How to Break Impasse in Negotiation

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How to Break Impasse in Negotiation

• Chapter 7

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How to Break Impasse in Negotiation

• Key Point
• 1?to learn to identify the causes of impasse in
  negotiation
• 2?to build a correct attitude towards the impasse
  
• 3?to know the strategies that may prevent a
  negotiation from falling into impasse

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CASE

• This is a claim negotiation between Mr.Ren and a
  manager of Germany company. Chinese party asks a
  claim of 11million Marks, the German can only
  accept 3 million. The gap is large and this is a
  Marathone negotiation. To break the impasse, Mr.
  Ren suggests a trip to DaMing Temple in beautiful
  Yangzhou.
• This is a temple to remember a great Buddhist
  monk in Tang Dynasty, he has been to Japan six
  times and blind for speading Buddha dharma for
  six times, his name is Jianzhen. Japanese and
  Chinese will never forget him. Mr. Ren
  introduced. Maybe you are interested why
  Janpanese have so much investment in China.
  Thats because Japanese are familiar with
  Chinese, and they know Chinese focus much on
  relations and friendship.

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CASE

• Then he smiled to tne Germany manager, We have
  cooperated for many years, we are not only
  business partners, but also friends, arent we?
• The Germany manager was moved. The car was drived
  to the meeting hall directly, and the negotiation
  goes on.
• Lets talk frank. How much could you compensate
  us? We Chinese pay much attention to friendship.
  We dont want you lose your bowl for this claim.
  On the othe hand, please think for us, China is
  poor, we have to give compensation to 10,000
  constructors because of the defect of the
  machines!..
• Finally, the German compensated 8 million Marks.
  The Germany manager said although he gave the
  money, he felt comfortable.

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How to Break Impasse in Negotiation

• Structure of the chapter
• 7.1. Why does Impasse Arise?
• 7.2 Conquer the Fear of Impasse
• 7.3 Avoid provocation
• 7.4 Dont make things worse
• 7.5 Other means of dispute handling

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7.1. Why does Impasse Arise?

• 7.1.1 Causes of impasse
• 7.1.2 How to handle impasse?

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7.1.1 Causes of impasse

• Position conflicts
• Coercion (??)
• Communication barriers
• Negotiators quality lack
• Little ZOPA

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Position conflicts

• Two men were quarrelling in a library. One wants
  the window open and the other wants it closed.
  They bicker back and forth about how much to
  leave it open a crack, halfway, three quarters
  of the way. No solution satisfies them both. The
  librarian enters. She asks why he wants the
  window open To get some fresh air. She asks
  the other why he wants it closed To avoid the
  draft. After thinking a minute, she opens wide a
  window in the next room, bringing in fresh air
  without a draft.
• In this case, the two men were insisting on their
  own positions and no one was willing to give in.
  In the conflict, the more one insists, the less
  the other concesses. Actually the real interest
  has been ignored and to maintain the self face,
  no one is willing to give in, but tries to force
  the other to concess by strong will. Finally, it
  is not a negotiation, but will contest.
• Thus, getting entangled in position conflicts is
  an ineffective negotiation form. The two parties
  ignore the real potential interest, and agreement
  is reluctant to make. Even more, the emotion of
  the two parties may be hurt, and negotiators may
  face big loss. While in fact, position conflicts
  is the most common impasse and one of the common
  mistake that negotiators make.

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Coercion

• Coercion is destructive to negotiation for it
  means unequal and unreasonable. It is adverse to
  the principle of equlity in negotiation.
• Do you have impasse example because of coercion?
  (youth revolt)
• In negotiation, impasse happens because the
  stronger party uses coercion is common. While,
  for the other party, sometimes, he has to
  maintain the nations or the enterprises honor
  besides economic benefits, so the more pressure
  he feels, the more decisive he is. Then the
  impasse forms and difficult to break.

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Communication barriers
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(No Transcript)
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Types of communication

• Verbal communication
• Mainly refers to the language we use in our daily
  life, including spoken as well as written.
• Nonverbal communication
• People communicate via other means, such as
  spatial arrangement, temporal arrangement,
  Kinestics, etc. This type is called nonverbal.

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What do the following mean?

• Silence
• Hand gestures
• Net words CUL, LOL, AFK, BBL, ASAP, F2F, IMO,
  JAM GG, JJMM, 88, frog, dinosaur, cups,3q
• ??????????,??
• In communication, the Japanese always say Hi,
  Hi
• Game transmission

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Negotiators quality lack

• Experience
• Attitude and habit
• Knowledge
• Strategy and skill

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Little ZOPA

• You have attracted by a red car valued 100,000
  Yuan. You have 80,000 only, and you are willing
  to pay 80,000 to buy a car at most. After
  bargaining, the seller could give 5 discount at
  most. No one makes mistakes here, this impasse
  could not be overcome for little ZOPA.

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7.1.2 How to handle impasse?

• Recently two of my sons were squabbling over some
  apple pie, each insisting that he would have the
  larger slice. Neither would agree to an even
  split. So I suggested that one boy cut the pie
  any way he liked, and the other boy could choose
  the piece he wanted. This sounded fair to both of
  them, and they accepted. Each felt that he had
  gotten the square deal.

Setting up an objective solution to Make both of
the two parties feel fair
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Another example

• Have you watched the movie Tokyo Trial?
• In July, 1945, Chinese judge Mei, Ruao was
  authorized to take part in Tokyo Trial. The
  seating became a problem. The president of the
  court is in the middle, and because of the big
  effect that US in WWII, there is no question that
  American judge will take the right seat next to
  the court president. Who would take the third
  seat that on the left of the court president
  rised serious conflicts among judges from other
  countries.
• Judge Mei realized he is the representitive of
  China, for the country, he has to strive for the
  third seat. However, at that time, China is not
  strong enough, if there is no reasonabe and fair
  means, others could definitely refuse. And other
  judges faced the same problem, no on wants to
  concess.
• Then, Judge Mei suggested We could arrange the
  seating by the sequence of signing the Surrender
  Document. Facing the objective suggestion, no
  others could give a better solution.
• Actually, the sequence is US, PRC, Soviet Union,
  Canada, So Judge Mei was arranged the third.

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7.1.2 How to handle impasse?

• There is an department trying to set up a
  shopping center in suburb. The place it favored
  was owned by Zhangqiao Government.The department
  offers 1million to open a shopping center,
  Zhangqiao Government asks for 2 million. After
  negotiation, the formor offers 1.2m at most, the
  latter asks 1.8 at least. The two parties face an
  impasse.
• The government wants to sell more money and build
  a factory to solve the problem of unemployment
  because the farmers have to leave their ground.
  The department wants to save money on purchasing
  the ground, but enlarge the center.
• To penetrate the surface, there is common
  interest. The government wants to solve
  unemployment and keep the society stable, while
  the department needs sellspersons for larger
  scale. They find a win-win solution quickly.
• Program 1 Deal done by 1.2m, while the shopping
  center should provide a position for each family
  when it opens.
• Program 2 Zhangqiao government becomes a
  shareholder by the ground. After the shopping
  center setting up, a part of it should be
  provided for farmers for business.

Concerning the real interest
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7.1.2 How to handle impasse?

• The example of Peace Talk between Egypt and
  Israel
• At first, Israle announced to occupy SINAI
  Penninsula, while Egypt refused decisively.
• What is the BATNA?
• Benefits for Israle, Egypt and America keep
  Sinai Penninsula as a non-military area.

Finding constitutions when one refers to a
constitution Program which satisfies his own
interest and considers the Other partys
interest, he holds the initiative of negotiation.
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7.1.2 How to handle impasse?

• Others
• (1) Keeping it fluid
• (2) Seeking easy escape routes
• (3) Shifting the topic
• (4) Adjournment strategy
• In negotiation we try to be sympathetic,
  sometimes the third party may help, and sometimes
  we could be strong to maintain indipendence and
  honor if necessary.
• Case of Never teach a grandmother how to boil
  egg. (youd better, you must, I advice, if u,
  We,)

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7.2 Conquer the Fear of Impasse

• Read the Case and try to analyze the situation
  according to what you have learnt
• P191-192

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7.3 Avoid provocation

• Some of these deadlocks are purely temporary,
  others can be permanent.
• Why does impasse occur?
• constitution of provocation

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7.4 Dont make things worse

• get the argument away from the why questions to
  the how questions
• what to do and what not to do
• Make things happen for you by asking open
  questions

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7.5 Other means of dispute handling

• 7.5.1 Mediation
• 7.5.2 Arbitration
• 7.5.3 Litigation

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Tips to break the deadlock

• Go back to information gathering and build
  understanding to generate additional options.
  There may be an underlying issue that is not
  being addressed.
• Try to discover the barriers to effective
  negotiating. Make a direct appeal to the other
  party. For instance, Can you tell me why we are
  having so much trouble finding an acceptable
  solution?
• Agree not to agree for the time being. Create
  time to reflect on the problem and resume
  negotiations later. Ask if more information is
  needed.
• Inform the other party of the consequence of
  failure to reach a negotiated solution.
• See if the other party is willing to try out one
  of the proposed solution for a period of time.
• Call in an outside party to act as a conciliator,
  a mediator or an arbitrator.

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Summary

• 1. In this chapter we mainly introduce the reason
  why an impasse appear and how to manage it. In
  fact, we should first of all to prevent it from
  happening but if it comes, its not necessary to
  be excessively worried or even give up the
  negotiation. What we can do is to take useful
  steps to impel negotiation to continue.
• 2. The main strategies of re-starting a
  negotiation include the following avoiding,
  adjournment, litigate, arbitrage and so on. This
  chapter discusses how they are used under
  different situation.

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Key words

• 1. Impasse
• 2. Adjournment
• 3. Arbitrage