Course Outline

Introduction

• Delegate introductions, and outline of course expectations
• Exercise in basic negotiation technique to highlight the better and poorer aspects of even simple negotiations
• Exercise summary and critique by course director
• Identification of the higher level negotiation skills that might have assisted in the exercise

Aspects of behaviour that come into play in complex negotiations

• With reference to delegates’ real life negotiating experience -identification of behaviour aspects of the negotiation process
• The way in which behaviour differs among a group of people faced with the same problem
• How we can more effectively understand, relate to and negotiate with people demonstrating different behaviour in response to similar problems or challenges
• Reviewing how fear based on past experience can become an obstacle to current peak negotiation performance (even unconsciously), and what we can do to overcome performance limiting fear
• Identification of various principles of human behaviour and motivation
• A range of advanced communication skills which can assist better responses to the various behaviour patterns

All great artists thoroughly understand the basics
In this session we will review the basics of negotiation to ensure all delegates embark upon the more advanced skills from similar starting points

• Review of the stages of the negotiation process
• Basic preparation as compared with the preparation of champion negotiators (includes a review of essential aspects of any negotiation preparation)
• Identification of sources of power for a negotiation, determining the power balance and determining strategy
• A specific look at the power of expectation and the power of communication in adjusting the power balance -an experiment to put these in perspective
• Review of a range of negotiation tactics and counter tactics
• The importance of identifying / establishing both ‘the negotiating range’ and a ‘BATNA’

Introducing influence -sophisticated techniques used by the experts in more complex negotiations

• How to use buying psychology to ‘sell’ your ideas and position to the other party
  • Creating awareness with impact
  • Developing understanding with detail that suits the behaviour style of the other party
  • Creating credibility for your position through references to appropriate similar situations
  • Promoting relevance of your position by stressing its contribution/ benefits in a win-win solution
• How to use marketing psychology to gain a better response from those with whom you negotiate -the importance of source credibility, medium of information transfer, and the message format and language
• Understanding Heider’sBalance Theory and how it can impact on the negotiation process
• Examining Pidgeon holing and meritocracy filtration -we all do it but are usually unaware of doing it -What can we do to ensure they do not impede negotiation progress
• Upon reaching agreement, questions are often the answer!

Relating, and its importance in negotiation -from a tactics based style of negotiation to a behaviour and communication based style

• Completion of the Strength Deployment Index which indicates our relating style in normal circumstances and under stress or conflict conditions
• Review of Relationship Awareness Theory

Relating, and its importance in negotiation -from a tactics based style of negotiation to a behaviour and communication based style

• Completion of the Strength Deployment Index which indicates our relating style in normal circumstances and under stress or conflict conditions
• Review of Relationship Awareness Theory
• Understanding relating weaknesses so we can convert them to strengths
• How to gain most from negotiations with people of various relating styles

Thinking styles and their importance in negotiation

• A description of the three primary thinking / information processing styles and how we can determine the style being used
• Identifying the other party’s style from the language they use
• Confirming the style from body language indications
• How to select language which will have maximum impact on the other party
• Applying this skill in the negotiating context

Transactional analysis in negotiation

• What is Transactional Analysis and how can we use it in complex negotiations
• The components and sub-components of the personality in “TA” terms
• Physical and verbal cues of the various components and sub-components
• How to use TA to assist us to respond rather than react to the words, mannerisms and general behaviour of the other party
• How to use TA to recover from an inadvertent regression of an otherwise good negotiation progress
• Using the Reticular Activation model for understanding emotional response to negotiation triggers

Meta talk, hierarchical thinking and language subtlety in negotiation

• Meta talk -what it is, the impact it can have, and how to avoid it -and avoid reacting to it
• Hierarchical thinking -how ‘chunking language up’ or ‘chunking language down’ can lead to quicker agreement, especially in negotiation for personal conflict resolution
• A review of Robert Dilt’s’unified field theory’ and how we can use its power in the negotiation context.

Mirroring skills and their application and crucial importance in negotiation

• What are mirroring skills and what is the basis for their power in influencing others
• What is involved in using mirroring in negotiation
• When does mirroring become mimicking, and lose its impact
• How and when to mirror speech patterns for maximum impact
• How to mirror body language patterns for maximum impact

Body language -its meaning in the negotiation context

• Major body language categorisation
• Important and common body language found during negotiation
• How to respond to specific body language for maximum effect
• It’s not about ‘conning’ others with our body language so much as using awareness of our own body language to keep check on our own thoughts about the other party’s representations

Negotiating for conflict resolution -determining your own style

• Understanding the nature of conflict
• Ego, position and personality aspects of conflict
• Understanding the five conflict negotiation styles
• Using the Thomas KilmanConflict Instrument to determine basic style
• Moving from weakness to strength in conflict resolution

Putting it all together

• An exercise in combining newly learned negotiation skills for optimum effect