When you encounter the other party's tough attitude in the negotiation, don't rush to refuse | Don't rush to refuse the first article
This is Kirito's 495th tweet on "Negotiating Thinking."
The full text is 2239 words long and takes about 3 minutes to read.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="6" >1 Introduction</h1>
In 1973, at the age of 30, Joseph Robinnet Biden became a senator, one of the youngest five senators in U.S. history.
In 1975, Biden joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and participated in the famous "Second Round of Strategic Arms Limitation Negotiations" (SALT II).
The SALT Peace Talks were a series of negotiating meetings between the United States and the Soviet Union (later Russia) aimed at reaching an agreement between the two sides to reduce and limit strategic offensive weapons.
In 1979, the SALT II negotiated agreement was basically formed, and the content of the agreement was in the Senate approval process.
However, the Senate leader at the time offered to make a minor revision of the agreement.
The deal would require passage by two-thirds of the Senate's seats, and without the support of Senate leaders, it was clearly impossible.
The problem was that the revisions had to be made with the consent of the Soviet side.
The young congressman, Joseph Biden, was sent to Moscow to discuss the matter with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.
When Biden made his intentions clear to Foreign Minister Gromyko, he found himself facing a more difficult negotiation than he had imagined;
Foreign Minister Gromyko, who was 70 years old at the time, was a notoriously hardliner in foreign affairs, with many years of diplomatic experience and skill;
Biden, 30, was barely speechless in front of the old man.
Foreign Minister Gromiko gushed his position, expressing the superiority of the United States over the years in the arms race, and the Soviet Union had made huge concessions in the SALT agreement;
So Gromyko told Biden that the SALT II protocol in front of him could not be changed in a word!
What should Biden do?
Just go back with this result?
How do you explain it to the Senate?
No way.
Biden was going to argue with reason, and he was planning to fight back like this.
Your Excellency, Foreign Minister, I cannot accept your position at all, and if this is the case, our agreement will disappear!
This seems like a strong refusal!
But should Biden be so adamant about refusing?
If he really said that, the SATL protocol would have really vanished.
So what kind of negotiation strategy did Biden use?
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="30" >2 Don't rush to refuse</h1>
It's a brand new series of tweets, which I call "Don't Rush to Say No," and its way of thinking is inspired by Harvard's "Harvard Negotiation Project."
In the overall framework of "negotiation flyby", you will see how this set of thinking "flies" over the dilemmas of negotiation.
The first two series are "Don't Rush to Respond" and "Don't Rush to Argue";
"Rushing to respond" and "rushing to argue" are the first two dilemmas people fall into in negotiations;
The next series inherits the previous relationship and comes to the third dilemma;
When you are able to control your emotions and are not in a hurry to respond;
When you are able to control your instincts and are not in a hurry to argue;
But the other party is sticking to their own position and not wavering, at this time, what should you do?
The negotiation method that many people will take is "refusal".
If you have this attitude, let's not talk about it, one shot and two scatters.
This is understandable, although it may seem helpless.
We all know in our hearts that "rejection" means that this negotiation may fail;
However, we all silently tell ourselves in our hearts, "It's okay, they don't dare just give up.".
In fact, behind the "rejection" hides our real concerns.
At this price, do you love it or not!
Take it or Leave it！
These words are actually really enjoyable, and it seems that you are also very tough;
But you have to be careful, most of the time, in fact, you can't accept the result of "love or not" at all.
So what to do?
The Negotiation Flyby will give you a new way of thinking that specifically addresses such dilemmas:
It's called,
reshape.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="53" >3 Reshaping</h1>
Sadaharu Wang is a legendary baseball player known in Japan.
He was a batter who played a record of 868 home runs in his lifetime, which no one has ever surpassed.
Wang Zhenzhi, in his opinion of the sport of baseball, said,
I understand the game differently than most people, and in the eyes of most batsmen, they see the pitchers of the opposing team as their opponents;
But I'm not, I see that pitcher as my "teammate" and I want to work with him;
Every time this "teammate" throws a ball, it is a chance for me to hit a home run;
The question is, how do I take advantage of this opportunity.
A game has a different descriptive framework in everyone's eyes.
"The batter has to fight the pitcher", which is a common framework for people to describe the sport of "baseball";
Wang Zhenzhi just "reshaped" this framework, he just changed the game cognitively.
"Negotiation" also applies to this way of thinking.
By changing the game of "negotiation," we can also "reshape" the issues in negotiations.
Breakthroughs in negotiations are often counterintuitive.
If the idea that comes to your mind is to "reject" the other person, then I would suggest that you might as well do the opposite;
Not only do you not refuse, but you also support and accept each other, but you need to "reshape" the problem you want to reject.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="69" >4 Biden's strategy</h1>
Let's go back to the story at the beginning of the article.
Joseph Biden did not refuse according to his heart's thoughts, and even said "let the agreement disappear".
Biden is trying to "reshape" the current negotiating situation that looks bad.
He said in a slow and heavy tone,
Your Excellency, I think you have a lot of truth! I basically agree with what you said.
Biden didn't say "no," but instead he supported, accepted, and agreed.
Why did he do that?
He's just "reshaping" the situation in front of him, he's reinventing Foreign Minister Gromyko from "opponent or foe" to "partner or teammate."
Biden continued,
It's just that I'm thinking about how to explain it to my superiors when I go back, and you know, on this issue, Speaker Goldwater and Speaker Helms in the Senate are going to be two very difficult people to convince, and I'm worried about whether I can do their job.
Biden paused and continued,
And if you don't get the support of the two of them, I'm afraid it will be difficult to get two-thirds of the votes on this agreement, you are the most authoritative arms control expert in the world, I especially want to hear your opinion, how should I explain it to them?
Upon hearing this, Foreign Minister Gromyko immediately entered the role of "imparting experience and guiding young people", and he began to think carefully about how to deal with it if he was Biden and faced with the problem of going back to persuade the leadership.
Biden's "reinvention" approach is very clever, and the current Foreign Minister Gromyko is no longer a rival negotiator, but an experienced negotiator on Biden's side.
Biden carefully presented the possible reasons and arguments of the two Speakers, and Foreign Minister Gromyko fell into contemplation;
After dozens of minutes of repeated evaluation and reflection, Foreign Minister Gromyko suddenly said to Biden,
I don't think you should bother to explain it so much, and I agree to add this amendment so that your Speaker has no reason to refuse.
Biden returned to the United States with agreed amendments, and in June of that year, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the SALT II Treaty.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="88" >5 summary</h1>
When you encounter the other party's tough attitude in negotiations, don't rush to refuse.
Change the game in front of you, reinvent it.
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Here is "Negotiation Thinking"!
"Don't rush to refuse the first part" to be continued
--- Platycodon ([email protected])