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What’s Your Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement

It is typical in a negotiating situation that people make the assumption that
they will reach agreement. They will reexamine their alternatives to a

negotiated agreement only if the negotiation doesn’t work out. This
approach, however, is a serious mistake. It puts the negotiators into a
weak position. Your success in negotiation ultimately depends on how
well you understand your alternatives to not reaching agreement.

Remember that the purpose of negotiation is not always to reach

agreement. The purpose of negotiation is to satisfy interests. The process
of negotiation is to determine if you can satisfy your interests better
through a negotiated settlement than you could by pursuing other
alternative approaches. However, in many circumstances it is possible that
you are too committed to reaching agreement. Not having developed any

alternative to a negotiated solution, you are unduly pessimistic about what
would happen if negotiations broke off. The relative negotiating power of
two parties depends primarily upon how attractive to each is the option of
not reaching agreement.

Knowing what you are going to do if the negotiation does not lead to
agreement will give you additional confidence in the negotiating process.

It is easier to break off negotiations if you know where you are going. The
greater your willingness to break off negotiations, the more forcefully you
can present your interests and the basis on which you believe an agreement
should be reached. Generating alternatives to a negotiated agreement
requires three distinct steps.

1. Inventing a list of actions you might conceivably take if no
agreement is reached.

2. Improving some of the more promising ideas and converting them
into practical options.

3. Selecting, tentatively, the one option that seems best.

David Kolzow 186