Negotiation Tactics and Strategies for Women Scientists Presented at the Second Workshop on Survival Skills for Successful Women Physicists American Physical Society Montreal, Canada March 21, 2004 Geralyn Becker Manager, Performance Development Argonne National Laboratory A U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Laboratory Operated by the University of Chicago
Our focus today: Understand some of the components of the Principled Negotiation. Identify challenges women face in negotiating. Identify and practice responses to some of the stickier situations. Why Negotiate? Negotiate if you can achieve a better result than you would if you didn t negotiate. Prime Argument(s) An equitable and feasible agreement is best reached by meeting the needs of both sides. Focus on interests, not positions. Step back and look at larger needs. The discussion is aimed to benefit all parties involved. Be honorable Be strategic What makes a negotiation good? Most of the material here drawn from Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher and William Ury 2
Getting to Yes 1. Separate the people from the problem 2. Focus on interests, not positions 3. Generate options for mutual gains 4. Use objective criteria Most of the material here drawn from Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher and William Ury 3
Preparation: Know your demons Drawn from Women Don t Ask, Negotiation and the Gender Divide, Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever. Women have less propensity for seeing the possibilities Situations as static Wait for announcement Expect life to be fair Less likely to ask More likely to have an external locus of control Anxiety More More of a barrier Unclear sense of what s possible 4
Preparation: Interests Most of the material here drawn from Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher and William Ury 1. Know Your Interests: What are you trying to accomplish/achieve in these negotiations? What are your key concerns? What objectives are you trying to meet? Why? Why not? What would be wrong with 2. Think about their interests: What are their key concerns? Which interests are shared, which are just different, and which conflict? What constraints is the other party under? What can t they really do? 3. Know your BATNA: Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement Know what it is Improve it if you can Compare worst offer against it 4. Prepare to suggest mutually beneficial options 5
The conversation(s) Exploring Interests Why do you ask? What problems does this solution create for you? Sharing information about your own interests Unbundling the issues or adding issues What would happen if? Here s how I believe you might be impacted by this, and what your needs and concerns might be. Do I read the situation correctly? What am I missing? Generating Options Together Serve up your options and seek input on them. You can present some of the options you might have thought of. Be ready for pushback on your ideas and additional options you did not think of. This is good. Pushback provides you with more clues about what your partner s needs and concerns are. Here s an idea what do you think? What would you add? Communicate Empathy and Respect 6
Getting Prepared Maria earned her PhD 6 years ago and then completed a postdoc at one of the national labs where she also had a good experience. She moved to academia because she was interested in teaching at both an undergraduate and graduate level, as well as continuing her research. Maria is in her second year in her position as a faculty member at Fairly Prestigious University. FPU has a fine overall reputation and a growing reputation in Maria s discipline. That reputation has increased the census in introductory classes. She has made progress on her research. This semester she can see the courses she is teaching beginning to gel. She is finally feeling further ahead of the students than the next chapter. As a junior faculty member and a woman she has been invited to serve on a number of university committees. Maria is interested in focusing intensely on research in the next several years. She values teaching tremendously; yet, her examination of her long-term career goals let her know that she needs to produce a number of publications. She believes if she is able to concentrate on research she will make some significant strides and move her reputation forward. Maria is married to an attorney who is on a partner track. Her younger sister has just given birth to her first child. Her parents retired last summer. She has an appointment with her Department Chair later this week. What are Maria s interests? (Also reflect on what you have heard from other speakers today life/career balance; career goals) What are the Chair s interests? Identify a range of options that might satisfy both sets of interests. 7
Respond: 1. Don t you trust me? 2. You don t know what you re talking about. 3. This is the policy here. It s what Human Resources told me. 4. I have to run this by the Department Chair (Director, my supervisor) 5. I don t know where you have been before, but that s not the way it s done here. 6. You have to earn this. You can t just waltz in here and expect to be given things. 8
What if???? They are more powerful? They take an inflexible approach? They attack your position? They attack you? You get emotional? 9
Follow-up Clarity of agreement Follow-up points Consequences Room for flexibility Spoilers 10
Bibliography Fisher and Ury, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In, Penguin Books, 1991. Ury, Getting Past No: Negotiating with Difficult People, Penguin Books, 1991. Women and Negotiation Kolb and Williams, The Shadow Negotiation: How Women Can Master the Hidden Agendas that Determine Bargaining Success, Simon and Schuster, 2000. Babcock and Laschever, Women Don t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide, Princeton University Press, 2003. Miller, L.E. and Miller, J, A Woman s Guide to Successful Negotiating: How to Convince, Collaborate and Create Your Way to Agreement, McGraw-Hill, 2002. Science and Negotiation http://nextwave.sciencemag.org/ Search negotiation 11