Glossary of Negotiation Terms & Definitions

Agent A person who acts for or in place of another individual or entity as their representative in a negotiation with a third party. An agent, sometimes referred to as a third party agent, has full or limited authority to act on the behalf of the party they represent. Arbitration A process to resolve a dispute between negotiating parties who have reached a deadlock in their negotiation. The parties in dispute are referred to a third party, which is one that is either agreed upon by the parties in dispute, or as provided by legislated law. The third party renders a judgement that is binding on the parties in dispute. Arbitration is often used in international negotiations and in collective bargaining. Aspiration Base This is a realistic view of setting the highest achievable standard in terms of goals or objectives in concluding a negotiated agreement. BATNA An acronym described by Roger Fisher and William Ury which means Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. It is the alternative action that will be taken should your proposed agreement with another party result in an unsatisfactory agreement or when an agreement fails to materialize. If the potential results of your current negotiation only offers a value that is less than your BATNA, there is no point in proceeding with the negotiation, and one should use their best available alternative option instead. Prior to the start of negotiations, each party should have ascertained their own individual BATNA. Bargaining A form of distributive negotiation. Bargaining is a simple form of negotiation process that is both competitive and positional. Bargaining predominates in one-time negotiations and often revolves around a single issue usually price. One party usually attempts to gain advantage over another to obtain the best possible agreement. Bargaining Zone Is the range or area in which an agreement is satisfactory to both parties involved in the negotiation. The bargaining zone is essentially the overlap area between walk away positions in a negotiation.

Coalitions A temporary union between two or more individuals or groups for a common aim or goal. A relatively common practice utilized in multi party negotiations, it is used to gain advantage in the negotiation process. Collective Bargaining A negotiation process that occurs between employers (or their representatives) and the representatives of a union to negotiate issues that consists of wages, hours of work and other conditions of employment. Normally results in a written contract that is defined by specific time duration life of the contract. Common Ground This term refers to the area of agreement or a basis for an understanding, that is mutually agreed upon by all parties to a negotiation. Concession Strategy Your concession strategy is a plan of the goals / positions and sometimes the underlying interests that you will be trading with the other party. Before you enter the negotiations, at the very least you should have clarity on your and the other party's goals, and an sequence of which goals you want to trade or exchange. Concession strategies vary in detail. 'Concession Strategy' is more accurately called the 'Trading Plan'. Constituent A constituent is someone or a group on the same side of the negotiating party but who exerts an independent influence on the outcome through the principal negotiator, or to whom the principal negotiator is accountable. For example, a union negotiator must have an agreement voted upon by the union members (constituents) before it can be ratified as an agreement. Debt Negotiation A negotiation process where one party negotiates the amount (debt) and other any other applicable terms of a loan such as arrears, liability, or balance due which is owed to another party. Distributive Negotiation A distributive negotiation type or process that normally entails a single issue to be negotiated. The single issue often involves price and frequently relates to the bargaining process. Also referred to as Win Lose, or Fixed Pie negotiation because one party generally gains at the expense of another party. 'Win - Win' negotiation is conversely often referred to as Integrative Negotiation.
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Facilitator This is usually a mutually agreed upon neutral third party to lead a complex meeting of two or more parties involved in a negotiation. Often employed in multi party negotiations. Their purpose is to organize, aid, and offer assistance in helping the negotiating parties find their own solutions on the issues under discussion. Haggling A form of distributive negotiation. Haggling means to negotiate, argue, or barter about the terms of a business transaction, usually focusing on the purchase or selling price of a product or service. Integrative Framework : A means of negotiation decision making to conceptualise the actions, contingencies of all possible outcomes, options and scenarios. Applied to integrative negotiations with the intention of incorporating the goals and aims of all the negotiating parties to create maximum value through collaborative negotiation. Integrative Negotiation: Integrative negotiation is often referred to as 'win-win' and typically entails two or more issues to be negotiated. It often involves an agreement process that better integrates the aims and goals of all the involved negotiating parties through creative and collaborative problem solving. Relationship is usually more important, with more complex issues being negotiated than with Distributive Negotiation. Joint Venture Agreement: A contractual agreement between two or more business partners to assume a common business strategy on a project. All partners generally agree to share the profits and losses through their common shareholdings. Litigation: A formalised legal process to resolve a dispute through legal action in the form of a lawsuit. It often entails a contractual issue. It is the act of either bringing or challenging a lawsuit. Mediation: Mediation usually consists of a negotiation process that employs a mutually agreed upon third party to settle a dispute between negotiating parties to find a compatible agreement to resolve disputes. Merger and Acquisition Negotiation:

A negotiation process conducted for the merger or joining of two companies into a single business entity, or the outright purchase of a company by another company. Multi Party Negotiation: A negotiation that involves more than two negotiating parties in a negotiation. Negotiation: An interactive process between two or more parties seeking to find common ground on an issue or issues of mutual interest or dispute where the involved parties seek to make or find a mutually acceptable agreement that will be honoured by all the parties concerned. Negotiation Agenda: A formal agreed upon list of goals to be achieved or items to be discussed in a particular order during a meeting or negotiation. Agendas can be formal and obvious, or informal and subtle in negotiations. A negotiation agenda can be used to control the negotiation meeting. Negotiation Concessions: Negotiation Concessions are also sometimes referred to as Trade-Offs where one or more parties to a negotiation engage in conceding, yielding, or compromising on issues under negotiation and do so either willingly or unwillingly Negotiation Game: Many negotiation training courses make use of negotiation games in order to teach their delegates useful principles of negotiation, psychology or influence in a fun and interactive environment. Some games are played between pairs, whilst others involve a room full of people. The purpose of most negotiation games is to win or avoid losing. Most negotiation games leave the decision of what 'winning' or 'losing' means to the playersNegotiation Skills: Negotiation skills are required to negotiate effective deals across a variety of contexts; including different industries, products and services. Negotiation skills are learnable, 'born negotiators' are a myth. Effective negotiation requires a variety of skills drawn from different disciplines. Negotiating skills include: communication, persuasion and influence, planning, strategising, tactics, process and systems, teamwork and many others. Since negotiation requires much face to face interaction, negotiation skills cannot be learned from a book alone. The better negotiation skills learning programs involve a great deal of role plays and feedback discussions. Negotiation Strategy: A pre-determined approach or prepared plan of action to achieve a specific goal or objective to potentially find and make an agreement or contract in a negotiation with another party or parties.

Negotiation Styles: The most popular way to divide the typical negotiation styles or approaches are: Competing (or Aggressive), Collaborating (or Cooperative), Avoiding, Compromise, Accommodating (Conceding). Most negotiators have one or two preferred negotiation styles. Negotiation Tactics: Negotiation tactics are the detailed methods employed by negotiators to gain an advantage over other parties. Tactics are often deceptive and manipulative and are used to fulfill one party's goals and objectives - often to the detriment of the other negotiation parties. This makes most tactics in use today 'win-lose' by nature. Position: This is the official defined stance or standpoint which will be strongly defended by a negotiator. A position is usually determined by the interests of a negotiating party in the negotiation process. A position is often defined in the contract that a party puts forward or is proposing to their counterpart. Principled Negotiation: Principled Negotiation is an interest-based approach to negotiation that focusses primarily on conflict management and conflict resolution. Principled negotiation uses an integrative approach to finding a mutually shared outcome. First published in the book "Getting to Yes", Principled Negotiation is used mostly in North America and is more popular amongst Academics and Mediators than in Business. Principled Negotiation has become synonymous with the more popular phrase "Win Win " originally taken from Game Theory. Although Fisher and Ury drew from various disciplines in their 1981 book "Getting to Yes", many Mediation Practitioners and Academics have subsequently contributed in answering the challenging question: How can we best achieve Principled Negotiation in many different contexts? Trade-Off: Also sometimes referred to as a Concession where one or more parties to a negotiation engage in conceding, yielding, or compromising on issues under negotiation and do so either willingly or unwillingly. Trading Plan:

A negotiation trading plan is a table or spreadsheet that sets out which goals / positions / tradables you are going to exchange or trade with the other party. A trading plan is an essential part of negotiation preparation, especially for complex negotiations. Trading plans should not only identify the goals of each party, trading plans should also rank these goals for each party and set out which goals you want to trade together. The Negotiation Experts clients are trained to use a trading plan after having prepared a SWOT analysis, and to plan a negotiation agenda using your trading plan. A trading plan is often referred to by the less accurate name of a 'Concession Strategy'. Walk Away: Walk away is the alternative that a negotiator will act on if they are not successful in a negotiation. A walk away may be an alternative supplier or buyer, to manufacture the product or deliver the service in-house, to wait or simply do nothing i.e. to go without. The walk away answers the negotiation question: "What will you do if you don't agree this deal Win-Lose Negotiation: This term refers to a distributive negotiation whereby one partys gain is another partys loss. Both parties are competing to get the most value from the negotiation. Also called the fixed-pie scenario in that there is only a limited amount to be distributed. A term also used in Game Theory and Economics. (Also known as Lose-Win Negotiation Win-Win Negotiation: A win-win negotiation settlement is an integrative negotiated agreement. In theory this means the negotiating parties have reached an agreement after fully taking into account each others' interests, such that the agreement cannot be improved upon further by any other agreement. By definition, there are no resources or 'gold' left on the table and all creative options have been thoroughly exploited. "Win-Win" has its roots in Economics Game Theory. Winners Curse: Occurs when an under aspiring negotiator sets their target or aspirations (goals or objectives) too low at the outset of a negotiation and is granted an immediate agreement by their negotiating counterpart. ZOPA: An acronym which means Zone of Possible Agreement. It is the range or area in which an agreement is satisfactory to both parties involved in the negotiation process. Often referred to as the "Contracting Zone". ZOPA or the Contracting Zone is essentially the range between each parties real base or bottom lines, and is the overlap area in the low and high range that each party is willing to pay or find acceptable in a negotiation.