Big idea #5 – Individual vs. Team negotiation, by Gerard I. Nierenberg, The Complete Negotiator

In my previous post, from Nierenberg's book, I talked about why people are still important? today I'll talk about big idea #5 " Individual vs. Team Negotiation".

The depth of preparation and the number and kinds of people that may or may not compose a negotiation team depends on the importance of the negotiation, the difficulty involved, and the time available. Whether it should be an individual negotiator or a team negotiation, depends on one important factor: What are the skills or functions required in the coming negotiation?

Nierenberg voices the dilemma of the need to meet the other side's “quantity” of people 1:1, meaning for every individual on their team, you match with the same quantity and skill set. Nierenberg points out the risk of having individuals that have no real role, and potentially can damage the negotiation cadence, thus the concern and dilemma, in a case where a 1:1 matching is required, it is best to brief your team in advance and delegate specific roles and responsibilities to all team members, including meeting conduct and negotiation protocol.

Nierenberg points out the advantages of an individual negotiator:

1. to prevent the opposer from aiming questions at the weaker members of the team or creating disagreement among team members and weakening positions.

2. to place complete responsibility on one person.

3. to make on-the-spot decisions and make or gain necessary concessions.

As for a Team-based negotiation, Nierenberg lists these advantages:

1. people with different skill sets and technical know-how can assist in strengthening your position and reinforce facts.

2. enables pooling of thoughts, and pre-planning.

3. it presents the other side with formidable opposition.

One of the most important roles in team negotiation is the role of the chief negotiator. Their role is to coordinate between the team members, utilize each member's specialization to its maximum advantage and coordinate and harmonize the use of their skills, very much like the use of offensive and defensive teams in football. It is the chief negotiator's responsibility to receive full management support and freedom of negotiation (based on pre-agreed upon goals and concession strategy).

To summarize, my personal experience is in favor of a team negotiation approach, even if it means a team of 2 people, where one is the lead negotiator and the second being her compass and devil's advocate, making sure that in the heat and pressure of negotiations, the lead negotiator doesn’t fall into any traps or binding concessions, that are not in the organizations best interests or part of the negotiation goals.