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ignore the process issues. How the negotiation should be
conducted, what issues will be discussed and in what order? What
methods might be used to reach a resolution. Often when
discussions on substance bog down, switching the discussion to

process can help move things forward.
 Know that managing shared, differing and conflicting interests is a

joint problem which forms the core of any negotiation. This is an
example of a process issue. Often negotiators focus only on their
own concerns and ignore the other side's. This can be fatal for if
the negotiation is to conclude with anagreement, each side needs to

walk away with at least some of its needs met.
Negotiation typically involves a tension between discovering
shared interests - maximizing joint gains or maximizing our own gains

at the expense of the other side's when interests seem to conflict. Many
negotiators manage this tension poorly. Some overdo the opportunity for
unilateral gain which often means sacrificing potentially more
significant joint gains. Or some underemphasize the existence and

importance of conflicting interests which can mean they do less well
than they should have.
What is Negotiation?

Besides a much maligned term, that it? It comes from the Latin
word "negotium." Consider what these definitions have in common:
 Use of information and power to effect behavior.

 The art of getting what you want.
 A process for reaching agreement when there are conflict interests.

 Negotiation is a discussion between two or more parties each with
a goal of realizing agreement on issues separating them when no
side has the power to get its own to get its own way.

 Negotiation includes any instance in which two or more people are
communicating each for the purpose of influencing the other's
decision.

Negotiation is a process for mutually satisfying needs. We
negotiate because we have to, not because we want to. For there to be a
negotiation, each party recognizes that s/he can't get what they want on
their own and that they need something from the others. For negotiation

to work each side has to walk away with at least some of its needs met.
Yet negotiators too often ignore this fact. They spend little time

preparing – determining their own needs, objectives, and aspirations and
priorities. And, totally ignore the needs, objectives, aspirations, and