Negotiating with Powerful People, Part 1

Visitors to the Ombuds Office often bring up a stubborn problem: the person with whom they are in conflict is in a higher position of authority, or has more resources at their disposal, than they do. Visitors have often tried a variety of approaches to no avail. Some have tried to use a “competitive” approach, only to have the other side “pull rank” and shut down the discussion. Others have tried to accommodate the other person or avoid the dispute entirely but have become tired of always subjugating their own concerns. All these visitors find themselves faced with the same problem: how can they negotiate successfully with someone with more power than themselves?

It is a difficult problem, and there is no easy solution. But there are tools and options that can help strategize more effectively and generate more options. In the Ombuds Office, we coach our visitors to recognize that, while it may not be possible to “win” every dispute, it is usually possible to achieve two other goals: (1) protecting oneself from accepting a bad agreement; and (2) improving one’s options to advance their goals as much as possible.

This advice relies on the development of what Roger Fisher and William Ury, in their classic book “Getting to Yes,”[1] call the “BATNA,” or “Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement.” That’s a mouthful (kind of like “Ombudsperson”), but really it is just the answer to a simple question: what would you do if the negotiation you are engaging in is unsuccessful? This idea is distinct from an “ideal” outcome (where you get everything you want) or a “fantasy” outcome (where you take an unrealistic alternative option). It is instead what you would actually do.

To get at this, when you visit with an Ombuds, we will ask questions. We begin by simply asking what you will do if the other side does not agree with you. We then ask questions about that proposed option to better understand how you are thinking of the costs and benefits of that idea. For instance, if a visitor says that if negotiations fail they will “quit and move to Montana,” we might ask have you considered how much such a move might cost? Do you have networks in Montana? Do you know the cost of living? What would you be giving up by leaving? (Do you know how cold Montana is?) On the other hand, we might ask: are there options they have considered besides moving?

Once our visitors have a better understanding of their BATNA, we can then hold any proposed solutions with the other party up against that option to see if the agreement is an improvement over the BATNA or not. This can help our visitors keep from accepting something that is worse than their BATNA. We can also help strategize ways to improve visitors’ BATNAs or develop new ones, which can significantly improve our visitors’ negotiating power and ability to advocate for themselves.

If you would like help clarifying or developing a BATNA, we can help! You can prepare for our visit by: (1) creating a list of actions you might conceivably take if no agreement is reached; (2) thinking about which of these ideas are most promising; and (3) selecting, tentatively, the one alternative that seems best to you. We can then work with you to plan how to use these options to reach a more satisfactory outcome of your dispute.

Next issue, we will discuss more options for negotiating with more powerful parties, including ways to recognize and use alternative sources of negotiating power.

[1] Fisher, R. and Ury, W. (1977). Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. New York: Penguin Books.