You don't need to be a brilliant strategist or lawyer. Bring
forth your inherent negotiating skills
We are often confronted by situations that call for negotiations
at different levels. Be it vegetable vendors or buying garments
or purchasing a house/flat/apartment or tying up a business
venture, each of these calls for different approach to
negotiations. Whether domestic, personal or business conditions,
negotiations involve resolving conflicts and interests to the
best of all concerned. In business situations, negotiations are
indeed an indispensable part of any financial activity.
In any negotiation, it is important to first identify the goals
that you are seeking and also to size up the likely goals for
the other side. This provides clear objectives to attain and
helps in working your way around them. The next thing is to
weigh what you can trade off to gain from the other, and
similarly think of what the other side can possibly lose to gain
in return from you. Being ready with alternatives is another
important element of negotiation. It helps you to climb down
from hard stances and aid in meeting the goals halfway, if not
in entirety.
There are also other subtle elements as relationships, emotions
and anticipation to deal with. Using psychology and great deal
of common sense, you have to analyze in depth the nature of
relationship involved, the precedents if any, basic
anticipations from both sides and other aspects.
Along the same lines, a clear view of the importance of winning,
the impact of failure or winning on your future opportunities
and overall situations are some of the other aspects that must
be thoroughly considered.
In all these, the style of negotiation is of prime importance.
Ideally, negotiations should end on a pleasant note, where both
parties feel positive and satisfied about the outcome. A brazen
approach to negotiation that leads one side to become a total
winner while reducing the other side as a clear loser can create
ill feeling and a sense of unfairness, which could affect long
term.
In all these long haul to negotiation, Mind Maps can serve as a
route map to your destination. Beginning with laying down your
goals and that of the other side, right up to exploring
alternatives and the impact of emotions, anticipations and other
elements in the negotiating process, Mind Maps can help a great
deal to plot your way through the various aspects of a winning
negotiation.
Using Mind Maps you can outline all the goals pertaining to you
and the possible expectations from the other side. Next you can
explore the trade-offs that both the sides can place on the
negotiating table as well as in coming with up alternative
proposals at different levels. With Mind Maps you can explore in
full all the intricate details and see the link and association
between the various elements of negotiation. Weighing the
emotional factors involved, relationships, and the anticipated
outcomes through weighted analysis can all be most thoroughly
done using Mind Maps. This way, Mind Maps can help you to gauge
clearly where your path and that of the other side lie.
Like a rider plotting the best and pleasant route to the final
destination, Mind Maps help in providing a comprehensive view of
the whole process so you could see the links in the chain and
know how to tackle them at every point. Being ready for sudden
contingencies with ready answers and solutions will further help
you to thoroughly prepare for any kind of turn in the
negotiating process.
Mind Maps therefore are excellent tools for making an in-depth
analysis of the various steps to negotiations and to handle them
effectively. By using Mind Maps for different types of
negotiations, you will gradually learn how to approach
negotiations. In the long run, it will help you to hone your
negotiating skills.