Masonry Magazine October 1996 Page. 18
What Kind of Negotiator are You?
The key to being a successful negotiator is contingent upon finding out what has value to the person with whom you are negotiating.
Do you consider yourself an outstanding negotiator? Do you feel reasonably comfortable that you could walk into a potentially conflict-riddled situation and outline a logical, win/win approach for all sides of the situation? Would it be valuable for you and your organization if you could? Managers in the construction industry are frequently uncomfortable with their negotiation skills. Getting to a win/win outcome adds to that concern.
Negotiating is frequently delivered a black-eye in today's media. Scan the front page of your local paper for "negotiations" that have cost the taxpayers money, resulted in the loss of jobs, or resulted in an embattled court process. It is little wonder that so many of us dread the opportunity to lend our name and efforts to such a dismal endeavor.
Negotiation is the process of exchanging elements of value to change the dynamics of a relationship. It is giving someone else something that they find worthwhile, meeting their objectives, and getting back something equitable. It sounds simple enough, so why do so many of us get that sinking feeling in the pit of our stomach when it is our turn to enter the negotiating ring?
The Case for "Funny Money"
First of all let's start at the core concept of negotiating-value. The process of exchanging equitable value among the parties is paramount to securing a win/win outcome. Notice that we have not talked about money. We are talking about exchanging value. To be a world class negotiator you need to be able to identify and deal with "funny money."
Funny money is things that your negotiation partner values that do not result in a cash outlay on your part. It still has value, it simply is not in the form of cash. Funny money might be giving the owner access to a limited portion of the project in return for extending the completion date. No money changes hands, but both sides get something of value. Both are happy with the outcome of the transaction. Both sides feel the exchange was successful. The negotiation ended in win/win.
Finny money may be access to parts of the job or getting your people on the job site earlier (or later) than expected. It may be providing value engineering on a piece of the job, or even giving a new client a few names of good contractors in the local area with which you have had profitable dealings. The key to being a successful negotiator is contingent upon finding out what has value to the person with whom you are negotiating. Too often we assume that the other side wants exactly the same things we do in the negotiation. We have to find out what our negotiating partner finds valuable if we want to increase our abilities as a negotiator.