Discussion 2
Emotions can derail your negotiations—but they can also be
helpful. In “Beyond Reason,” Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro
suggest that the challenge is how to “cope with the interacting,
important, and ever-changing emotions of each side?” It would
be overwhelming to observe, understand and deal with every
emotion that arises. Must you simply react? “No,” say Fisher
and Shapiro. They advise you to focus on five powerful “core
concerns” that you can use to stimulate positive emotions
and overcome negative ones.
The Dispute Resolution Journal is pleased to offer this
excerpt from “Beyond Reason.”
Rather than getting caught up in every emotion you and others are feeling,turn your attention to what generates these emotions.
44 F E B R U A R Y / A P R I L 2 0 0 6
N E G O T I A T I O N
Table 1. Five Core Concerns
44 F E B R U A R Y / A P R I L 2 0 0 6
Core Concerns
The Concern Is Ignored When …
The Concern Is Met When …
Appreciation Your thoughts, feelings, or actions are devalued.
Your thoughts, feelings, and actions are acknowl- edged as having merit.
Affiliation You are treated as an adversary and kept at a distance.
You are treated as a colleague.
Autonomy Your freedom to make decisions is impinged upon.
Others respect your freedom to decide important matters.
Status Your relative standing is treated as inferior to that of others.
Your standing where deserved is given full recognition.
Role Your current role and its activities are not personally fulfilling.
You so define your role and its activities that you find them fulfilling.
Address the Concern, Not the Emotion An excerpt from
“Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate” by Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro
Reprinted with permission from Viking Penguin (2005)
Core concerns are human wants that are important to almost everyone in virtually every negotiation. They are often unspoken but are no less real. Even experienced negotia- tors are often unaware of the many ways in which these concerns motivate their decisions.
Five Core Concerns Stimulate Many E m o t i o n s
Five concerns stimulate a great many emotions that arise in a negotiation. These are appreciation, affiliation, autonomy, status, and role.
When you deal effectively with these con- cerns, you can stimulate positive emotions in yourself and others. Because everyone has these concerns, you can immediately utilize them to stimulate positive emotions. This is true even if you are meeting someone for the first time.
The core concerns focus on your relation- ship with others. As Table 1 illustrates, each core concern involves how you see yourself
(from “Beyond Reason”)
45
in relation to others or how they see themselves in relation to you.
These core concerns are not c om p l ete l y d i s tin c t f ro m o ne another. They blend, mix , and merge. But each has its own special contribution in stimulating emo- tions. Together, these concerns more fully describe the emotional content of a negotiation than could any single core concern. The core conc erns are analo gous to the instruments a quintet uses to play Mozart’s Woodwind Quintet. No sharp edges divide the contribu- tion of each instrument. But to- gether, the five instruments more fully capture the tone and rhythm of the music than could any indi- vidual instrument.
We want each of the core con- cerns to be met to an a p p r o p r i a t e extent. To determine this, ask, Do we feel that others are treating our concerns in ways that are:
• F a i r ? Fair treatment is con- s i st en t wi th c us to m , l aw , organizational practice, and community expectations. We feel treated as well as others who are in similar or compa- rable circumstances.
• H o n e s t ? Honest treatment means that what we are being told is true. We may not be entitled to know everything, but we do not want to be deceived. People who hon- estly address our concerns do not intend to deceive or trick us. They communicate what they authenti- cally experience or know.
• Consistent with current circumstances? It is probably unreasonable to expect all of our concerns to be met in every circumstance. Appropriate treatment is often consistent with changing norms.
The difference between having a core concern ignored or met can be as important as having your nose underwa- ter or above it. If, for example, you are unappreciated, you may feel alone, ignored, and unable to breathe. These emotional responses may make you prone to ad- versarial behavior. (SeeTable 2 above.) On the other hand, if you feel appreciated, you can breathe easily, look around, and decide what to do and where to go. Positive emotions are there with you and make you prone to cooperate, think creatively, and be trustworthy. (See Table 3 above.)
Use Core Concerns As a Lens to More Clearly See and Diagnose the Situation
The core concerns can be used as a lens to help you prepare, conduct, and review the emotional dimension of your negotiation.
Preparing for your negotiation. Look for each core concern in yourself and others. In what ways might oth- ers be sensitive to what you say or fail to say about their status? Will the senior negotiator on the other team feel that her autonomy is impinged on if you revise the cur- rent proposal without first consulting her? Is your sense of affiliation affronted when the rest of the team goes to lunch without inviting you?
Conducting your negotiation. Be aware of how the core concerns might be motivating a person’s behavior. For example, you might realize that the other team’s leader feels unappreciated for the many weeks he spent building internal support for the agreement. With that awareness, you can tailor your actions to address his concern.
Table 2. The Risk of Ignoring Core Concerns
45D I S P U T E R E S O L U T I O N J O U R N A L
My Core Concerns Are Unmet Whenever:
The Resulting Emotions Can Make Me Feel:
When This Happens, I Am Prone:
I am unappreciated.
I am treated as an adversary.
My autonomy is impinged.
My status is put down.
My role is trivialized and restricted.
Angry!: enraged, furious, indignant, irritated, annoyed, hateful, spiteful, impatient.
Anxious: regretful, fearful, nervous, uneasy, alarmed.
Envious and Jealous. Disgusted: repulsed, sick- ened, resentful, contemptuous.
Guilty and Ashamed: remorseful, humiliated, embarrassed.
Sad: anguished, hopeless, gloomy, devastated, apathetic.
To react negatively, contrary to my interests.
To “go it alone.”
To think rigidly.
To act deceptively and be seen as untrustworthy.
My Core Concerns Are Met When:
The Resulting Emotions Can Make Me Feel:
When This Happens, I Am Prone:
I am appreciated.
I am treated as a colleague.
My freedom to decide is acknowledged.
My high status is recognized where deserved.
My role is fulfilling; it includes activities that convince me that I can make a difference.
Enthusiastic!: cheerful, playful, amused, ecstatic.
Happy: content, pleased, jovial, comforted, glad.
Hopeful: fond, caring, compassionate.
Proud: accomplished, courageous.
Calm: relieved, relaxed.
To cooperate.
To work together.
To be creative.
To be trustworthy.
Table 3. The Power of Meeting Core Concerns
D I S P U T E R E S O L U T I O N J O U R N A L
(Continued on page 89)
(from “Beyond Reason”)
(from “Beyond Reason”)
89D I S P U T E R E S O L U T I O N J O U R N A L
served that, in the main, parties use Web File just to initiate arbitration, file an answer and exchange documents.
Nevertheless, Slate anticipated more online a c t i v i t y . “It appears inevitable to us that, not withstanding the challenges of online commu- nication, it is highly likely that online dispute resolution will in time replace many face-to- face conflict hearings, and where it does not, it will increasingly be used to complement face- to-face processes,” he said.
The NAA conference, held May 25-27, 2004, in Las Vegas, featured several panel dis- cussions on such topics as ADR in the Las Vegas hotel industry, implementing ADR r e- m ed i es a n d re ta in i ng ju r is d ic ti o n, ne w approaches to arbitrating the termination of public employees, and the effect of external law on the arbitration process.
The NAA proceedings are a “must read” for members of the labor-management community and an excellent reference for students and re- searchers in the field of labor arbitration. ■
➤ Conduct of the arbitral proceeding ➤ Arbitral awards, including recourse against the award ➤ Recognition and enforcement of awards Is the state of international commercial arbitration in
MERCOSUR countries better? Kleinheisterkamp doesn’t say yes or no. The answer is obviously more complex.
The biggest obstacles at the legislative level have been removed, but there’s more work to be done. To create an environment of trust and certainty, greater cooperation is needed among MERCOSUR nations and among different industries that stand to benefit from commercial arbitration. “One thing is certain,” writes Kleinheisterkamp, “the process of building legal institutions will be a long one and will require resistance to the inevitable setbacks and, above all, p e r s i s t e n c e . ”
This book is decidedly not for casual readers because its focus is solely on arbitration in the MERCOSUR countries, and does not provide general economic or political back- ground. It is, however, an excellent reference for practition- ers and scholars already familiar with the economic and polit- ical situation in Latin America. All in all, it is a welcome addi- tion to the literature of international arbitration. ■
International Commercial Arbitration in Latin America (Continued from page 85)
Awareness of your core concerns can defuse much of the volatility of escalating emotions. If the other party says something that pushes your buttons, you do not want to lose control of your own behavior by reacting to the perceived attack. Instead, take a deep breath and ask yourself which core concern is being rattled. Is the other negotia- tor impinging on your autonomy? Demeaning your status?
Reviewing your negotiation. Use the core concerns to help you understand what happened emotionally at a meeting. If your colleague stormed out of the meeting, you might take a moment to run through the core concerns to try to figure out what may have triggered that anger. Use this information to address the situation or prevent its recurrence. If a meeting went surpris- ingly well, use the core concerns to understand what worked. You might develop your own list of best practices.
Use Core Concerns As a Lever to Help Improve a Situation
The core concerns can be used as a lever to stimulate positive emotions in yourself and oth- ers. You can say or do things to address areas of core concern to the other side. For example, by consulting the other side before making a mutu-
ally important decision, you respect their autono- my and enlist their positive emotions. You can also use the core concerns to stimulate positive emotions in yourself. Perhaps you can reduce the pressure of a big decision by reminding yourself that you have the autonomy to accept or reject an agreement with the other team. You can raise your status in the eyes of the other team by shar- ing a relevant area of knowledge with them.
A big reason to proactively meet the core con- cerns is to avoid experiencing the strong negative emotions in yourself or others that might be gen- erated if those concerns are left unmet.
Conclusion Rather than trying to deal with scores of ever-
changing emotions, use the five core concerns to stimulate positive emotions in all participants. If you have time, you can also use the core concerns to understand which concern is unmet, allowing you to tailor your actions to address it.
The core concerns are simple enough to use immediately and sophisticated enough to use in a negotiation that involves multiple parties and highly complex issues.
***
The rest of “Beyond Reason” offers in-depth advice on how to use the power of each core con- cern both as a lens to understand and as a lever to improve your negotiation. ■
Excerpt from “Beyond Reason” (Continued from page 45)