Negotiating Beyond Win-Win

Constructive dialogues and sustainable negotiation strategies can bring us closer to a more humane world.

The world is becoming more interconnected. Digital platforms and social media are giving us a greater “voice” and more ways to form groups, which enable the airing of diverse opinions and can lead to higher chances that we’ll disagree with one another. Unsurprisingly, we are seeing great polarisation and conflicts in many parts of the world. Research shows that fixed-pie or zero-sum mindsets are increasing, which can lead to more adversarial and distrustful situations, and even power escalation and wars.

Negotiation and conflict management are ever more important in these times. What we really need is not just a one-time “win”, but more constructive dialogues and sustainable negotiation strategies.

In this podcast, the co-founders of INSEAD’s Negotiation and Conflict Management Collaborative (NCMC), Horacio Falcão, Roderick Swaab and Eric Luis Uhlmann, discuss the art of negotiation and conflict management. They explain how developing these skills will not only increase tolerance, but also help people transform disagreement into opportunities to work together and create value – in other words, expanding the pie instead of trying to expand their share of a “fixed pie”.

Of the many ways value can be created through negotiation, one of them is the potential to reduce social and economic inequality. Empowering individuals with negotiation and conflict management skills can be a means to reduce unfair or unequal outcomes. Training is therefore important, yet it is not always within reach. Falcão, Swaab and Uhlmann share why they started the free teaching resource platform known as the Negotiation Course for the World. The objective is to empower those without access to negotiation education by providing free role-play exercises, lecture slides and other teaching materials to instructors around the world.

Clearly, value can take many forms. Negotiation is not just about winning; it is about cooperating to create value. It’s not just about the outcome, but about the process – including how you conduct yourself and the choices made along the way. The co-founders of NCMC share some tips for effective negotiation:

1. Listen

2.Be respectful; consider the feelings of the other party and the relational outcome you want to achieve

3. Use persuasion, not coercion (or power plays)

4. Mind your reputation

5. Don’t oversimplify the situation

6. Consider the rights and concerns of stakeholders who may not be present in the negotiation

7. Frame the negotiation as a problem to be solved rather than a confrontation

Ultimately, when we learn to interact with others with a win-win mindset, we can build a more humane world – one negotiation at a time.