Business Negotiation November 17, 2015

Tradeoff Areas to Help Generate Cost or Work Savings

Collaborative Both-Win® negotiating is based on the idea that there is always a better way to resolve a problem. Below are more tradeoff suggestion that can potentially lead to both lower costs and less work.

1. Meeting tradeoffs. Meetings are even worse than reports. Most are attended by too many highly paid people and helpful to few. Meetings are held too often for purposes that are not quite clear and that fail to cover what they hoped they would. Meetings suffer from a leadership gap, an agenda gap and a rules gap. Time and money savings are always possible here.
2. Structural factor tradeoffs. Where work is done and when affects how well it will be done. So also do the rules surrounding what is to be done and how. These matters make a lot of difference in terms and cost and quality. Structural impediments to efficiency exist, often unseen, in systems and procedures, in computer programs designed to make work easier and in rules and regulations formulated by politicians in every city and state. Those who take the time to understand these structural factors governing work will be in a better position to make better use of resources and to lobby for productive change.
3. Space and location tradeoffs. Efficiencies can be realized if analysis is addressed early enough to such matters as where offices are located, the interaction of executives for communication purposes, the space they need to do efficient work, their proximity to services and the level of talent required.
4. Facilities tradeoffs. Friendly stress-free facilities help people work efficiently. Reasonable well-appointed dining rooms, healthy food, conference rooms, quiet areas, nearby parking and special services for employees with children should be more common. Where people sit, where they make copies and where they get a cup of good coffee says something of the sociology of the organization. On the other hand, some facilities I’ve seen, like executive dining rooms, are too elegant for their purpose. They get in the way of collaborative innovation rather than enhancing it.
5. Equipment tradeoffs. You can buy a washing machine with bells and whistles that you will never use or buy the basic model. Somewhere in between is the one for you. Almost every piece of equipment purchased can do more than you will usually need and less than you will occasionally demand. Find a middle road. Let outsourcing fill in the capability gaps you decide not to cover. It will probably be less costly in the long run.
6. Service allocation tradeoffs. Not everyone needs the same level of service or the same level of maintenance. Much depends on the volume of usage, the proximity to the user, the time of day the service is needed, the number of repairs required, whether outsourcing is readily available and the salaries and talents of those using and providing the service. Good tradeoffs are possible here.
7. Communication and information flow tradeoffs. We cannot work without the new devices but we need better control of their use. An accounting firm had the courage to institute strong internet controls governing personal affairs. After some initial complaints, the new work rules were universally accepted at savings in productivity and repair and maintenance costs of computers that surprised everyone involved.