Principled Negotiations

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Principled Negotiations / Interest Based Bargaining

Commonly know as "win-win" negotiating or bargaining, interest based bargaining rests on the assumption that labor and management want the same things. This style of bargaining takes on a truly collaborative problem solving approach.

For example, in the emergency service, both labor and management support the mission of the agency. Both are concerned about employee safety. Both are concerned regarding effective performance. So the question becomes, what do we need to do to get there.

Fisher and Ury identify the key principles necessary to effect successful interest based negotiations. These principles include the following:

1. Bargaining over positions is avoided;
2. People are separated from the problem;
3. Focus is placed on interests, not positions;
4. Options for mutual gain are invented; and
5. Objective criteria are used to select the appropriate resolution to an issue (AFSCME, 1995).

Some of you may recognize these as principles originally associated with conflict resolution and that association is correct.

A Comparison of Positional and Principled Negotiations

Positional	Principled
Positional Bargaining: Which Game Should You Play?	Change the Game—Negotiate on the Merits
Soft	Hard Principled
Participants are friends.	Participants are adversaries. Participants are problem-solvers.
The goal is agreement.	The goal is victory. The goal is wise outcome reached efficiently and amicably.
Make concessions to cultivate the relationship.	Demand concessions as a condition of the relationship. Separate the people from the problem.
Be soft on people and the problem.	Be hard on the people and the problem. Be soft on the people and hard on the problem.
Trust others.	Mistrust others. Proceed independent of trust.
Change your position easily.	Dig in to your position. Focus on interests, not positions.
Make offers.	Make threats. Explore interests.
Disclose your bottom line.	Mislead as to your bottom line. Avoid having a bottom line.
Accept one-sided losses to reach agreement.	Demand one-sided gains as the price of agreement. Invent options for mutual gain.
Search for the answer: the one they will accept.	Search for the answer: the one you will accept. Develop multiple options to choose from; decide later.
Insist on agreement.	Insist on your position. Insist on using objective criteria.
Try to avoid a contest of will.	Try to win a contest of will. Try to reach a result based on standards independent of will.
Yield to pressure.	Apply pressure. Reason and be open to reason; yield to principle, not pressure.

Adapted from Roger Fisher and William Ury. Getting To Yes. New York: Viking Penguin, 1981. p. 13.

Fisher and Brown also make the following suggestions for maintaining cooperative / collaborative relationships (Fisher & Brown, 1998).

1. Deal well with differences.
2. Disentangle relationship issues from substantive ones.
3. Be constructive.
4. Balance emotions with reason.
5. Learn how the other side sees things.
6. Listen well and consult before deciding.
7. Be wholly trustworthy but not wholly trusting.
8. Persuade, not coerce.
9. Deal seriously with those with whom we differ.

These are excellent suggestions for use in any type of constructive negotiations but particularly helpful in principled negotiations. It only makes sense in times when realistically resources are limited and the focus is upon world class service delivery that the emergency services try interest based bargaining.

Reading Assignment: Click on the following link to read an article entitled "Win-Win Approach", by Michael P. Charter, dated December 1, 2005 from the Fire Chief Online Magazine at http://firechief.com/mag/firefighting_winwin_approach/index.html

References

AFSCME . "Interest Based Bargaining." Collective Bargaining Reporter. 1995. http://www.afscme.org/publications/9684.cfm

Roger Fisher and S. Brown. Getting Together. New York: Penguin Books, 1988, Chapters 1 – 9. Fisher, Ury and Brown have been staff members of the Harvard University Negotiation Project, See also; Roger Fisher and William Ury. Getting To Yes. New York: Viking Penguin, 1981. Both books were originally published by Houghton Mifflin Company and are available in paperback editions. Together they describe a process for negotiating agreements and building cooperative relationships, and are highly recommended to anyone interested in those topics.

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