Preparation and Flexibility Theme Analysis

The authors of Getting to Yes advocate two contrasting principles in their theory of principled negotiation: they repeatedly say that negotiators must be well-prepared, but they also insist that they be flexible during the process of negotiation itself. In fact, it is important to combine preparation and flexibility precisely because they serve complementary functions, and the best negotiators specifically prepare in a way that boosts their flexibility during a negotiation.

Effective negotiators must be prepared in order to succeed. At a bare minimum, the authors argue, parties must enter a negotiation well-informed about the facts, with a clear understanding of their concrete interests and a plan. Otherwise, negotiations are unlikely to advance, and unprepared negotiators are uniquely vulnerable to deceptive tricks. The authors also argue that negotiators should be prepared with ideas about independent, objective criteria that can be used to evaluate questions of conflicting interests and, above all, an understanding of their BATNA—their Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement, which reflects the consequences of walking away from the negotiation. Both of these pieces of information allow negotiators to hold a firm line and fight for their interests when push comes to shove. Similarly, it can be strategic to introduce pauses into a negotiation process to give both sides time to reflect and further prepare. For instance, in the example negotiation between Frank Turnbull and his landlord Mrs. Jones, Turnbull requests a day to think before presenting a final offer. Beyond taking time to gather new information, Turnbull consolidates his thinking and prevents himself from making a rash, hasty decision. While closing an agreement in the heat of the moment is dangerous and invites regret, strategically pausing allows people to mentally prepare themselves for making an agreement, precisely because decisions are always better when negotiators have time to meaningfully reflect on them.

However, while preparation is key to effective negotiating, it can also be dangerous, and this is why the authors insist that negotiators must also embrace flexibility in order to reach wiser agreements. In fact, overpreparation is what makes positional bargaining ineffective. Armed with a seemingly perfect solution and a seemingly complete set of facts, positional bargainers approach negotiations certain that they are right and eager to crush the other side’s ignorance with their own knowledge. Such positional bargainers reject perfectly viable solutions because they never get around to considering them. In other words, positional bargainers fail because they are inflexible: they are not willing to consider unfamiliar ideas or change their rigid, preestablished view of the situation based on what the other side says. In contrast, principled negotiators emphasize flexibility in a negotiation process in order to ensure that negotiated agreements actually satisfy both sides. In particular, they make space for brainstorming, which creates a safe space for exploring new ideas without affecting the flow of negotiations as a whole. More than anything else, brainstorming is what allows negotiators to find common ground that they might not have seen beforehand and dovetail (or creatively satisfy) competing interests. Many of the reasons people fail to find good solutions are based on a refusal to think flexibly in a negotiation scenario. The authors cite “premature judgment,” “searching for the single answer,” and “the assumption of a fixed pie” as examples. Without considering new options—whether or not they turn out to be worth implementing—people end up trying to split the difference between their premade plans, rather than finding something new that works for everybody.

While preparation and flexibility are both incredibly important, then, it is also clear that neither should go so far as to get in the way of the other. Instead, the authors argue that preparation and flexibility should actively work together. Like the different parties’ interests in a negotiation, preparation and flexibility might look zero-sum, but in reality they are not. Preparing more does not mean being less flexible—it is possible to be totally prepared and totally flexible at the same time. In essence, effective negotiators prepare to give themselves flexibility in the negotiation process. For instance, they might enter negotiations with multiple plans in mind, so that they can then propose different options depending on what the other side raises. By proposing three specific plans that they find equally desirable but may look different to the other side, a negotiator can ascertain what the other side’s real interests are. So by preparing multiple options, a negotiator creates a kind of flexibility in the negotiation that would not exist otherwise. This is also the purpose of having a specific BATNA, which helps a negotiator realistically calibrate what kind of agreement will be worthwhile. Finally, the Circle Chart that the authors propose as a guide through the brainstorming process is probably the most concrete illustration of how preparation and flexibility must work together to create better negotiated outcomes. The chart helps people relate concrete problems to broader situations and conditions, then back to new concrete solutions. It is a rigid process that produces creative solutions: it forces negotiators to reconsider their existing knowledge and draw new inferences out of it, encouraging them to draw on their preparatory material but to reconsider it in a flexible way.

Of course, while Getting to Yes’s very purpose is to prepare its readers for negotiations, the book’s authors recognize that negotiations are diverse and difficult to predict, so they believe that internalizing specific negotiating principles is the best way to become an expert negotiator. This is only further proof that no amount of detailed preparation can settle negotiations before they begin—indeed, the authors also point out that people can never truly learn to negotiate from a book, but only ever through action and practice. The best way to negotiate is to bring an open mind and several open-ended proposals—in addition to the wisdom gathered from Getting to Yes—into a fair, collaborative, and creative principled negotiating process.