Every week I enjoy a news magazine to which I subscribe. It’s called “The Week” and one of its features is a column of quotations which it calls “Wit and Wisdom”. One I read recently had, I thought, a relevance to negotiating as Scotwork teaches it. One of the things all tutors notice when they watch their course attendees in the case plays they do is their frequently diffident attitude to making the first move. It’s usual to see an “After you…” “No, after you…” No, really, you should go first...” behaviour. This is not politeness, even though they will tell you that it was instilled into them by their doting parents in the name of good manners. It is fear. Fear of the unknown, in this case, fear of not knowing whether an opening proposal is too generous and will result in their hand being snapped off or so wildly over-optimistic that it will lead to gales of laughter and the pointing finger of derision.
In negotiating tactical terms, I think there are two main reasons for this behaviour. The first one is lack of research – if we don’t have a sense of what the counterparty thinks would be an acceptable deal, any initial proposal will be little more than a fishing expedition to garner some kind of reaction that allows us to adjust our subsequent proposals into more appealing territory. However, there is always the risk of “if you start silly, I can be sillier” (think trade tariffs). Suppose negotiators spend time thinking about what they don’t know about the other party’s position and formulating questions to explore it and following up on the answers to get an understanding. In that case, the likelihood of firing off a proposal which is so wide off the mark that it is risible is lessened. The truth is that most inexperienced negotiators prepare inadequately – usually by concentrating on themselves and what they want rather than thinking about the counterparty, without whose cooperation there will be no deal on any terms.
The second is that, I believe, many of us think that not going first allows us to be the offer snatcher or the finger pointer, transferring the associated humiliation across the table. We think it is less risky and, therefore, more desirable to be the follower than the leader in proposal making. The truth is that well-informed and balanced proposals allow a negotiation to progress positively; they don’t lead to an immediate deal, but they do pave the way to an outcome both parties will ultimately find acceptable. If I prepare well and ask questions which help me to understand the other party’s position and I disclose elements of my own which I think will be influential, then making an initial proposal with that as its basis is likely to give me some control over the direction and the agenda and that is tactically advantageous most of the time. Of course, there is a risk, but armed with my information and the intelligence gleaned from my probing, I should be willing to take it: fortune favours the bold.
So, back to my quotation from The Week. It is: “Don’t be afraid to go first. Instead of calling it risk, call it R&D.” It is attributed to Jean Case, a businesswoman, author and philanthropist, according to the description. She wrote a book, “Be Fearless”. Perhaps we all should read it sometime. My second quote popped up on social media while I was thinking about the first one. It’s a verse from a poem:
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man
But sooner or later, the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can
From “Thinking” by Walter D Wintle
I like that, too.
