General Negotiation October 5, 2012

You Need Time To Think

If you are going to make the most of the skills you learned at my Effective Negotiating seminar, and maximize your opportunities to craft truly creative, both-win agreements, build some thinking time into your negotiations. Never go into a negotiation without first considering how to give yourself time to think. Build a thinking buffer to keep yourself from being pushed into a decision. Many American business people conduct negotiations like a Ping-Pong tournament. Buyer and seller, engineer and consultant, two division managers -- all are in a big hurry. A few quick slashes and returns, and it’s over. Other cultures, like Europeans and Asians, take a different approach. They are not so hasty. They recognized the obvious: The person who has time to think, thinks better! Look at the diplomatic world. Diplomats conduct negotiations with short sessions and long recesses. A question raised one week may not be answered until weeks later. Demands and offers are usually made in writing to give both parties time to respond in a sensible way. Quick deals are rare. The suggestions that follow are effective. They work.

1. Get the other party to present their position before breaking for the day.
2. Arrange to get an important surprise visitor or phone call at some crucial point.
3. Take a restroom break.
4. Get thirsty or hungry.
5. Change a member of the negotiating team.
6. Don’t have the back-up evidence available.
7. Plead ignorance. Ask for time to learn more about it.
8. Have your expert unavailable.
9. Load down the other party with documents, data, or drawings.
10. Use an interpreter or third party. Interpreters can be technical people, lawyers, your boss, or translators. In any case, they can slow things down.
11. If you are on a team, develop rules among your people on how questions will be fielded. Sometimes it is best to have all questions directed only to one person, to give others time to think about the answers.
12. Recess and caucus frequently.

It is remarkable what we humans see in hindsight. Giving yourself time to think changes hindsight to foresight and it will make you a better negotiator.