Harvard Business Review Guides Ultimate Boxed Set (16 Books)

Chapter 10

Align Multiple Parties

Avoid inefficiency and chaos.

The Problem

Many negotiations involve more than two parties, all of whom need to subscribe to a final agreement. These are situations in which there aren’t just multiple stakeholders behind the scenes, but also multiple parties sitting at the table: Perhaps you’re negotiating the details of a go-to-market strategy with multiple channel partners; maybe you work for a research institution that is collaborating with several others on a government contract; or perhaps you’re working on a complex services sale that involves a number of individuals from both the customer’s and your organizations. When you have more than two parties that want to agree on a final solution, the circle of ...