Negotiation capability and the impact on performance

Regardless of the positions your people hold; their success and that of their team almost always depends upon how well they can negotiate with and influence the people around them.

Negotiation and influencing externally

External relationships exist in almost all areas of an organisation, extending well beyond traditional procurement specialists. Making the most of these relationships is critical for functions and projects to succeed.  If managed effectively, these relationships hold the key to creating a pool of mutually beneficial value.

Organisations often expose themselves to significant downside risk when they assume that line staff in HR, IT, Operations, Project Management etc, have the necessary ‘know - how' to manage these external relationships.  In fact, these technical specialists often need support with frameworks and interpersonal skill development to be successful.

For example, how well are the following decisions managed in your organisation?

• Sourcing appropriate consultants for a project.

• Managing operations contractors.

• Negotiating with a government department for approvals.

• Working with external stakeholders to gain/preserve your ‘social licence to operate’.

All of these activities, and the outcomes they generate can be enhanced through understanding value creating /claiming frameworks as well as developing the skills and confidence to implement them. See our “Negotiating Deals” course or "Engaging with Stakeholders" for more information.

Negotiating and influencing internally

Negotiation doesn’t necessarily mean making price based deals. In fact, the majority of negotiations that managers and project/technical specialists undertake are internal, interpersonal and work based.

Our framework for negotiation includes all the ways in which we discuss, listen and work towards solutions that create the maximum value for the organisation and our teams.

In our experience, we have found that a 'negotiation frame' can help people, particularly technical experts and managers, understand how and in what ways they might improve the value of their relationships with others.

Consider the following ‘lost’ opportunities that are faced by organisations on a daily basis:

• Excellent change projects that go ‘off the rails’ due to poor implementation and integration.

• The many good ideas that people come up with, that are agreed to by all, but are then not implemented for some reason.

• Great designs for products that the operations team can’t make or deliver.

• Service promises to customers that don’t create brand value because the customer doesn’t actually value them.

We believe that the frameworks for facilitating change and the competencies needed for implementation can be developed.