How to negotiate honestly—and make sure the other side is honest, too.
Jeff Cochran’s session on Tuesday, “Understanding the Art of Negotiation: A Guide for L&D Professionals,” focused on helping audience members negotiate more confidently and achieve more win-win outcomes. Cochran asked attendees to pair up for a 10-minute exercise in which each team negotiated a deal based on fictional scenarios.
Very few pairs reached a resolution—but that was the idea. Cochran, master negotiator at the Shapiro Negotiations Institute, said most pairs didn’t reach an agreement because he purposely didn’t provide enough time to read their prompts before negotiations began, nor did they have the tools he gave out later during the session.
He wanted to emphasize the three Ps of negotiation: prepare, probe, and propose.
As a result of the ill preparation, many audience members confessed to lying to their partner and other bad faith negotiating practices during the exercise, which isn’t uncommon in real-life negotiations.
“People lie so much in the real world, they don’t even call it lying. They just say it’s negotiating,” Cochran said. “Like negotiation’s your free pass to lie.”
Cochran's ultimate message was for attendees to recognize the crucial role of preparation in post-negotiation satisfaction for all industries, including L&D.
“Some of you are going, ‘I don’t negotiate dollars,’” he explained. “But you negotiate for people’s time. You negotiate for their attention. You negotiate for their commitment on a regular basis. And the way to do that is asking better questions.”
Asking those better questions by probing means stopping, then questioning, and finally listening to your negotiating partner’s needs. Listen to what the other party wants and negotiate in good faith.
