In the past few months, the United States Congresshas held high-stakes negotiations regarding the national spending and debt that have often stalemated or reached unsatisfactory deals. Currently, a “super committee” is in the process of negotiating what was not resolved in the debt ceiling negotiations of August. Perhaps, politicians need to learn the basics of win-win negotiations.

In the article “Seven Communication Rules for the Debt Super Committee,”Business Insider provides excellent negotiating advice to the super committee.

These are the seven rules:

1. Avoid leaking information.
2. Avoid ultimatums.
3. Listen more than talk.
4. Move from rhetoric to actionable ideas
5. Get independent/neutral help.
6. Be the first to cooperate (give a concession)
7. Work on creating personal connections

Anyone who has been reading this blog regularly or has taken a KARRASS Effective Negotiating^® seminarwill recognize many of these techniques. They are the basis of win-win negotiations. The article sums it up as this:

Instead of looking at the negotiation as combat, the super committee should look at it as a joint project where the overall goal is to achieve a solution better than both parties initially thought possible.

We couldn’t have said it better. Is there anything you would advise the super committee to do?