Anchors Away! Using Anchors in Negotiations

What are anchors in negotiations Humans are terrible at judging stuff objectively. We use comparison for virtually all judgements. Anchors in negotiation exploit this human trait. An anchor offer is when one party starts with an offer that is very high or very low. Usually but not always the anchor is beyond the stretch goal. […]

Continue reading

World Voice Day! Use Your Voice in Negotiation

It’s world voice day. A day where your friendly neighbourhood otolaryngologist wants to raise awareness about the importance of voice and getting help if you develop voice issues. There is no question that your voice is important to what and how you communicate during a negotiation, but have you thought about the importance of vocalics […]

Continue reading

Controlling Your Emotions While Negotiating

Emotions While Negotiating Emotions are an essential part of any negotiation. Framing interests in a way that avoids negative emotions and promotes positive emotions in your other is important work. This post is not about those emotions. This post is about recognizing and dealing with your emotions while negotiating. To paraphrase William Ury, the greatest […]

Continue reading

Empathy in Negotiations

Empathy while negotiating is essential to maximizing value and closing deals. Empathy is the act of understanding the emotions of the other negotiators. Negotiators are People First In Getting to Yes Fisher and Ury observed that negotiators are people first and encouraged you to separate the people from the problem. They taught that it was […]

Continue reading

Reactive Devaluation

Reactive Devaluation: Your Money is No Good Here Reactive devaluation occurs in a negotiation when a party receiving an offer doesn’t trust the party making an offer and they evaluate the offer through the lens of distrust. In this post you will learn what reactive devaluation is, how to avoid doing it and what to […]

Continue reading

Prepare for Your Next Negotiation

11 Steps to Prepare for Your Next Negotiation Every negotiation starts somewhere. For the unprepared or uninitiated negotiations start when you encounter the other party at the metaphorical table. If you want to step up your negotiation game and reach more deals that make both sides better off you need to follow these 11 steps […]

Continue reading

What you need to know about Settlement Privilege

“What sensible man would attempt settlement if it could be used against him at trial?”1 This post will explore the development and limits of settlement privilege and how settlement privilege interacts with mediation. Settlement privilege, the ability to shield the deal making and the deal,  is essential for negotiations and mediations. This paper is organized […]

Continue reading

Negotiation Strategies

Keeping Your Negotiation Strategies Nimble Negotiation Strategies in the real world need to respond to shifting perceptions of what is happening at the negotiating table and what is happening in real life. This nimbleness works best if all the parties to a negotiation exhibit it; however even when they do not there are tactics that […]

Continue reading

Dispute Resolution Impacts of Bill 57

On November 15, 2018 Doug Ford’s PC Government released Ontario’s Plan for the People. At the same time they introduced Bill 57: Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act, 2018 in the Legislature. Lots of commentators had plenty to say about the larger changes in this omnibus bill. This is not one of those posts. In […]

Continue reading

What Mediators can Learn from Navy Seals

The US Navy SEALS are one of the most revered fighting forces in the world. As negotiators, there are few things we can take from professional warriors; as a mediator, there is even less, but the thing even the most devout pacifist can take from these special operators is how to deal with stress. In […]

Continue reading