Negotiation de-escalation

Negotiation de-escalation

“Everything is negotiable. Whether or not the negotiation is easy is another thing.” — Carrie Fisher

At last week’s Entrepreneurship 101 lecture, Michael Erdle, co-founder of Practical Resolutions Inc., spoke about two topics that are useful in business as well as in your personal life: negotiation and conflict resolution.

Negotiation and conflict resolution are skills that we use in our daily lives, but that we often employ without really thinking about them. Learning about the different styles of negotiation and how to structure them will help you to be successful in your daily negotiations.

In his lecture, Michael provided a clear and detailed explanation of the steps of negotiation and offered tips on how to become a more effective negotiator, including advice on how to deal with difficult people and pointers on the four key conditions for the successful “tit-for-tat” strategy.

Michael also explained that once you have built a foundation for negotiation, you can begin to familiarize yourself with various negotiation styles and to learn which styles work best in various situations and what your default strategy should be when starting any negotiation. Some of the negotiation styles he explained include:

  • avoidance;
  • competition;
  • accommodation;
  • compromise; and
  • collaboration.

Michael outlined four key negotiation skills and recommended exercising them when engaging in any negotiation in order to build ongoing relationships between parties and to increase success in your future negotiations.

He wrapped up his lecture by explaining the four most common types of conflict resolution:

  • litigation;
  • arbitration;
  • mediation; and
  • facilitation.

He also suggested alternative methods of dispute resolution and recommended several resources, including tools to help you find an arbitrator or mediator.

Learn more about refining your negotiation skills by watching the full lecture here.

Interested in learning more? Watch Michael’s MaRS Best Practices video on negotiation and dispute resolution.

Short on time? Check out this “hot tips” video for quick tips on negotiation: Negotiating and Resolving Disputes: Five Hot Tips for Startups.

Next lecture: Lived it Lecture with Brant Cooper on Wednesday, February 20, 2013.

Resources: 

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