negotiation, one move per page
Thirty moves for people who go quiet when the number lands: interests behind positions, the seven-element prep sheet, the walk-away alternative priced and tested, the zone where yes can live, the agreement trap, the first number that sticks and the 45 that pulls your 75 down, defusing before you counter, the midpoint rule, constraints over critique, the ten issues beyond salary, grounded numbers and researched targets, the three moves of real listening, questions people like you for, and the hostage negotiator's calm when it heats up, one move per page. Built from Harvard's Program on Negotiation: every number as PON states it.
A diagram, the classic trap, and one thing to go try this week. That's a page.
negotiation, one move per page
Thirty moves for people who go quiet when the number lands: interests behind positions, the seven-element prep sheet, the walk-away alternative priced and tested, the zone where yes can live, the agreement trap, the first number that sticks and the 45 that pulls your 75 down, defusing before you counter, the midpoint rule, constraints over critique, the ten issues beyond salary, grounded numbers and researched targets, the three moves of real listening, questions people like you for, and the hostage negotiator's calm when it heats up, one move per page. Built from Harvard's Program on Negotiation: every number as PON states it.
Set in Space Grotesk, Inter and JetBrains Mono (SIL Open Font License).
Methods, findings and quotations checked against Harvard Program on Negotiation (pon.harvard.edu) public pages fetched and read during this build: What Is Negotiation? Understanding the Seven Elements, What is BATNA? How to Find Your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, How to Find the ZOPA in Business Negotiations, What is Anchoring in Negotiation?, Dealmaking and the Anchoring Effect in Negotiations, How to Counter Offer Successfully With a Strong Rationale, Negotiation Skills for Win-Win Negotiations, Ask the Negotiation Coach: Questioning Negotiation Dialogue, Advanced Negotiation Strategies and Concepts: Hostage Negotiation Tips for Business Negotiators, and How to Negotiate a Higher Salary after a Job Offer. Facts and figures are quoted as those sources state them, including their summaries of Getting to Yes and of published research. Demand evidence from live beginner threads on r/personalfinance, r/careerguidance, r/careeradvice, r/LifeProTips and r/ExperiencedDevs, fetched this build; no facts are sourced from Reddit. An independent guide, not affiliated with or endorsed by Harvard University or the Program on Negotiation.
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Edition 1.0 · stevehodgkiss.net
Contents
Harvard PON quotes Getting to Yes: 'Like it or not, you are a negotiator. Everyone negotiates something every day'; negotiation is back-and-forth communication to reach agreement when some interests are shared and others are opposed.
You're already in it
Let's say you think negotiation is for markets and boardrooms, so you take the number, the price, the date. Fisher, Ury and Patton, in Getting to Yes: everyone negotiates something, every day. You're already in it.
PON's definition: back-and-forth talk to reach agreement when some interests are shared and some are opposed. Believing it's a talent you lack is the quit. PON says the skills improve dramatically with practice.
It's a skill. Skills get trained.
Write down three negotiations you were already in this week, at work or home. Name what each side wanted.
Your footing
Where your power actually comes from: your walk-away alternative priced and tested, the zone where agreement can live, the trap of yes, and the mythical fixed pie.
- 01The walk-away number
- 02Find the overlap
Harvard PON: BATNA stands for best alternative to a negotiated agreement, what you will do if you do not reach a deal, introduced in Getting to Yes; it determines whether to accept, your leverage, and when to walk away.
The walk-away number
Let's say you're at the table with no idea what you'll do if it fails. Then nothing is refusable. Getting to Yes coined the answer: your BATNA, your best alternative, what you'll do if there's no deal.
PON says it decides three things: whether to accept, how much leverage you hold, when to walk. Without one, every offer is the only offer. With one, a number exists that means no.
No alternative, no spine. Know plan B.
Before your next negotiation, write your BATNA in one sentence: exactly what you'll do if there is no deal.
Harvard PON's ZOPA example: a candidate who would accept $70,000 to $80,000 and an organization willing to pay $65,000 to $75,000 have a zone of possible agreement of $70,000 to $75,000.
Find the overlap
Let's say you'd take 70 to 80, they'd pay 65 to 75, and neither says so. The deal is already sitting there. PON calls the overlap the ZOPA, the zone of possible agreement.
In their worked example the zone is 70 to 75. Your walk-away point and theirs fence it in. Negotiating with no sense of the zone is negotiating blind.
The deal lives in the overlap. Map it.
For a live negotiation, write your acceptable range, your best guess at theirs, and where they overlap.
Numbers
How numbers move people: the first number that sticks, the lowball that shrinks yours, when to go first, defusing an anchor, the midpoint rule, reasons, and slicing concessions.
- 01The first number sticks
- 02Defuse before you counter
Harvard PON: the anchoring bias gives too much weight to the first number put forth; in Tversky and Kahneman's roulette wheel experiment, people who saw the wheel stop on 10 guessed on average 25 percent for UN African members, those who saw 65 guessed 45 percent.
The first number sticks
Let's say you're sure a random number can't sway you. Tversky and Kahneman spun a wheel and asked people to guess a fact. Saw a 10, they guessed 25 percent. Saw a 65, they guessed 45. The first number pulled every guess.
PON: even experts, real estate agents included, get pulled. The bias is too much weight on the first number, then too little adjustment. An opening number isn't information. It's a lever.
Every number you hear drags you. Know the pull.
Next time a first number lands on you, write your honest instinct before hearing it again, then compare.
Harvard PON: when a counterpart drops an aggressive anchor, recognise the move, then defuse it clearly and forcefully, 'I'm not trying to play games with you, but we are miles apart on price'; countering before defusing suggests their number is in the bargaining zone.
Defuse before you counter
Let's say they open at 100 and you instantly say 50. You just told them 100 is live. PON's order: recognise the anchor, defuse it, only then counter. The words: "we are miles apart on price."
Then your number, with its reason. A counter without a defuse plays on their field. And don't over-protest; PON warns dwelling on their number validates it.
Defuse the number, then give yours.
Say the defuse line out loud twice: we're miles apart on price. Add your own words around it until it sounds like you.
Harvard PON: unless the employer states offers are non-negotiable, accepting without negotiating is typically a mistake; Kurtzberg and Naquin advise don't ask if an offer is negotiable, just begin the negotiation with a counteroffer.
Don't ask permission
Let's say the offer arrives and you send "is there any flexibility?" You've handed them the easy no. Kurtzberg and Naquin's rule, via PON: don't ask if an offer is negotiable. Begin.
Send the counter. Treating their number as an opening, not a verdict, anchors the talk around movement. PON adds: managers often expect it, first offers are often set below what they'll truly pay. Permission questions close doors.
It's an offer, not a verdict. Counter it.
Draft the first two sentences of a counter, with no permission question anywhere in them.