Iceberg

Interests

Interests are our underlying concerns and motivations in a negotiation.

Working Assumption:

Focusing on interests rather than positions increases your chances of achieving a good outcome.

Problem

People tend to focus on positions, not interests. At the beginning of a negotiation, each side often presents its own solution. Each defends its position and attacks that of the other side. The goal may be to “win” by having the final agreement more closely resemble your opening position than the other side’s. Even if attained, the victory may be a hollow one since positional bargaining often cripples a working relationship and often produces poor agreements.

Cause

People assume that a negotiation is a fight over conflicting positions. Indeed, positions often do conflict with each other. Two sisters want the same orange; your colleague wants to attend a distant meeting and you do not. Fundamentally, however, negotiation is not a fight over positions. Your needs, desires, concerns, and fears (i.e., your interests) motivate you to negotiate in the first place, and are far more important than positions. Because the other side’s positions are opposed to yours, you may assume that your interests must also be opposed. Yet, many negotiations involve interests that do not conflict.

Approach

Focus on interests.

Think clearly about both your own interests and those of other parties. If the other side’s interests seem obscure, probe persistently behind their positions for the interests that motivate them. Determine which underlying interests may be shared or compatible. The two sisters may be willing to split an orange so long as one gets the fruit to eat, and the other the peel to cook with; you may be perfectly willing to go a meeting so long as your colleague drives. It is far easier to accommodate interests into a mutually acceptable package than it is to reconcile positions.

Consider the following guidelines

  1. When preparing, use interests to analyze the choice “they” face:

    Examine how they perceive what it is you want them to agree to (their “Currently Perceived Choice”), and then determine what interests of theirs prevent them from agreeing to it. What interests of theirs could you satisfy to increase the chance that they will agree (their “Possible Future Choice”)?

  2. Focus discussion on interests, not positions. Discuss interests explicitly.

  3. Use leadership. Be prepared to take the lead by talking about some of your own interests.

    If you are not willing to tell them something about your own needs, desires, concerns, and fears, then you cannot expect them to be willing to talk about theirs.

  4. Treat positions as clues to their interests. If they continue to talk about positions despite your efforts to the contrary, ask them for help in understanding what is leading them to this position. Ask them “Why”

INTERESTS are not positions; positions are parties’ demands.

Behind the positions are the underlying reasons that support the demands: their needs, concerns, desires, hopes and fears. The better an agreement satisfied the parties’ interests, the better the deal. Assuming that we understand the other parties’ interests often proves fatal in a negotiation.

The Five Core Concerns from Roger Fisher and Dan Shapiro’s Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate give us 5 universal interests.