Leadership Transitions: The Watkins Collection (4 Items)

Learning and Influencing

Next, focus on how negotiators are striving to learn about

and influence each other. When they are uncertain about each

other’s interests and bottom lines—which is essentially always

the case—the positions negotiators exchange are really just

“signals” about what they are willing to accept and not accept.

The sides are each trying to “learn” from their counterpart’s

positions and the rationales they offer to support them, and to

“influence” the other side by taking positions and establishing

rationales of their own.

The problem, of course, is that each side’s efforts to influence

come into conflict with the other’s efforts to learn. This is what

makes negotiating under conditions of uncertainty so interest-

ing and frustrating. Think ...