Negotiation Strategy Vs Tactics

I have been studying, practicing and teaching martial arts for more than twenty-five years. This includes time spent in the United States Army and living in Japan and Korea studying martial arts there. Two important concepts that I have studied, taught, and written about in a martial or military format are equally important when teaching negotiation. These concepts are strategy and tactics. I sometimes see people mistakenly use one term when they actually mean the other. In this short article, I want to describe the differences between strategy and tactics, as well as illustrate the relationship between the two.

Strategy

The strategy is the general, general plan, which includes objectives or desired results. In the military, strategy is the utilization, both during peace and war, or of the entire forces of a nation, through large-scale and far-reaching planning and development, to ensure security or safety. victory. Another definition would be a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems to obtain a specific goal or result. A well-known strategy used by the Allies in World War II was the strategic bombing of Europe. The Army Air Corps’ strategic bombing doctrine was based on the theory that a bombing force could pummel an adversary to the point of destroying its industrial base and, with it, its ability and willingness to wage war. While this example helps to illustrate the concept of strategy, it is unfortunate that many of us have probably come across negotiators who worked with a very similar strategic doctrine.

Strategic negotiating is simply the act of devising and carrying out a well thought out plan to achieve desired results. Often your plan is to convince another party to give you something you want and on your terms. The first thing to determine when developing a trading strategy is what do you really want? What is the purpose of the negotiation? Do you want to buy a house or commercial building? Do you want a raise in your salary? Do you want to resolve a matter that is being litigated? Once you know what you want and have devised a strategy, you can implement the tactics that will help you achieve your desired result.

When you’re developing a strategy, it’s often easier to break your planning into phases. Here’s a simple model used with martial arts and warfare that you’ll notice fits equally well with negotiation:

1. Identify your strategic goals
2. Collect intelligence
3. Plan for the environment
4. Participation program

Tactic

Tactics are simply the means by which you carry out your strategy. In military tactics it is about the use and deployment of troops in real combat, more specifically, it is the military science that deals with ensuring the objectives set by the strategy, especially the technique of deploying and directing troops, ships and aircraft in effective maneuvers. against an enemy. In our earlier example with the Army Air Corps, the tight formations employed by the bombers to make the best use of the bombers’ heavy weaponry and prevent German fighters from breaking up and bunching up on lone planes is an example of a tactic used to help carry out the strategy. Another tactic was the employment of high-altitude bombing when low-altitude bombing proved vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire.

Great care must be taken not to focus on activity, means, or tactics at the expense of achievement, goal achievement, or desired results. Above all, the achievement of one’s objectives in the negotiations must be paramount. Of course, the tactics, activities or means that we use must always be appropriate and ethical, but we must remember that they are simply the ways to achieve the desired results. Examples of negotiating tactics include things like:

1. Give ultimatums
2. nibble
3. Looks of astonishment or surprise
4. Good Cop/Bad Cop
5. Walk away

There are many tactics that people use when negotiating. There is nothing wrong with using certain tactics to carry out your strategy and achieve your goals. It is not necessarily unethical, deceptive, or unscrupulous to use negotiating tactics, although some would have you believe it. Yes, some tactics can be unethical, and as I said before, we should always be appropriate and ethical, but there is nothing wrong with being competitive.

No, I haven’t forgotten the Principled Negotiation strategy taught by Fisher and Ury in “Getting To Yes.” However, I also realize that sometimes we will be in competitive negotiations, and knowing various tactics can give us an advantage. As an attorney, I realize that some clients hire an attorney to be their pit bull, and while a win-win may be ideal, some of these clients only care about a win in their column. Practically speaking, we lawyers must deliver on our clients if we want to stay in business. In other business fields, you also come across competitive haggling, and knowing the tactics can be very beneficial. Additionally, knowing various negotiation tactics, and counterattacks, prepares us for when others use them against us.

conclusion

Strategy and tactics are concepts as old as conflict itself. By understanding the differences and relationships between the two, the successful negotiator can better plan and implement strategies and tactics to achieve specific desired results. There’s a reason so many successful entrepreneurs study old military classics like “The Art of War” and “The Book of Five Rings.” There’s a reason so many successful entrepreneurs play strategic military games like Go and Chess. Lessons learned from military sources, especially strategy and tactics, can be easily adapted to help us become better entrepreneurs, better litigators, and better negotiators.