Negotiation from the Professional's Perspective

I am currently enrolled in a Negotiating and Deal Making course for my Master’s program. One of my first assignments in the course was to view three different podcasts and/or videos that discussed or showcased various elements of negotiation.

The first material I used for this assignment was a YouTube video. This was posted fairly recently on November 1, 2012 and is entitled People & Power: America’s Prison Problem. It discusses the fact that America imprisons more people than any other nation in the world and the amount of money the nation uses to keep prisoners behind bars. In relation to negotiating, the video came out during election time and discussed Proposition 36 in relation to the “three strikes law” and the various stances of voters, lawyers and politicians. Michael Romano, a lecturer at Stanford University Law School helped to write the reform initiative and has been helping those who are locked up under this law. Romano explains a couple of the cases he has helped with and I believe his preparedness overall is what aided in him negotiating prisoners’ time to be served. I learned from this video how important it is to acquire all the background information, and to have relevant and meaningful positioning before going into a negotiation. This video especially showed me how important it is to use objective criteria such as statistics, and to separate the person from the problem for the good of everyone involved overall.

People & Power: America's Prison Problem

The second resource I used was a podcast from Slate.com that is entitled Your Salary, and How to Raise It from the Slate’s Negotiation Academy series. I specifically chose this podcast because the subject matter happens to be relevant to my current career situation. They discuss how important to back up your reasoning with facts and figures so that an individual doesn’t come off as being greedy and also so that person can show their rationale behind what they’re looking for. They also interview a businesswoman who explains how important it is to come off as professional and to not be perceived in a negative light (i.e. rude) through personal presentation, body language, and an individual’s overall tone. This podcast explained to me how important it is to focus on interests, not positions. Especially when it comes to a subject such as salary that personally affects an individual, it is really important to ask questions and gather information from whom you’re speaking with in order to get what you ultimately want.

Your Salary, and How to Raise It

The third and final resource that I used for the purposes of this assignment was a podcast from Stanford University where investment banker Stan Christensen lectured about The Art of Negotiation. I think the thing I enjoyed most about this lecture was Christensen’s willingness to discuss his past mistakes in negotiating. I also enjoyed his emphasis on how important listening is when negotiating, and how persuasive it can actually be to just stop and listen to those who you’re negotiating with. He also described how important it is to build relationships; not in terms of necessarily getting along, but rather to come to effective agreements for negotiating purposes. Christensen also expressed how important it is to find things that you have in common with others. This I think was the biggest lesson to me from this podcast because it shows how the door can be opened for mutual gain. Finding common ground and mutual interests aids in broadening options so that both sides can benefit.

The Art of Negotiation 

All three of my resources were extremely helpful and relevant to this week’s negotiating techniques that my course covered. It is amazing how many negotiating tactics I had yet to take into consideration, but I am thrilled that this course has already begun opening my eyes to negotiating tactics that I know I will use in my future as my career continues to grow.