

For Israelis, the two- state solution ends the demographic challenge to Israel’s character as a Jewish majority state, removes the stigma of being an occupying power, enables a potential peace with the Arab world, and eliminates a critical barrier to full international acceptance.

Both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power endeavors encourage the parties to share the land to which both are deeply attached and have historic roots.  A negotiation plan designed to protect the political rights of national self-determination, aspirations and identity are fundamental to peaceful coexistence. In addition, ‘soft’ power approaches must be designed to understand and secure the basic human needs, identity, and potential of economic growth and security.  Like the Middle East, ‘soft’ power is critical to the security of all negotiators who live in an uncertain world.

Law 47 exercises

1. What Track 2 diplomacy interactions are you involved in? How does an open mind and strategically optimistic best case scenario impact your own security?

2. What are your assumptions about an actual or potential conflict that can be resolved by your power of understanding and soft power skills?

3. How can you assisting others to fulfill their own dreams and destiny?  How can you take responsibility for empowering and transforming the security of your community?

4. Where can you build relationships of trust and caring by transforming your beliefs, assumptions and values about power?

Extra credit

Read Israel and Palestine: Two States for Two Peoples, If not Now, When? by Alan Berger, Harvey Cox, Herbert Kelman, et al, 2010, www.fpa.org

48 Laws for 21st Century Global Negotiators: Join Thunderbird Professor Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., as she explores the laws of power for 21st century global negotiators. Each Monday she discusses one law and provides an exercise to identify and enhance individual negotiation power. Go to the main menu for the series.

By Karen S. Walch

Classic notions about power and self-interest compel negotiators to see themselves in constant and aggressive competition with others. Defensiveness and self-importance drive the classic negotiation strategy. The one with power prepares to impress and lead others with superior talents, strengths and confidence.  Such self-attention and achievement are critical to classic ethical egoism and Machiavellian manipulation for personal gain. This week’s law will address the design of an alternative set of assumptions about power and self-interest for negotiation.  The foundation of this new design principle derives from the field of human potential.

In contrast to classic pessimistic assumptions of human nature, the field of human potential assumes there is untapped positive human potential yet to be developed.  Utilizing research from this field, practicing negotiators learn to unleash their own potential power which tends to encourage them to assist others to do the same.  As a result, collective agreements can lead to a quality of life filled with resources, happiness, creativity, and fulfillment.

The education and design of human potential competency models are derived from considerable social/psychological research about psychological egoism and the culture of narcissism.  Historically, western psychological models have relied on rational egoism and the classic belief that it is sensible to act in one’s own self-interest.  However, psychological research concludes that such egocentrism creates an inability “to put one’s self in others’ shoes.”

As a result, negotiators have little consciousness of the limits to their own knowledge.  This can lead to naïve egocentrism which leads to self-deception, insensitivity, prejudice and limitations about one’s point of view and values … a recipe for disaster in socially complex negotiation situations!

Fundamental to the design of the integrative negotiation strategy (see Laws 34-38 and 44 and 45), is the principle of humility, not egotism.  Without humility, a negotiator will not recognize that one cannot claim more than one actually knows, and that sustainable results are not possible if a negotiator becomes pretentious or conceited about one’s own insights and beliefs.

Therefore, self-development is fundamental preparation in order develop required empathy and sense of responsibility.  Through skills development, negotiators discover that apathy towards others and larger social problems are not only destructive for the collective, but also for their own personal survival and satisfaction.

Successful negotiators today increasingly practice mindfulness and cultural, emotional, and social intelligence because we all tend to easily default to egoistic thinking.  Markus, a very experienced NGO alumnus, recently spoke of how it is not just young negotiators who tend to “forget” information that does not support their own personal perspective.

Because of his own experience and mistakes, today he encourages young negotiators to devote time researching their counterpart’s cultural perspective since this was something he often ‘forgot’ to do. He likes to encourage others not to fall into the same traps that he did earlier in his negotiation career. Markus states that the most important step is not to become myopic and start to think that an advanced education can lead to superior intelligence!

Markus has a saying, “It is not true that what you believe is true because you believe it to be true” because he believes negotiators tend to oversimplify and ignore some of the most important human complexities of a negotiation. As an “elder,” Markus encourages self-development as a negotiation competency since it helps negotiators not be blind to the facts or evidence which contradicts personal favored beliefs or values.

He believes that the improvement of self-awareness ironically is not narcissistic when self-knowledge and identity develop strengths to negotiate with others in a way that enhances the quality of life for all parties to a negotiation.  It is difficult, but not impossible to do.

Throughout the Laws series, we have highlighted how critical negotiation skills are for the accomplishment of any personal or professional goal or to fulfill of any aspiration. Negotiation competencies include the ability to manage emotions, to develop mature interpersonal relationships, and to achieve purpose and integrity as a negotiator.

Ironically, personal self-development also includes developing others.  Coaching team members in one’s own negotiation team and those from outside your own organization is an important aspect of negotiation leadership.  Additional training, assessment and coaching about negotiation skills are continually required not only of one’s self, but also for those who you may mentor or coach.  A structured and supported learning process can help you reflect on your own learning, performance and achievement.

Negotiators who increase their power today recognize that their work and personal achievement requires integrity and perseverance. Negotiators who recognize that they need to be true to their own thinking, standards, and values need to be conscious of the inconsistencies in their own thinking and action.  In spite of difficulties, obstacles and frustrations of limited information, powerful negotiators maintain a firm adherence to principles of problem solving and sustainable outcomes.

It is difficult, but not impossible to develop a consciousness of how to treat all viewpoints alike, without reference to one’s own feelings or vested interests, or of one’s own community or nation.

Law 46 reflections

1. Can you imaginatively put yourself in the place of others in order to genuinely understand them?  Can you reconstruct accurately the viewpoints and reasoning of others and to reason from premises, assumptions, and ideas other than your own?

2. Are you aware of your own egocentric tendency to identify truth with your immediate perceptions of long-standing thought or belief?

3. Can you remember occasions when you were wrong in the past despite an intense conviction that you were right?

Extra credit

Read The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement by Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, 2009, Free Press

48 Laws for 21st Century Global Negotiators: Join Thunderbird Professor Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., as she explores the laws of power for 21st century global negotiators. Each Monday she discusses one law and provides an exercise to identify and enhance individual negotiation power. Go to the main menu for the series.

By Karen S. Walch

Classic realism notions about economic and political power measure wealth and success in terms relative to others. An individual who negotiates with power is considered wealthy, affluent or rich because of the ability to accumulate substantially more riches than their peers. Power “over”, egoism, competition and coercion are the predominant currencies and motivations for classic definitions of success.

This week’s law will continue with our focus on an alternative architecture for success and prosperity in the 21st century. There is an increasing dissatisfaction with classic negotiation power approaches. An alternative mental model has emerged around integrative and problem solving negotiation methods and architecture. Throughout the Laws, we have addressed how this method yields more satisfaction and sustainable results given the realities of multiculturalism and global interdependency.

Still, many negotiators recognize how the habits of classic models of power are difficult to overcome. Many point out that they know the classic mental model is not in synch with the social and economic reality of the contemporary market place. Even though many recognize the value of an integrative negotiation strategy, negotiators need to skillfully prepare to manage the unconscious habits of classic power tactics of our own and others. The good news is that the mindfulness and discipline about the design of a problem solving negotiation architecture yields significant creative and sustainable benefits and opportunities.

Underlying this modification to the mental models about negotiation strategy is also a redefinition of power and wealth, in general, for many negotiators. For example, state of the art research today can quantify with more clarity not only tangible wealth (land, financial capital, assets), but also intangible fortunes (social and emotional capital and satisfaction). Prosperity and security practically includes a much wider range of professional and personal variables and motivations than once was recognized.

Power and wealth in the 21st century not only include the classic measure of what assets one gains through negotiation, but it is also captured in how well a negotiator is able to foster relationships and social networks and connections. Such wealth and power provide safety and protection against various unforeseen and ambiguous forces and crises that can impact one’s standard of living. The connective realities of economic, social and, even, neurological forces require negotiation skills and the power of understanding in order to successfully grow and survive.

Integrative thinkers and problem solver negotiators recognize that a new model of negotiation power can be constructed. Ambiguity itself can drive the brain into action as negotiators become aware of how the brain and globalization require attention to the importance of not only one’s own self-interest, but also the inclusion of ideas and interests of others. Inclusion practices and cooperation skills leverage the knowledge, energy and capabilities of increased diversity. Problem solver negotiators have questioned and are not fooled into believing that nothing better than the classic approach exists.

The summer that Cecile, an executive, received her highest financial bonus ever, she was alarmed by her lack of satisfaction as a result. She had done very well in a “dream” consulting firm; and up to then, had little time to reflect on her own experiences and value system. That particular summer, Cecile felt ‘full’ from all the activity and financial gains she had accomplished, but was not satiated. It was not that she needed more financially to satisfy her — it was something more. She finally took her several months of unused vacation because she was in crisis about her physical and emotional health at the time. Cecile felt she needed to slow down and understand why that she had moved professionally very far away from her goal to accomplish something of purpose with her career.

Cecile, like many other experienced negotiators, wanted to achieve a standard of living and success that included both the material and intangible assets. However, upon reflection Cecile realized she was “out of control” and had unknowingly defaulted to classic notions about power in her interactions with both clients and coworkers. As she had achieved significant financial rewards relative to others, she was increasingly aware of how isolated she was from various professional social networks and resources. She also felt she had lost sight of her purpose to assist others in her career.

Up until that summer, Cecile had not realized how stressful it was to struggle for survival as she protected her status and position. She noted that alliances and networks were developing in her business unit without her. These teams of consultants were able to sustain client contracts over several years where she was not. She also wanted to integrate in her own professional experiences into the broader “canvas” of her life which was to value relationships and provide service to others.

By the time fall arrived, Cecile had developed the tools which helped her recover her sense of purpose and willingness to problem solve with others in her professional (and personal!) setting. She come to realize that she had lost her ‘power’ as she became scattered and out of alignment with her own physical, social and emotional (and spiritual) needs as she struggled to make a living. As Cecile became more mindful of the problem solving mental model about power, she was able to prepare on all dimensions (see Laws 2 – 14). Today, Cecile reports that she not only enjoys the financial aspects of her career, but also the intangible sense of integration of her personal and professional needs. She said it was difficult, but not impossible to”change her brain”. She is confident that if she can do it, anyone can.

Law 45 Reflections

1. Do you see that you have a central role in the design of a new architecture for your negotiation approach?

2. Are you willing and enthusiastic about addressing complexity?

3. Do you give yourself time to create and refuse to rush in with habits of classic approaches?

Extra Credit

To learn more about the role of mindfulness in creating a prosperous life, read: Change your Brain, Change your Life, by Daniel G. Amen, 1998, Three Rivers Press.

48 Laws for 21st Century Global Negotiators: Join Thunderbird Professor Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., as she explores the laws of power for 21st century global negotiators. Each Monday she discusses one law and provides an exercise to identify and enhance individual negotiation power. Go to the main menu for the series.

By Karen S. Walch

Classic negotiation strategies are crafted from the principles of political realism and power politics. The pursuit of self-interest and survival in a limited resource world is considered functional even though it may incite destructive patterns of social behavior in negotiations. It is believed that the “drive for power and the will to dominate are fundamental aspects of human nature.” Therefore, great negotiators design a strategy accordingly. This week we will address the need for an alternative architecture for contemporary negotiation strategies. Such a design can increase credible power, leverage and satisfaction in the 21st century.

As the Laws of Power conclude, we will focus on a design which better meets the needs of contemporary negotiators.

Any design, whether it is in building construction or in negotiation strategy, must meet fundamental principles of durability, utility and satisfaction. The integrative and problem solving approach upholds those doctrines.

Throughout the Laws of Power, we have contested the power of coercion and classic hard ball approaches to negotiation. In an increasingly multicultural and socially interdependent marketplace, the classic hard ball approach is losing its durability, utility and satisfaction for many practitioners. It is increasingly difficult to plan for and to execute a plan of coercion with certainty.

The high costs to relationships and economic/social stresses of coercive strategies have led to a search for approaches that are more effective and useful. An integrative negotiation strategy utilizes the power of understanding as a practical way to influence others.

The right architecture for a negotiation in a highly social environment requires a foundation of integrative and problem solving principles. Good negotiation strategic design practices begin with an accurate recognition of the problems negotiators continually face.

For most negotiators today, it is not only the task of accomplishing an agreement, but it is also a secondary issue of fostering trust in order to communicate sufficiently. A problem solving and integrative negotiation strategy is the most practical method for facilitating dialogue.

Strategic negotiation preparation is required in order to get what you need from others who have values and preferences in contrast to your own. Architecture and negotiation students know that the design of a plan must be robust, useful, and sustainable in order to achieve desired goals.

With the power of understanding techniques and frameworks, problem solving and integrative negotiation methods are more effective than coercion in motiving others to comply.

Throughout the Laws, we have focused on the importance of preparation at the physical, social, psychological, strategic and spiritual dimensions. Any design for a negotiation plan must include mindfulness and skills on all levels. An appropriate design balances the reality of complex forces on all these dimensions which make it difficult to define difficult problems and encourage cooperation.

Federico, an executive, recently engaged in a negotiation with a Russian co-worker, Uri, which was difficult. They were the co-leaders on a project and had to negotiate the basic elements of the project design together.

After several days of getting nowhere, Federico noticed that he had been instinctively using a coercive negotiation strategy with his co-worker. Federico became more mindful about his ability to focus on the commonalities rather than the differences they had on the issues. He had become obsessed with their differences about what to negotiate and also HOW to negotiate.

Federico’s cultural preference was to be more indirect in his communication, while Uri’s preference was very direct. Federico began to react unconsciously to the direct communication style since he believed that Uri’s direct style meant he did not want to cooperate.

Federico became more aware of the fact that his hardball approach with Uri had little salience. He knew that the nature of this team assignment meant he would need to balance the need to enhance the working relationship and communication with Uri in order to make progress on the project design.

As Federico spoke of his negotiation situation, he noted that he became more successful both with not only the project itself, but also the process of negotiation. He knows the mastery of his negotiation skills will be a continual work in progress, but he felt he gained more leverage with Uri when he had more clarity about the planning and design of his own strategy.

When Federico became more conscious of his problem solving skills, he was able to construct an integrative process. He was then able to address the needs and interests that both Uri and he had. When Federico switched from a positional and hard ball approach, he found that there was a better exchange of information and ideas. He was amazed at how many options they invented for the project as a result.

Federico is an example of the increasing ranks of problem solving designers in the contemporary market place. The current design of integrative vs. classic manipulation strategies is evolving out of the dynamics of basic needs and social realities.

It is a process of trial and error, improvisation, and craft. Just as architectural masterpieces are perceived as cultural and social works of art, so is the design of integrative negotiation as a cultural symbol of our historic period of time.

In your current personal or professional negotiations, observe how easy it is to construct an approach based on classic habits. Remember that what we ‘see’ is based on our cultural mental models and may not represent the ‘reality’. We often think that what we see is what really is. Can you see it now?

Law 44 reflections

1. Do you recognize that you have an existing mental model founded on classic theories of power?

2. Have you recognized that there is a model clash and you have difficulty gaining leverage or influence as a result?

3. Do you believe that a better model can exist even if you may not have identified it yet?

Extra credit

Read “Becoming an Integrative Thinker” by Roger Martin, Rotman Magazine, Fall 2007.

48 Laws for 21st Century Global Negotiators: Join Thunderbird Professor Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., as she explores the laws of power for 21st century global negotiators. Each Monday she discusses one law and provides an exercise to identify and enhance individual negotiation power. Go to the main menu for the series.

By Karen S. Walch

Classic negotiation strategies are customarily founded on the power of coercion. Much of classic strategic negotiation planning and execution involve the practice of forcing or manipulating your counterpart. Tricks, intimidation and threats are designed to pressure a counterpart to comply, most often against their will or awareness. This week we conclude the topic of rights-based negotiation approaches with a look at how mediation challenges the practice of coercion while protecting your rights. The law this week expands on Law 39’s focus on Alternative Dispute Resolution and the increased application of mediation and third parties.

Even in a rights-based negotiation approach, mediation is increasingly integrated as an element of rights protection.

In business, personal or public disputes, mediation practices have become established as credible, effective and efficient ways to resolve disagreements. Mediation as a dispute resolution technique utilizes the power of understanding rather than the power of coercion to manage conflict. There is a fundamental framework with the mediation approach which asserts that the parties themselves must take primary responsibility for how their dispute will be resolved and how their rights are protected.

Mediation practices challenge the power of coercive tactics by establishing methods that protect the claimants’ rights to work and make decisions together. In addition, the power of understanding in a mediation process has proven to be effective since the interests and issues which underlie a problem are addressed.

Lawyers who represent parties in mediation, for example, increasingly value the integration of the understanding method as well as the rights based approach. This trend calls for a change in thinking both for lawyers and their clients.

A negotiator who believes that their rights have been violated usually wants to be better understood by a counterpart. However, conflict makes it very difficult for anyone to have any interest to understand the other. Many disputants even resist being in the same room with their opponent, much less be interested in problem solving with them.

There is also a tendency for negotiators in a dispute to want to avoid primary responsibility for the resolution; and tend to surrender their conflict management responsibility to a judge, arbitrator or even a mediator. A mediation approach is an effective and practical way to assist the parties to take responsibility and encourage their problem solving skills.

A mediated, understanding approach acknowledges not only the legal opportunities and rights protections, but also supports the parties’ ability to understand and resolve the underlying problems. An understanding based approach does not deny the importance of money, legal remedies, or business realities. The law and exploration of legal rights are not excluded in a mediation process.

The law, however, is not at the center stage, but serves as a support. Most often when the “legal conversation” becomes the focal point of the process, the process becomes too adversarial and, even, the mediation settlement tactics, for example, become coercive or manipulative.

The last two weeks, I observed some of my MBA students apply their mediation skills to a business case which involved a multinational computer manufacturer and hotel developer.

This situation required the private sector to negotiate with not only the local, but also federal level government officials, such as the Ministries of Agriculture, Culture, Economic Affairs, and Environment, farm unions, and citizen and environmental groups. These skilled negotiators illustrate how an understanding based mediation can be very effective.

Their mediated process had a focus on not only the legal reality and business practicality of private sector issues, but also how to work with and not against public sector interests. In their case, they focused on both the rights and the law (a rights-based approach – Laws 39-43) and the mediated integrative process (an integrative approach – Laws 34-38).

The business situation they illustrate is a common one in today’s market. Investment today requires business negotiators to think about not only their own private needs, but also the future development path for any locality they want to invest in.

In classic terms, the private sector negotiators could use tricks, intimidation, and hard ball strategies with the city about their business plans for the plant and hotel plans. However, since this municipality and state officials had adopted national sustainability principles, the private sector negotiators were required to meet the legal requirements before their business propositions could be accepted.

In the case I observed here, there was an elected political official, who facilitated an integrative negotiation process so the parties were able to recognize and negotiate with a number of stakeholders who were impacted by the private sector proposals.

In particular, this case illustrates how not only is it critical to yield to the law or the national sustainability principles, and also how to facilitate an integrative process. The facilitator encouraged the parties not to become adversarial about the established principles, but to work together to implement the principles in the context of both private and public sector interests.

The ultimate solutions for the hotel and plant construction in this case were practical and met the sustainability principles for the municipality. The parties developed a plan to make the project cost effective, with minimal public expense.

The hotel and plant initiatives were coordinated with current investment patterns and policy and resource plans for the city. In addition, the environmental risks, land and water use, and national resource preservation were addressed and satisfied. This is difficult, but not impossible to do!

Law 43 reflections

1. Think of how you can use ‘bifocal vision’ – use the law and rights protection as a yard stick to assess your rights as you use integrative strategies.

2. Consider your impulse of service, justice, and citizenship by working with others to search for a sustainable solution.

3. Reflect on how business and economic benefits are related to levels of social participation and quality of life in the culture you work.

4. Think of the law as one reference point and how the law can support fairness and practical solutions.

Extra credit

Read Challenging Conflict: Mediation through Understanding by Gary Friedman and Jack Himmelstein (ABA Publishing, 2008).

48 Laws for 21st Century Global Negotiators: Join Thunderbird Professor Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., as she explores the laws of power for 21st century global negotiators. Each Monday she discusses one law and provides an exercise to identify and enhance individual negotiation power. Go to the main menu for the series.

By Karen S. Walch

Classic power strategies are founded on the moral obligation to make the most of one’s own self-interest. Philosopher Ayn Rand in The Virtue of Selfishness, for example, asserted that it is a rational and moral right to maximize one’s own self-interest. Like other classic philosophers, she asserted that one’s self-centeredness and happiness are the highest values, virtues and purpose of human existence. This week we continue with the topic of rights-based negotiation approaches in the context of interdependent self-interest. This week’s law expands on previous Laws 15– 20 (redefinition of self-interest for contemporary negotiators). In particular, we will explore here the legal principle to observe the rights of others in the pursuit of your own rights protection.

Not only is it critical to attend to your own rights (Law 41), but it is also important to recognize that the freedom to achieve your own goals must not violate the rights of others.

In an impasse, breakdown, or seemingly intractable conflict, it is often difficult to remember to recognize the rights of others when our interests are threatened. The utilization of a rights-based negotiation approach requires a disciplined understanding of the legal roots, for example, of both the positive and negative dimensions of rights protection. Your counterpart in a contentious or rights-based negotiation has a “negative” right not to be subjected to your abusive or coercive actions. This imperative practically means that as you pursue the protection of your own rights it is your duty to maintain the rights of others.

Your “positive” rights are guaranteed by laws, codes of conduct, and standards in the jurisdictions of your various negotiations. This freedom of action to pursue your own fulfillment and enjoyment of life is to be free from compulsion, coercion or interference by others. Negotiation provides a valuable tool to achieve your goals in the context of such liberties. Therefore, when you believe a negotiation counterpart is not conscious of your rights and uses deception, traps, and ‘smoke screens’, you may need to utilize a rights based strategy.

Last week spoke of ways to harness emotions in a constructive way in order to assert your rights protection. Since many negotiators experience ‘anticipatory anxiety’ about an upcoming contentious negotiation, lawsuit, or hearing, it is important to remember how stress can make it especially difficult to appreciate the rights of others. Legal advocacy and mental performance techniques, for example, can be enhanced in order to recognize the rights of others in the pursuit of your own self-interests.

“Adriana”, an executive who had filed and won a lawsuit against her former employer, recently said that she learned a lot about how to utilize a rights-based approach when she thought of it like a marathon. In the athletic dimension of her life, she read often about the relationship between anxiety and performance. She said that the lawsuit, like a competition, was ‘nerve wracking’. She learned from her trainer for marathon competitions that nerves can propel outstanding achievement or they can destroy your self-confidence. In human performance research she also read that too little anxiety is known to bring about apathy and weak motivation and too much anxiety sabotages any attempts to do well.

After many integrative attempts to negotiate with her employer about a contract payment, “Adriana” switched styles and obtained a lawyer to negotiate on her behalf. She had become extremely pessimistic and vengeful about the lack of commitment by her employer to pay what she was owed for a completed project. As “Adriana” became more prepared on the strategic level with her attorney, she also learned to manage her emotions and behavior so as not to let her resentment “drain” her. She noticed that the despite this set back with her employer she was able to maintain an optimism and strong expectation that the situation would turn out okay. She found that the clarity and disciplined preparation served as a buffer against her hopelessness and depression about her situation.

In particular, “Adriana” found that she was able to respect her employer and treat their team in a respectful and constructive way. She was able to manage her impulses not to libel and/or “steal” from them in some way to get even. Her emotional resources of persistence, patience and optimism, she said, allowed her to pursue a legal way to protect her rights.

“Adriana’s” case points out how discipline and constructive planning allowed her to respond actively, formulate a plan of action, and seek out help and advice. Optimism can motivate a clear path toward study and planning for a conflict. Mastery as a rights-based negotiator means one develops self-efficacy and can meet the challenges as they come up by following the laws and standards that apply. The next time you need to seek out a rights-based solution to a demanding challenge, remember that your counterpart has the right to do so as well.

Practical action steps to remember for Law 42:

1. You have the right to ask for what you want and allow your counterpart to do the same.

2. You have the right to say no without feeling guilty or selfish and allow your counterpart to do the same.

3. You have the right to maintain dignity and respect the rights of your counterpart.

Law 42 Extra Credit

Read Ayn Rand’s classic The Virtue of Selfishness (Signet Press, 1964). Here is an excerpt: “There is a fundamental moral difference between a man who sees his self-interest in production and a man who sees it in robbery. The evil of a robber does not lie in the fact that he pursues his own interests, but in what he regards as to his own interest; not in the fact that he pursues his values, but in what he chose to value; not in the fact that he wants to live, but in the fact that he wants to live on a subhuman level.”

48 Laws for 21st Century Global Negotiators: Join Thunderbird Professor Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., as she explores the laws of power for 21st century global negotiators. Each Monday she discusses one law and provides an exercise to identify and enhance individual negotiation power. Go to the main menu for the series.

By Karen S. Walch

Classic hardball negotiators can be dominating and, at the extreme, capable of violating your rights as a negotiator. Historic power philosophers, such as Machiavelli or Hobbes, believed in the pursuit of inherent individual egoism. Egoistic domination of others in a negotiation is considered to be moral and functional as a means of preventing the disintegration of social and political order. This week’s law will address how a counterpart’s classic power approach to negotiation can often lead to the violation of your own rights as a negotiator.

On occasion, you may face negotiators who lack the expertise and power of integrative negotiation experience, and will rely solely on classic egoistic approaches to negotiation.

This can lead to either the perception or the reality that your rights and interests are of no concern to your counterpart. Therefore, you must prepare to attend to your own rights protection in these situations.

Sometimes you may need to get a hardball or manipulative negotiator to the table, set a precedent, or obtain a ruling by adopting a rights based approach in the negotiation. Because of a counterpart’s lack of experience or awareness, a rights based approach can get the manipulator’s attention.

Your ability to style switch to a rights based strategy can obtain the responsiveness you need in order to protect your rights and encourage your counterpart’s responsibility to behave accordingly.

If your preference is to utilize an integrative negotiation strategy but are called upon to switch to a rights based strategy, this contentious approach can be uncomfortable. In extreme cases when your security and identity are threatened, the flood of peptides, hormones, and adrenaline can hijack your strategic thinking.

In neuroscience terms, this primal need to protect ourselves often leads to irrational and destructive behavior.

Therefore, in order to constructively plan, protect your rights and to negotiate effectively it is important to know how to manage your brain! Neuroscientists point out that fear “can take over the brain in a millisecond if threatened.”

Successful negotiators are knowledgeable of how the amygdala can hijack rights based strategic thinking. Many negotiators have reported that when they have needed to adopt a contentious approach it was critical to know how this can trigger a strong emotional reaction.

Many often realized after some time had passed that their fearful reactions were extremely inappropriate (some say, stupid!).

In order to derive the most powerful impact with a rights based approach, preparation is required on not only the strategic level, but also the psychological and philosophical dimension. In my work today, I observe some of the most successful negotiators are those who prepare on all of these dimensions.

The most significant examples are those who creatively combine elements from the best of old and the new of various sciences into their negotiation preparation. The “new” insights build on the emerging developments from brain and neuroscience.

Some of the “old” ideas derive from a wide range of thoughts about power, for example, from ancient philosophy of the Stoics.

The Stoics considered destructive emotions to be the result of errors in judgment. In this political philosophy, it is understood that one with power was a sage, or person of “moral and intellectual perfection,” and would not suffer from emotional hijacking.

I have noted that there are many modern day negotiators who still believe in the Stoic doctrine. This continues to be a popular and durable philosophy even though it began as a following throughout Greece and the Roman Empire in 100 to 500 AD.

Stoicism teaches the development of self-control and fortitude. This philosophy about power was seen as a means of overcoming inherent destructive emotions in social conflict. This philosophy asserts that it was critical to become a clear and unbiased thinker because this allowed for one to understand the universal reason (logos).

A primary aspect of Stoicism involves improving an individual’s ethical and moral well-being. This principle also applies to the realm of interpersonal relationships; that is “to be free from anger, envy, and jealousy.”

As you think about attending to your rights in a contentious negotiation strategy, take time to reflect and understand your own philosophy about power. The most successful approach to utilizing a rights based approach is one that prepares to manage the potential destructive aspects of vengeance and revenge. The rights based strategy can be used effectively and appropriately with mindfulness about the need for action and protection.

Most negotiators today do not consider themselves students of political philosophy. However, they are (whether they are conscious of it or not!). All negotiations are founded on a philosophy of power and those who are more satisfied and effective are aware of their negotiation philosophy as a way of life.

The way one negotiates is the best indication of someone’s philosophy –- not so much what they say, but how one behaves. A rights based strategy can be adopted with “stoic calm” or destructive revenge. Your choice!

Rights to remember for Law 41:

1. You have the right to be listened to and taken seriously.

2. You have the right to be treated with respect.

3. You have the right to clarify and discuss problems with the person involved.

Extra credit

Read Book II, Part 1 of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121–180 AD), translated in 2005 by Jeremy Collier. Here is an excerpt: “Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill… I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together.”

48 Laws for 21st Century Global Negotiators: Join Thunderbird Professor Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., as she explores the laws of power for 21st century global negotiators. Each Monday she discusses one law and provides an exercise to identify and enhance individual negotiation power. Go to the main menu for the series.