Vlerick Business Watcher: Why do negotiations fail?

"The art of good negotiation is to be firm on the fundamentals, steadfast on the things you really care about, but flexibility in the details.”
– Quote by Teddy Roosevelt

In this ‘Business Watcher’ video negotiation expert Barney Jordaan talks about some of the main mistakes that he thinks people make when they negotiate, both negotiating for themselves professionally or on the world stage. Think about the Brexit or the crisis in Syria.

First of all, we use the wrong tactics. We use threats, for example, to try and get the other party to move in our direction. But that can be very dangerous, because you have no control over how the other party might react. Secondly, we use power instead of persuasion. The difficulty is if you use power, you have no control over how the other side might react to your exercise of power. If you leave them feeling like a victim, the risk is that that victim will become the aggressor. As Abraham Lincoln said, if you want to reveal somebody's character, you just give them power. A third problem is lack of preparation and planning. The Nissan case illustrates that very clearly. The CEOs or the chairmen of the two companies have negotiated a potential deal. They thought this could be an ideal marriage. The French and Japanese government however, were not consulted from the start and therefore felt excluded. They came with their own demands that actually created a situation where the deal has not gone through up to now.