PREPARING TO NEGOTIATE
 
When you encounter a conflict, your first decision involves a choice to engage or avoid the conflict.  If you choose to engage the conflict and negotiate a solution, you need to prepare to do so.  The following information deals with planning considerations.
 
The Conflict Relationship
 
1. What kind of conflict is this likely to be?  Are resources limited and fixed?  Is it possible for all parties to achieve their goals?
 
2. What has been the nature of my relationship with the other party in the past?  How might that affect the current negotiations?  What kind of future relationship do I want with this party?
 
3. Am I negotiating just for myself or am I representing the interests of others?  Is the other party negotiating for his/her own interests of representing someone else?
 
Goals
 
1. What are my tangible (the substantive, objective elements) goals in the negotiation?  What tangible goals are most important (what are my priorities)?
 
2. What are my intangible (psychological factors, such as winning versus losing, protecting one's reputation) goals in the negotiation?  What intangible goals are most important (what are my priorities)?
 
3. What is the relative importance of intangibles to the tangibles?
 
4. Given what I know about the other party, what are the major common tangible and intangible issues likely to be?  Can I be open about the intangible concerns?
 
Issues
 
1. What will be the major issues at stake in this negotiation?
 
2. Do I have all the information I need on each of these issues? If not, where can I get it?
3. Are some issues likely to appear fundamentally non-negotiable?
 
4. What issues have higher priority and lower priority for me?
 
5. What issues have integrative potential (the possibility of a mutually beneficial outcome)?  Are integrative solutions possible?  Can issues be linked together or packaged?  Are trade-offs feasible?  What concerns (if any) can be conceded?
 
6. Are issues complex?  Should they be scaled down into smaller issues (fractionated)?
 
7. Given my goals, assumptions, and information about the other party, what settlements are possible from this negotiation?
 a. What is the best settlement I could expect (ideal point)?
 b. What would be a "fair and reasonable" deal? (target point)?
 c.  What would be a minimally acceptable outcome (resistance point),
  beyond which I would prefer no agreement?
 d. Note: Anticipated settlements can be determined issue by issue and/or
  for  the negotiation overall.
 
Analysis of the Other Party
 
1. What are the other party's major relevant characteristics (experience, age, gender, background, etc.)?
 
2. What is the other party's reputation and style?  How has the other party negotiated (with me or with others) in the past?  How might I tentatively characterize the other party; as a colleague, a partner, an adversary, a rival, an opponent, an enemy?  Note: do not develop fixed perceptions; avoid a "self-fulfilling prophecy."
 
3. What are the other party's goals and issues (go through the questions in the goals and issues sections, applying them to the other party?
 
4. How might the other party define the conflict strategically (e.g., distributive/competitive, integrative/problem-solving)?  Can I trust the other party to some degree?
5. How do I think the other party regards me as a negotiator, my goals, and my issues?
 
6. What authority does the other party have to make decisions?

Strategic Considerations
 
1. What is my power in this negotiation?
 a.  What sources of power (resources) could I draw upon if necessary?
 b.  How dependent is the other party upon me?  How dependent am I on
  the  other party?
 c.  How committed is the other party to outcomes I control?  What is the
  degree of my commitment?
 
2. How can I influence the other party?  What are my strongest persuasive appeals and arguments?
 
3. How will the other party likely to try to influence me?  What are the other party's strongest persuasive appeals and arguments?
 
4. What are the weakest points in my overall position and on specific issues?
 
5. What are the weakest points in the other party's overall position and on specific issues?
 
6. At this point, should I modify my goals/issues in any way?
 
The Negotiation Environment
 
1. Where will the negotiation take place?  Which party "owns" or controls the site?  Is a neutral site preferable?
 
2. Is the negotiation setting formal or informal?  What are the physical arrangements of the site?  What is the distance between parties?  Does the physical arrangement suggest atmosphere and status concerns?
 
3. How does the negotiate setting relate to my preferred strategy?
 
4. Does the negotiation face time constraints? Do deadlines exist?

The Negotiation Process
 
1. Before the negotiation begins, do procedural rules need to be discussed?  Should an agenda be set?  What are my most important concerns regarding procedures, rules, and an agenda?
 
2. What kind of strategy to I want to use in this negotiation (distributive-contending, integrative-collaborative, accommodation-compromise, or a mixed strategy)?  What type of tone or climate to I want established?
 
3. How do I need to get the other negotiator to do to make this strategy work?  How can I influence the other party?  What tactics can I use to maintain this strategy?
 
4. If my strategy or plan does not work, what is my fall-back option?  What is my BATNA - Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement?
 
 
From Howard Raiffa, The Art and Science of Negotiation, Harvard University Press, 1982.
 
Preparing for negotiations
 
1. Know yourself; think about what you need, what you aspire to.  Search for competing and alternative deals.  Analyze your other alternatives , and assign a certainty-equivalent value to your best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA).  Amass your arguments . . . facts, data, etc.
 
2. Know your adversaries. Consider what will happen if no deal is reached.  Investigate the opponents; past behavior, credentials, etc.
 
3. Consider negotiation conventions.  How open should you be?  How believable is your adversary (can you trust)?  Should you withhold information?  Can negotiation be done in stages?  Should issues be divided (fractionated) or packaged?
 
4. Logistics: Who should negotiate?  Should roles be assigned to negotiators on your side?  Do you need representation?  Where should/will the negotiation take place?  When?
 
5. Practice - simulate the experience; use role playing
 
6. Set your aspiration levels.
 
7. Who should make the first offer?