DEVELOPING ALTERNATIVES
The development of alternatives provides key strengths in negotiation to deliver more valuable outcomes. It is important to note that when we discuss alternatives, the topic of alternatives usually falls within the following two domains:
• Developing a range of alternatives that will allow us to generate many options to meet our interests or solve our problems
• Development of a Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)
Lewicki, Minton & Saunders (1997) describe the benefits of generating a number of alternative solutions as the ‘creative phase’ of integrative negotiations, facilitating group problem solving and mutual gains value creation. The development of a range of alternatives provides the foundation to generate more ways of solving a problem or creating a more innovative and valuable deals. Our subsequent post on ‘Generating Options’ will cover the need and benefits of developing alternatives before and during our negotiations – developing alternatives allows you to develop a range of possible solutions and not limiting your outcome by becoming fixed and bargaining over one possible option or solution.
If you enter into negotiations without pre-determined alternatives or at least one Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA), you may become more dependent or prone to accepting an agreed outcome that may be unsatisfactory or not in your best interests.
Power of least dependence: Your negotiation power increases along with the strength of your alternatives – by developing alternatives as you become less dependent upon the other party (BATNA) or a particular option of outcome. The key to creating value is to strengthening your BATNA as well as developing a wide range of alternatives or options.
Lewicki, Minton and Saunders recommend that we should attempt to reframe the problem as a method of creating ‘win/win’ alternatives. Amongst the benefits of generating a wider range of alternatives and options is the capacity to ‘build the pie’ (increase the overall deal value) and identify potential post deal ‘deals’.
If you would like to have Peter Spence as a speaker, advisor/coach or trainer at your company, group or organisation please contact Peter via the website contact form or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and learn to become a better negotiator.
Through the development of core negotiation competencies individuals and organisations can expect to increase their bargaining range, decrease costs, increase revenue and maximise their profits – in short, create and add valuetotheir bottom line by becoming better negotiators and with support from SPANS. Adopting the integrative mutual gains and collaborative approach to negotiation, we will demonstrate how negotiators can improve their profits while also satisfying the needs of their partners, preserving long term relationships and improving their economies of scale through collaborative advantage.
SPANS will provide you with the key to negotiation success by helping you to become a more proficient negotiator, assist you to achieve better outcomes from your negotiations and strengthen your relationship network.