Sunday, December 11, 2011

Stuart Diamond: Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World

Leading@Google: Stuart Diamond - YouTube (video, 1 hr)
Stuart Diamond is a Professor at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, a Pulitzer prize winning journalist, a master negotiator and the author of Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World. In this talk at Google, Stuart Diamond describes some of the techniques he uses for negotiations:

  • Be transparent and ethical. Don't deceive people. Be yourself. Don't try to be nicer or tougher than you really are.
  • Goals are paramount. Know what you want to achieve at the end. Many people act contrary to their goals. They get mad, and attack the other party.
  • People are everything. It's all about them, it's not about you. Emotions and perceptions are often more important than facts or reason to the other party. Being logical may work with some people, especially when everyone is analytical and calm - but how often does that happen? Therefore, make emotional payments. Be empathetic, apologize if necessary.
  • Don't get emotional in trying to achieve your goals.
  • Every situation is different. There is no one size fits all rule in negotiations.
  • Trade items of unequal value. For example, trade kid's TV time for more homework, trade lower price for more referrals.
  • Respect the other party and be useful to them. Never walk out of the negotiations - this shows that you do not even want to spend your time on helping the other party.
  • Be incremental. Build mutual trust. Don't try to achieve everything at once.
  • Find their standards. Also, find their exceptions to standards. What are the rules and promises they made? For example, isn't great customer service part of their values as stated on their web site? This is especially useful when dealing with hard bargainers.


SEE MORE:
See a great summary on pp.5-9 of Getting More on Google Books.
Many other articles and talks (both audio and video) by Stuart Diamond are here.

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