What Is Your Bottom Line?

We've been discussing over the last several weeks how to approach negotiations using a win-win approach. We have suggested that you make every effort to negotiate openly and with a high level of trust.

But what if you don't get the outcome you wanted? What is your fallback strategy? Some people call this the BATNA, the Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement.

The real question is: If you do not get what you want, are you clear on what you can live with? For example, if you go into a negotiating session with a colleague asking for a more equitable distribution of duties, what happens if the colleague balks at your suggestions? Do you end the partnership? Do you give in and accept his or her idea of fairness?

For many of us, the reason we don't get what we want in a negotiating session is we're not clear on the specifics of what we're asking for but, more importantly, we haven't thought through what we can accept if we don't get our first choice. So a good exercise before a negotiating session is to honestly evaluate your own interests and be clear about what you can live with as a final settlement. If you accept a settlement that is damaging to the relationship or makes you feel exploited, perhaps you haven't done your homework.

In the business arena, here are some suggestions for determining your BATNA:

• Think through all the options that may be available to you if this negotiation does not satisfy your interests.
• Use your team to brainstorm options in case the other side won't budge.
• Evaluate the options, find ways to strengthen them, and identify the best alternative for everyone concerned. Knowing that you have other (acceptable) options will strengthen your position in the negotiating session.
• Evaluate the options against your BATNA.
• Try to figure out the other side's BATNA so that you can negotiate wisely.

In our first newsletter on this subject, we said "In a negotiating session, if you think you do not have power, then you do not have power. But if you believe you have power, then you truly do." This doesn't mean that negotiation is simply a "head game" but it does mean you have to be confident about your position going into the negotiation.

A friend of ours in the U.K. was elected president of his local union. Negotiations in the past had been turbulent and damaging to both sides. He wanted to negotiate a deal that was fair to his fellow workers, but one that management could live with for the next contract period. He realized that neither party's BATNA was very appealing: for workers it could mean weeks of unemployment. For management, it could mean expensive shutdowns. So in the first negotiating session, he laid his cards on the table by saying "We know we're not going to get everything we want, but we believe we can make an offer that is attractive to you and fair to us and avoids damaging confrontations." His offer was slightly richer for his fellow workers than the one presently in effect, but it was one he felt management would accept, based on his research. As it turned out, management accepted the first offer, the contract was signed, and both parties walked away happy. Knowing that the BATNA for both sides was undesirable, both parties quickly arrived at a sustainable solution--one that would hold until the next contract period.

What to do this week
Before any negotiation discussion with your colleagues at work--or even your spouse, jot down your interests and theirs. Then jot down your BATNA--what would you do if negotiations fail--and jot down what you assume their BATNA to be. Study this information before you begin discussions, remembering to reveal your needs early and trying to truly understand theirs. Let us hear from you if you have some unexpected outcomes--positive or negative.