Business Negotiation November 11, 2015

Collaborative Both-Win® Tradeoff Areas

Collaborative Both-Win® negotiating rests on the premise that there is a better way to design, change or do anything if the parties bring their ideas, needs and talents together to search for it. When two people are engaged with one another to resolve a problem or settle some disagreement or difference between them, they have a new and accessible tool to guide them to a mutually beneficial agreement—the collaborative Both-Win® negotiating process.

Negotiators can now approach the other side with a number of positive suggestions that will potentially lead both to lower cost and less work. The trade-off areas that follow offer opportunities for mutual reward. The search for a better way rarely involves genius. What is does require is a step-by-step look at what is presently being done and an open discussion of how it can be done more effectively. Innovative solutions usually follow.

1. Scope of work (SOW) tradeoffs. Not everything in any SOW is necessary. Some work can be cut back, some enlarged. Some left for next year with new budget funds. Other work may be done later when changes in scope are renegotiated. Study the Statement of Work carefully. Cost/benefit savings exist there.
2. Specification tradeoffs. Specifications describe the essential attributes of the product or service being provided. These can be changed to reduce cost or effort and still serve their desired purpose. Parts of the specification can be combined, others left out, still others made smaller, lighter or more durable by new materials or technology.
3. Division of labor, classification and talent tradeoffs. Look at who does what for whom. Can others do it better with more focus and perhaps less talent? How much does each class of labor earn and how many hours are involved? Can high-priced talent be assisted by those less skilled to provide cost reduction or benefit?
4. Quality control tradeoffs. Everything done requires some level of checking and quality control. Savings can be found in how checking is done, who does it, where, when and the standards to be tested and controlled. Often statistical controls are as effective and less costly than tedious item-by-item inspection.
5. Technology tradeoffs. Technology is changing at an explosive rate. Every few days we read about some new process, equipment or technique available to do almost any job or task. Whatever you are presently doing, there exists at this very moment a better way to do it, and if not now, tomorrow. The vast resources of the internet provide a tool to keep track of these worldwide developments.
6. Reports tradeoffs. There are too many reports, all too frequently issued to people who do not read, need or want them. Some are too elegant for their purpose. Others simply miss the reader’s purpose completely. Some reports are so large and complex that nobody really understands them or has the time to seek understanding. The flow of reports seems never to diminish in quantity and length, but it should.

My next posts will continue to show more tradeoff areas that will generate cost or work savings and enlarge value.