The negotiator's equivalent of "don't make a federal case out of it" is "what do you think you're doing, brokering a negotiated peace in the Middle East?"
Well (thanks -- again! -- to Geoff Sharp) we bring you negotiation tips from a guy who has brokered Middle East peace treaties -- Dennis Ross (Diplomacy: Talking Sense) former Middle East envoy and chief peace negotiator for both the Clinton and Bush senior administrations.
(Ross' new book: Statecraft and How to Restore America's Standing in the World, right)
Here, Ross gives us a twelve step list for effective negotiations (please go to the article itself for the detail; it's well worth the read):
- Know what you want, know what you can live with.
- Know everything there is to know about the decision maker(s) on the other side.
- Build a relationship of trust with the key decision maker.
- Keep in mind the other side's need for an explanation.
- To gain the hardest concessions, prove you understand what is important to the other side.
- Tough Love is also required.
- Employ the good-cop, bad-cop approach carefully.
- Understand the value and limitations of deadlines.
- Take only calculated risks.
- Never lie, never bluff
- Don't paper over differences.
- Summarize agreements at the end of every meeting.