Page 13 - Leadership Basics 9

The Process of Positional Negotiation

Event Comment
Develop your ‘log of claims’. Don't forget that it is likely that you will be forced to compromise so,
‘build’ in more than you want in your initial position . . . about
business, not personalities?

Separate people from the problem. It’s not personal but business leave emotions out of it. There is no
place for anger, being upset, being depressed, etc.

Focus on the other party’s offer. How committed are they to their position? How much will they be
prepared to give?

Generate ‘counter offers’. The difficult part ‐ each party should work towards giving up a
certain amount from their initial positions.

Reach Agreement Both parties agree on a solution.
Test against objective standards. Is the agreement still OK after a cooling off period, and when
measured against other known precedents or standards?

Consider the following example of Positional Negotiation in a school. We will use the case study
of Henry Li to illustrate this story.

Event Comment
Develop your Henry is used to schools being open until 5.30, but his new school is used to
‘log of claims’. shutting the office at 4.30. Henry’s ‘log of claims’ is that a roster is to be
drawn up so that office staff take turns working until 5.30 pm. He actually
only wants the office open until 5, but that is his initial bargaining position.

[The office staff ‘log of claims’ is that they only want to work until 4.30]

Separate people from Henry has to make sure this is not a personal issue. He has to make it clear
the problem. to staff that he does not think they are lazy or ‘getting away’ with anything.
It is a business matter and nothing to do with personalities. He will tell the
staff that they also have to leave their personal lives out of this negotiation.
Just because a staff member wants to go home at 4.30 to meet her own
children is of no consequence. We all have personal likes and dislikes, we
cannot allow one person any special privileges.

Focus on the other How committed are the staff to their positions? Do they want to continue
party’s offer. working at the school in the front office or are they willing to quit if they
have to work until 5pm? Do they have the support of the teaching staff? Is
there a Union involved?

Generate ‘counter offers’. The difficult part – Henry is willing to offer the Administration Staff
Flexi‐time, which means they can start work later on in order to make up
for the extra time taken to stay until 5.30pm. The staff do not want to start
work later but prefer starting early and going home to their own families
early.

Reach Agreement. Office staff will work until 5 p.m. on a rotational basic can start 15 minutes
later after they have worked and can ‘swap’ shifts themselves as needs arise.

Test against objective Is the agreement still OK after a cooling off period and when looked at
standards. against what the school was doing before? Are parent’s happy? Is anyone
coming in after 4.30?

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