Planning for Negotiations March 14, 2012

Negotiation Motivators: The Iceberg Theory

Negotiation motivators is a term to describe what makes people want to negotiate. One way to apply this is through a theory of negotiation called “The Iceberg Theory.” It is obvious that people want money, goods, and services, but this theory contends that many things a person also needs remains unseen and unspoken, hidden like the underside of an iceberg.

Money, goods, and services are the tip of the iceberg. If you want power, you must understand and know how to gain access to and use the parts below the surface as well as the parts that show. It will be harder to reach a workable settlement if you fail to be aware of and satisfy the other parties’ unspoken needs.

Just like a real iceberg, what is under the surface can be even more powerful than what is above the water line.

Four hundred years ago, Sir Francis Bacon had this to say about power, persuasion, and wants: “If you would work any man, you must either know his nature and his fashions, and so lead him, or his ends and so persuade him, or his weaknesses and so awe him; of those have interest in him, and so govern him.”

Human beings have not changed much in four centuries and neither has power and its relationship to negotiation.

There are many hidden issues in every negotiation agenda, including:

• People want to make their lives easier
• They want others to think them competent
• They want peace of mind
• They want to be listened to
• They want freedom of choice

These desires are powerful. The key to gaining power it so recognize that if we are to persuade anyone we must “pay them well”, not necessarily in terms of dollars, goods and services, but in satisfaction.

So when you are stepping into a negotiation scenario, be sure to think about the obvious negotiation motivators, and to inquire about the ones that are there, but you can't obviously see.