BookYol
tren

Concept

Positional Bargaining

Positional bargaining is negotiating by staking out a position and defending it, so that every concession feels like a loss and the real interests behind the positions never get discussed.

Roger Fisher and William Ury open Getting to Yes by naming positional bargaining as the default way most people negotiate and the reason most negotiations go badly. Each side picks a number or a demand, argues for it, and gives ground grudgingly; the outcome is decided by stubbornness rather than by what either side actually needs. Their alternative, principled negotiation, moves from positions to interests: why do you want that, and what would satisfy it? What people get wrong is assuming a firm position is the same as a strong one. A position hides the interest that could be met in several ways, and it locks both sides into a contest of wills where the relationship pays the price.

A real-life example

Two colleagues fight over the corner office for a month. Asked why, one wants quiet for calls, the other wants the window light. Once the interests are on the table, the quiet one takes a smaller room with a door and the other keeps the window. The position was the office; the interests were noise and light, and both could be met.

How to use it

  1. 1Before you state a position, write the interest behind it in one sentence starting with 'because'.
  2. 2When the other side digs in, ask what the position is protecting: 'What would that give you?'
  3. 3Judge the outcome by whether the interests were met, not by who moved less.