Introduction to Negotiation Strategy
At Oak Spring University, we provide corporate level professional Negotiation Strategy and other business case study solution. What to Expect from Agile case study is a Harvard Business School (HBR) case study written by Julian Birkinshaw. The What to Expect from Agile (referred as “Agile Ing” from here on) case study provides evaluation & decision scenario in field of Leadership & Managing People. It also touches upon business topics such as - negotiation strategy, negotiation framework, .
Negotiation strategy solution for case study What to Expect from Agile ” provides a comprehensive framework to analyse all issues at hand and reach a unambiguous negotiated agreement. At Oak Spring University, we provide comprehensive negotiation strategies that have proven their worth both in the academic sphere and corporate world.
What’s my BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) – my walkaway option if the deal fails?
What are my most important interests, in ranked order?
What is the other side’s BATNA, and what are his interests?
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. In this article, the author examines agile as a management practice through a case study of ING bank in the Netherlands, which has adopted agile across its headquarters in Amsterdam. The research is based on in-depth interviews with 15 ING executives and many front-line employees. The article highlights key learnings at ING, largely from the point of view of the senior executives of the bank, and explores the challenges of implementing agile in an established organization, focusing on five lessons: 1. Decide how much power you are willing to give up. Agile shifts power away from those at the top and puts ownership in the hands of those closest to the action. Unless top executives are willing to accept that they are surrendering some status and power, agile will not be a good fit. 2. Prepare stakeholders for the leap. ING executives had to sell agile to nervous stakeholders, including board members, employees, and bank regulators. For example, executives assured regulators that finance, compliance, and legal functions would continue to be managed in the traditional way. 3. Build the structure around customers -and keep it fluid. Like other approaches to management, agile is focused on customers. ING in the Netherlands has tried to keep its organizational structure fluid so that it can evolve to do what's best for customers. 4. Give employees the right balance of oversight and autonomy. A quarterly goal-setting process is part of the agile structure at ING in the Netherlands. This has been a learning process. Initially, groups defined goals that were comfortably achievable, and executives had to urge them toward more ambitious targets. 5. Provide employees with development and growth opportunities. The team-based structures used in agile can be scary for employees used to having their personal development and career progression mapped out by HR departments or the mainstream career trajectories of a given industry. One lesson from ING's experience is that finding proper coaching and support for agile -and the new, long-term responsibilities employees must embrace -is one of the hardest parts of the transformation.
By interests, we do not mean the preconceived demands or positions that you or the other party may have, but rather the underlying needs, aims, fears, and concerns that shape what you want. Negotiation is more than getting what you want. It is not winning at all cost. Number of times Win-Win is better option that outright winning or getting what you want.
Options are the solutions you generate that could meet your and your counterpart’s interests . Often people come to negotiations with very fixed ideas and things they want to achieve. This strategy leaves unexplored options which might be even better than the one that one party wanted to achieve. So always try to provide as many options as possible during the negotiation process. The best outcome should be out of many options rather than few options.
When soft bargainers meet hard bargainers there is always the danger of soft bargainers ceding more than what is necessary. To avoid this scenario you should always focus on legitimate standards or expectations. Standards are often external and objective measures to assess the fairness such as rules and regulations, financial values & resources , market prices etc. If the negotiated agreement is going beyond the industry norms or established standards of fairness then it is prudent to get out of the negotiation.
Every negotiators going into the negotiations should always work out the “what if” scenario. The negotiating parties in the “What to Expect from Agile” has three to four plausible scenarios. The negotiating protagonist needs to have clear idea of – what will happen if the negotiations fail. To put it in the negotiating literature – BATNA - Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. If the negotiated agreement is not better than BATNA then there is no point in accepting the negotiated solution.
One of the biggest problems in implementing the negotiated agreements in corporate world is – the ambiguity in the negotiated agreement. Sometimes the negotiated agreements are not realistic or various parties interpret the outcomes based on their understanding of the situation. It is critical to do negotiations as water tight as possible so that there is less scope for ambiguity.
Many negotiators make the mistake of focusing only on the substance of the negotiation (interests, options, standards, and so on). How you communicate about that substance, however, can make all the difference. The language you use and the way that you build understanding, jointly solve problems, and together determine the process of the negotiation with your counterpart make your negotiation more efficient, yield clear agreements that each party understands, and help you build better relationships.
Another critical factor in the success of your negotiation is how you manage your relationship with your counterpart. According to “Julian Birkinshaw”, the protagonist may want to establish a new connection or repair a damaged one; in any case, you want to build a strong working relationship built on mutual respect, well-established trust, and a side-by-side problem- solving approach.
According to
Harvard Business Review
, there are three types of negotiators – Hard Bargainers, Soft Bargainers, and Principled Bargainers.
Hard Bargainers – These people see negotiations as an activity that they need to win. They are less focused less on the real objectives of the negotiations but more on winning. In the “What to Expect from Agile ”, do you think a hard bargaining strategy will deliver desired results? Hard bargainers are easy to negotiate with as they often have a very
predictable strategy
Soft Bargainers – These people are focused on relationship rather than hard outcomes of the negotiations. It doesn’t mean they are pushovers. These negotiators often scribe to long term relationship rather than immediate bargain.
Principled Bargainers – As explained in the seven elemental tools of negotiations above, these negotiators are more concern about the standards and norms of fairness. They often have inclusive approach to negotiations and like to work on numerous solutions that can improve the BATNA of both parties.
Open lines of communication between parties in the case study “What to Expect from Agile” can make for an effective negotiation strategy and will make it easier to negotiate with this party the next time as well.
Julian Birkinshaw (2018), "What to Expect from Agile Harvard Business Review Case Study. Published by HBR Publications.
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