A Failed Negotiation is Not the Worst Possible Outcome
February 27th, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized — Negotiation AuthorImagine negotiating to purchase a big airplane, like a Boeing jet.
As negotiations conclude, a few feathers have been ruffled, but the metallic bird will still fly as it was designed to do, without hesitation.
After all, that big jet doesn’t have feelings that can be hurt, so it doesn’t matter one whit that the bargaining got moderately contentious or acrimonious.
But what if the jet were human and more than a little miffed?
Would it call in sick, claiming its wings were too exhausted to fly?
Would it rise to the clouds only to bump along on purpose, making passengers resent the fact they purchased it?
I know, it’s absurd to impute emotions to an airplane and to suggest that if a jet were purchased for less than it felt it was worth, it wouldn’t perform as expected.
But people do this all the time, especially professional athletes.
If they aren’t delighted with their contracts or how they’ve been treated, they can “phone-in” their performances on playing fields and basketball courts, giving less than their best efforts.
They can nurse fictitious aches, pains, and injuries, and the teams that hired them have very little recourse.
This is one of the least discussed, but ever so important aspects of a negotiation.
What happens after leaving the negotiation table where we bargained for human services, which owe much of their potential effectiveness to the motivations of the humans that are responsible for performing them?
An upset ballplayer is going to be a distracted ballplayer. Even if his statistics don’t seem to suffer, he can become a clubhouse Typhoid Mary, undermining the attitudes of teammates, infecting them with his irritability.
With grown-ups bearing huge egos and major league self-importance, there’s no such thing as kissing and making up. If negotiations are protracted, players have to emerge feeling their value is being questioned, that they’re something less than completely wanted.
And that’s not just a business issue. It’s inherently personal.
There is a point of no return when negotiating for human services. If we push too hard, or wait too long to commit, or at all sully the reputation or value of the person we’re pursuing, our worst penalty won’t be losing him or her to the competition.
It will be winning them at last, but losing their good will and interest in performing at the peak of their capabilities on our behalf.
Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top speaker, sales, customer service and negotiation trainer, a TV and radio commentator and the best-selling author of 12 books, including SIX-FIGURE CONSULTING: HOW TO HAVE A GREAT SECOND CAREER. He conducts seminars and convention presentations around the world and can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com
His original class, “Best Practices in Negotiation,” is offered at UCLA Extension and at a number of other fine universities and organizations.
