The session started with a brief introduction to Roger Fisher and his work on negotiation in Harvard. Having lost four of his close friends in the Vietnam War, Fisher made negotiation his subject of study on the premise that wars can be avoided if countries negotiate with each other. The result of Fisher’s work is the book ‘Getting to yes’. The importance of negotiation stems from the fact that negotiations are relevant not only in war, but also in business, community and household.

To help the class better understand the psychology of people entering negotiation, Ms Amita made the class play the game, ‘Arm exercise’. The players who collaborated ended up with more point than those who were locked in arm wrestling with their opponents, determined to defeat them. The game brought to light the common measures of success, ‘getting what you want’ or ‘making fewer concessions’ and it is these kinds of ‘assumptions’ that determine the final outcome of the game.

Similarly, the assumptions determine the results we get in a negotiation. The possible assumptions in negotiation can be classified as disempowering or empowering. When we assume that our interests are opposed; we can’t get want we want; we have no choice; or we need a compromise between conflicting position, we are entertaining disempowering assumptions.  On the other hand, empowering assumptions are those, where we assume/believe there are shared values and find ways to expand the options; we try to find creative ways to meet the two or more distinct objectives; there is no fixed notion about what can be achieved but a feeling of exploration.

Negotiations can be classified into two – Distributive or Competitive negotiations; and Integrating or Collaborative negotiation. Distributive or Competitive negotiations where the concern is to maximize one’s own interests, comes naturally to human beings unlike the Integrating or Collaborative negotiation, where the dominant factor is cooperation. And thus, the need to cultivate collaborative negotiation skills.

Negotiation is a Substance/Relationship Tension. Here substances are the objects negotiated for and relationship is the human element. Amita went on to define negotiation in terms of three components (1) it is an interactive communication process (2) it involves moving from the original positions (3) to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution. Negotiation involves an interactive communication to know the interest or substance of the other party and disclosing what we have for the offer. It also involves moving from the original positions. That doesn’t mean giving up the interest/substance, but it calls for protecting the substance as well as the relationship. Value is created by spending time in developing trust in the relationship and being creative in finding mutually acceptable solutions, resulting in a win-win situation.