if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle. sun tzu 孫子 6th century bc general, the art of war
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© Victoria Pynchon ‘07
a theory of the mind
the three cognitive biases that interfere with our ability to negotiate the best deal
three really good ways to combat those biases and two ways to consistently get the better deal
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theory of mind
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our ability to reason arose from our need to understand one another’s intentions and motivations, allowing us to coordinate within a group
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but we never learned to read one another’s minds; suspicion followed
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we developed certain tendencies of thought called cognitive biases
universal ways of thinking about what motivates other people
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cognitive biases that interfere with our ability to negotiate a good settlement
CB 1: reactive devaluation
CB 2: confirmation bias
CB 3: clustering illusion
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How they work; why they’re harmful & how we can avoid their ill effects
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two ways to consistently gain the upper hand by anchoring and framing
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what do we most want to know?
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only seven percent of negotiators sought information that would have revealed opponent’s true goals when it would have been dramatically helpful to do so.
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particularly troublesome when you know that your belief about their bottom line will have more influence on the outcome of the negotiation than any other factor
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reactive devaluation
the tendency to discount as unworkable, unworthy, wrong or even sinister any suggestion from the opponent, just because the opponent is the source of the idea
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reactive devaluation
prevents us from learning another’s mind what do they want/need what do they have of value how do they value it how do they value what we have why do they want what they are seeking
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solutions for reactive devaluation
ask diagnostic questions
Interests need $100K to design new trademark Priorities trademark design less important than renegotiation of royalty agreement
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confirmation bias
tendency to search for and interpret information in a way that confirms our preconceptions
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confirmation bias
prevents us from knowing our own minds/risks
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confirmation bias solutions
neutral third party story telling
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clustering illusion
•We tend to see patterns where none exist
we tend to see patterns where none exist
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clustering illusion problems
inhibits ability to “read the mind” of our enemy prevents us from accurately assessing •perils •opportunities
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clustering illusion solution: strategic joint sessions
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two cognitive biases we can immediately use to . . .
. . . influence & avoid being influenced
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anchoring we tend to be influenced by any number that enters the negotiation environment
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the negotiator who makes the first reasonable offer will set the bargaining range for the entire negotiation
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resist anchoring
create own false anchor move toward that number
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framing
influence or be influenced
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framing
a means of influencing another’s perception by narrowing the ways in which an item or an idea can be characterized
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what if you had to measure the size of something by using two frames? what if you could only use one?
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framing experiments
• how tall was the basketball player –79 inches • how short was the basketball player? –69 inches
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use framing in negotiations
language that emphasizes position
buyer uses words of diminishment seller uses words of increase reframe losses as gains & gains as losses don’t frame too early or you may lose opportunities
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if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles
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© Victoria Pynchon ‘07