If you are a negotiation geek, and like to read about the wonderful and often intense world of getting your negotiation right, check out my top five favorite books for negotiating great strategic business relationships, published last week by Shepherd. Shepherd’s mantra is to “discover the best books,” and when they reached out to ask me […]
Getting To We
Getting to We Blog Series: Introduction
Not ready to go the whole nine yards and make a commitment to build a Vested relationship with your business partner? Getting to We: Negotiating Agreements for Highly Collaborative Relationships (Jeanette Nyden, Kate Vitasek and David Frydlinger) provides a simple-to-follow five step process that will help any company – regardless of size – establish a […]
Step 1 — Establish a Foundation of Trust, Transparency and Compatibility
The essential first step in establishing Vested’s What’s in it for We (WIIFWe) mindset through the Getting to We Five Step process is to lay a solid foundation of trust, transparency and compatibility. Together, these three components form the building blocks for a win-win business relationship: they must be present in some measure in order […]
Step 2 — Creating a Shared Vision
Companies that successfully set out to Get to We view the relationship itself as the focus of the deal. That’s why Getting to We’s Step 2—Creating a Shared Vision—is essential to lay the foundation for any highly collaborative relationship. Creating a Shared Vision may seem out of context when talking about negotiating, because many books […]
Step 3 – Establishing the Six Essential Relationship Principles
When you are in the thick of a strategic negotiation have you ever stopped to think, “Is it fair?” “Is it ethical?” “If we win this deal point, is it sustainable?” These are not simply “nice” or polite considerations—they are crucial to the Vested WIIFWe (What’s in it for We) mindset and Getting to We […]
Step 4 – Negotiating as We
When most companies think about negotiating, they think about negotiating specific deal points such as the scope of work, pricing, and terms and conditions. Step 4: Negotiating as We, turns conventional negotiating strategies on their head because it begins the negotiating process by negotiating the mechanisms the parties will jointly use as they negotiate specific […]
Step 5 – Living as We/Relationship Management
Once negotiators have negotiated the specific deal points, many might think they are done and it is time to move onto the next deal. Not so fast! The techniques and approaches of Steps 1 through 4 are not enough to live the Vested WIIFWe mindset. Step 5 completes the Getting to We process when the […]