Effective Negotiating Techniques Critical Essay
Effective Negotiating Techniques: From Selecting Strategies to Side-Stepping Impasses and Assumptions was written by Nierenberg and Calero and published in The New Art of Negotiating: How to Close Any Deal in 2009. This article was also included as Reading 1.5 in the sixth edition of Negotiation: Readings, Exercises and Cases by Lewicki, Saunders, and Barry. This article provides an excellent overview of negotiation techniques, avoiding impasses, and avoiding the pitfalls of hidden assumptions. This article is written for practitioners that conduct negotiations or plan to conduct negotiations in the future. The authors’ do not provide any reference to the academic literature (or any references at all). The portions of this article that cover negotiation techniques and avoiding impasses seem to provide a very thorough list of techniques, but the description of these techniques is generally limited to only one or two paragraphs. The portion of the article that describes avoiding the pitfalls of hidden assumptions is vague and lacking in substance. In addition, there is a glaring factual error in one of the examples provided by the authors, which may imply that there are other errors in this article. Despite these issues, Nierenberg and Calero (2009) have provided an excellent introductory overview of negotiation techniques and techniques to avoid impasses. This article is excellent reading for those that conduct negotiations in the performance of their job as well as those that are involved in negotiations for the myriad circumstances of day to day life.
Nierenberg and Calero have conducted negotiations for several years and held hundreds of negotiation seminars (Nierenberg and Calero, 2009). This article describes negotiation strategies by listing time-tested strategies, with a description and/or example of each strategy. It is unclear where the authors came up with these strategies, although it may be that these strategies were gleaned from the negotiation seminars and personal experience of the authors. It is also unclear how these strategies became “time-tested”. The examples listed under some of the negotiation strategies were entertaining and served to elucidate the key points with that particular strategy. Quotes by famous persons, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli also served to emphasis the point the authors were trying to make. The authors also used real world examples by Jerry and Hank to describe the use of certain negotiation strategies. These quotes and real world examples were very beneficial, especially for those that are new to the subject of negotiation and negotiation strategies.
The lack of references in this article was disheartening. The article would have benefitted from a list of general interest and/or academic references for the reader to use to learn more about a particular negotiation strategy. The “Salami” negotiation technique is a good example of a particular technique that many readers might want to know more about. The authors describe this technique as taking one slice at a time in order to end up with the whole “salami” (Nierenberg and Calero, 2009). The example given by the authors is a negotiation involving major weapons contracts in which “Hank” negotiates for multiple elements of costs (Nierenberg and Calero, 2009). This description and example leaves the reader with more questions than answers. A list of references would provide the reader with a guide to locate more information on this negotiation strategy.
In order to avoid the pitfalls of hidden assumptions, the authors describe the importance of examining the assumptions that are made before and during a negotiation (Nierenberg and Calero, 2009). Unfortunately, the authors do not provide a definition of assumptions, just examples that demonstrate when an assumption is wrong. This article would benefit from at least a working definition of what an assumption is as it relates to negotiations. The authors provide techniques to test assumptions made during a negotiation (Nierenberg and Calero, 2009). These tools to test assumptions do not appear to be as exhaustive as the list of negotiation techniques and strategies in the beginning of this article. The techniques for testing assumptions include asking questions, using hypothetical situations, “what if..” questions, and listening carefully (Nierenberg and Calero, 2009). The article lists eighteen negotiation strategies and tactics and eighteen methods to overcome an impasse (Nierenberg and Calero, 2009). It is unclear if this is an exhaustive list of techniques for testing assumptions. Based on the number of strategies and methods listed previously in the article, it appears that maybe the authors do not feel this is quite as important as the strategies and methods for negotiations and overcoming impasses.
The authors describe an example from their seminars to illustrate the difference between “looking” and “seeing” in which they ask the participants to list the colors of a rainbow (Nierenberg and Calero, 2009). The authors note that they never had a single person get the sequence correct (Nierenberg and Calero, 2009). This may be due to the fact that the authors incorrectly claim the sequence is violet, blue, orange, yellow, and red (Nierenberg and Calero, 2009). The actual sequence of colors in a rainbow is violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red, according to Sir Isaac Newton, who first described the different wavelengths of light (Newton, 1704). It is unfortunate that the authors used this example, since this mistake is so elementary that it calls into question the veracity of the entire article.
Despite this glaring error and the other issues described above, the authors’ description of negotiation strategies and techniques, methods of overcoming an impasse, and avoiding the pitfalls of hidden assumptions is very valuable, especially for those new to negotiation. This article is an excellent introduction to the practice of negotiation, despite its shortcomings.

References

Newton, Isaac. 1998. Opticks: a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. Commentary by Nicholas Humez (Octavo ed.). Palo Alto, Calif.: Octavo. (Opticks was originally published in 1704).

Nierenberg, Gerard I. and Henry H. Calero. 2009. The New Art of Negotiating: How to Close
Any Deal, Square One Publishers: Garden City Park, NY, 99-134.