Gy Case Study

Assignment Submission 1 – GTY (Chapters 2-5)

Chapter 2 – Separate the people from the problem

The authors, Roger Fisher and William Fury, encourages readers to view negotiations as a value add activity, rather than a competing activity. Parties involved in a negotiations should collaborate to reach a win-win situation, rather than take the stand of adversaries. To do so, it is essential to separate people from the problems – i.e. attack the problem and not the people. The following are problems exists among people:

1. Perception: Same facts can be perceived and interpreted differently by different individuals. It is important to put oneself in another’s shoes to understand their viewpoint. The worst should not be assumed and ensuing blame games should definitely not occur.

2. Emotion: Most people are reactive, which is unproductive. It is a tendency to get frustrated during negotiations and have an emotional outburst. Therefore, to control emotions, it is important to first acknowledge them and second to identify the source of such outbursts. Also, parties must allow each other to free express their emotions without reacting or making judgements. Symbolic gestures play an important part in defusing strong expression of emotions.

3. Communication: Listening is under-rated and often a problem for negotiating parties. In order to understand one another, it is important to carefully listen to each other. Silently listening to the opposing party does not imply conforming to their views.

Finally, the best method of dealing with problems is to prevent them from arising, altogether.

Chapter 3 – Focus on interests, not positions

Good agreements should focus on negotiating parties’ interests, rather than their positions. If a problem is ...

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...ally lead to inefficiency (an attempt at win-lose negotiation). However, if objective criteria is introduced, then mutual consensus is more likely to arise and relationships between the parties will remain cordial. Objective standards must be practical, scientific and fair. Also, the standards must be accepted by all concerned parties.

In order to discuss objective criteria with the other party, the application of following points is necessary:

1. There should be a shared interest between parties and hence a shared objective standard

2. It is important to be open to other persons during negotiation. Also, reasons behind one’s objective standard must be justified. In short, not only should one’s own position be considered during the negotiation process, but the opposing party’s position must also be taken in to account.

3. Never yield to pressure, only principle.