Businessdictionary.com defines the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy as \u201c[E]xpectations about circumstances, events, or people that affect a person’s behavior [such that] he or she (unknowingly) creates situations [that fulfill] those expectations.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, your predictions about a situation (and therefore how you act in that situation) will cause those predictions to come true.<\/p>\n
But what does this have to do with you as a negotiator?\u00a0 More than you think.\u00a0 In a typical negotiation with at least two partners per side, your beliefs about them, and what you anticipate from them, will influence your actions, which will in turn influence their reactions.\u00a0 When your counterparts on the other side of the table are in disagreement with each other, they look to you to confirm or disconfirm their various hypotheses.\u00a0 Therefore, your actions inevitably and directly prove one side correct and the other incorrect, thereby empowering one faction over another, influencing their behavior and completing the cycle of self-fulfilling prophecies!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As an example, let\u2019s take the \u201csimple\u201d issue of trust.\u00a0 On the other side of the negotiating table, your counterparts are in disagreement about whether or not they should trust you.\u00a0 Meanwhile, independent of their discussion, your team is having the same debate.\u00a0 You have two choices \u2013 follow through with your commitments or don\u2019t.\u00a0 Seems simple, right?\u00a0 But let\u2019s discuss the implications of each.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You don\u2019t follow through, probably because you didn\u2019t trust them in the first place.\u00a0 Unfortunately though, your untrustworthy behavior will greatly increase the chance that they will respond in kind. Furthermore, I imagine the conversation on their side of the table would sound something like this: \u201cWe told you we couldn\u2019t trust them!\u00a0 Now look what\u2019s happened.\u201d\u00a0 Who do you think has just gained an advantage on their team \u2013 those who trusted you or those who didn\u2019t?\u00a0 My guess would be the latter.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You follow through with your commitments.\u00a0 Hopefully, they respond in kind.\u00a0 Either way, who have you empowered on their side this time?\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the likely conversation again:\u00a0 \u201cI told you we could trust them!\u201d\u00a0 NOW those who trusted you are empowered and those who didn\u2019t have been proven wrong.<\/p>\n
In other words, it is the actions of one team that informs the conduct of the other.\u00a0 We\u2019ve heard (and witnessed) that close to 80% of negotiators take the \u201cwait and see\u201d approach to negotiating \u2013 they wait and see what you do before they decide their own approach or actions.\u00a0 By negotiating in good faith, leading the way (even when it may mean short term risk), you\u2019ve set the stage for long term gain.\u00a0 With trustworthy actions, you\u2019ve empowered the internal faction on the other side that also sought collaboration and trust.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, trustworthy behavior does not guarantee reciprocation the way untrustworthy behavior does \u2013 negative and untrustworthy behaviors have a strong harmful influence on relationships and negotiating dynamics.\u00a0 But please don\u2019t misunderstand \u2013 this does not mean you should trust blindly under all circumstances, incurring unnecessary risk.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to realize and understand the consequences (or benefits) of your actions.<\/p>\n
So, if you don\u2019t know what they\u2019ll do, and you can\u2019t trust blindly, why be trustworthy?\u00a0 It is our contention that, over the long term, building a reputation for being a trustworthy negotiator will take you farther than the alternative.\u00a0 Letting your counterpart know, even in small steps, that you\u2019ll follow through with your commitments will set the stage for them to do the same in return.\u00a0 The long term benefits of a trustworthy approach will highly outweigh the short term losses you may experience.\u00a0 And digging even deeper, if you follow through and they don\u2019t, who\u2019s indebted to whom?\u00a0 You\u2019re in a better position if they have to make it up to you and regain your trust than you are if you\u2019re the one apologizing.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, if you\u2019d like to exhibit trustworthy behavior, but you\u2019re not certain that you can trust them (or that they can trust you), consider building structure into your conversations and agreements.\u00a0 Sometimes simply being transparent about the negative consequences to the deal and the relationship (as a by-product of negative behavior, rather than what will be directly imposed by you) can be enough.\u00a0 Other times, we\u2019d recommend designing consequences and\/or incentives into agreements to promote follow through.<\/p>\n
Remember these points as you negotiate \u2013 when you think factions may exist in the other side (and they probably do), think about what you can do to empower those who are actually \u201cpartners in resolution,\u201d and act accordingly.\u00a0 Your behavior may do more to set the stage for a successful outcome than you realize.<\/p>\n
Stephen Frenkel is the Director of Negotiation Programs at MWI, a negotiation training and consulting firm based in Boston, Massachusetts.\u00a0 Stephen can be reached at sfrenkel@mwi.org or at 800-348-4888 x24.\u00a0 More information about MWI can be found at www.mwi.org\/negotiation. Businessdictionary.com defines the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy as \u201c[E]xpectations about circumstances, events, or people that affect a person’s behavior [such that] he or she (unknowingly) creates situations [that fulfill] those expectations.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, your predictions about a situation (and therefore how you act in that situation) will cause those predictions to come true. But what does this have to do with you as a negotiator?\u00a0 More than you think.\u00a0 In a typical negotiation with at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,42],"tags":[39],"class_list":["post-114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hnlr-online-article","category-negotiation","tag-hnlr-online-articles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZSkE-1Q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hnlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hnlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hnlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hnlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hnlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hnlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hnlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hnlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hnlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"