Global Ecovillage Network/Solution Library/Negotiation skills

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Learning to negotiate for a mutually beneficial outcome with another person or a group of people is a core human skill. Your attitude, knowing what you want and how much you are prepared to compromise is crucial to every negotiations success. “By fighting you never get enough, but by yielding you get more than you expected.” Dale Carnegie

This is a meta­skill and used in nearly every human situation where people have to share resources. Some people treat human relations as a war and so negotiation is a war. For others, where ensuring the best possible outcome for everyone is at the heart of the negotiation process, a very different approach is used. You need to listen attentively to what the other person wants. In some negotiation approaches, teachers or trainers suggest you learn as much about the other person before you communicate your needs.

For others, it’s just about getting as much information out on the table as possible, as clearly and transparently as possible. When as much information is out on the table as possible, and when the questions you want to ask have been answered, then often the decision that benefits each party or group presents itself automatically. In situations where there is deadlock or when either party or group is not conceding, then patience is at the centre.

References Web: theory ­ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiation practice ­ http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/negotiation.html Exercises / courses: https://www.coursera.org/learn/negotiation­skills Submitted by W Graham Stewart, Wind Harvest International

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