Negotiation

Past negotiation experiences have left me not so satisfied.  As a sometimes 'glass half empty' person, I think that if I have to negotiate then I'm already at a disadvantage.  In order to gain something, then I must lose something else.  With a modestly reasonable other party, you can actually leave a negotiation having gained something of value.  The magic of negotiation, as I learned from Dr. Steve Smutko is that in negotiation, value can be created by assigning points to the desired outcomes of each party.  Dr. Smutko is University of Wyoming's Chair of Collaborative Practice and an economics proffesor.  He has facilitated numerous public policy decisions in the mountain west as well as the southeastern U.S., and teaches negotiation analysis to UW students.  Like a good economist, Dr. Smutko conveyed his points about negotiation to our class by assigning half the class one role, and the other half another role.  For example, I was assigned to be the agent of Sally Soprano, a fictional opera singer looking to get back into the industry.  The other party was the Lyric opera house, looking for a performer for their upcoming show.  With the addition of many other factors, we had to work with the opera house to agree on a salary for Sally Soprano.  Ultimately, our negotiations were what I would call collaborative.  We understood that both parties had desired outcomes and we worked together to achieve them.

I'm hoping that this summer the negotiations will be much more simple.  I've made up an image in my mind of two crew members who both want the last pancake at breakfast.  Sam and I, trusty crew leaders, will sweep in with our super-people capes and and alternating lines say "hey guys, how bout one of you breaks it in half and then the other gets to pick which half they get!".  Obviously, we're familiar with this age old trick, which ensures that the splitter will do what they can to ensure the pancake is actually evenly split.  After all, the other party will pick which half they get.

Negotiation is a two way street, but if both parties can approach the proceedings from the 'glass half full' perspective, they have everything to gain and nothing to lose.