So what is self-assessment in the
context of developing
a negotiation strategy. All right,
we've talked about before what goes into
a negotiation strategy
being your orientation your strategic
objectives and your tactics for carrying
out those objectives
okay but in a prior video we've also
addressed the need for a certain level
of understanding for a certain level of
information before you should or could
proceed
in developing a negotiation strategy
and of those it's all about assessment
you're assessing different things
yourself the counterparty
the context of the situation and then
the social context that play
so that being said we're going to start
by addressing what does it mean to do a
self-assessment
in a negotiation or as part of a
negotiation strategy.
So to start with you're identifying the
interests at stake or
that matter to you whether those are
substantive interest
or procedural interest whatever matters
now
lots of times particularly in
distributive negotiations
you have one primary interest that you
are negotiating but there are other
secondary interests at stake and those
interests are incredibly important as
well
why? because they can affect other
aspects of the negotiation
they can influence you in terms of what
you're willing to accept
right oftentimes what we'll talk about
in a minute your alternatives or your
best alternative
right to working out a negotiated
agreement
that's not the point at which you'll
walk away from the negotiation
why? because there are other interests at
stake whether
um coming to an agreement now is more
important
this the certainty of not having to look
further in the future just
ease of mind all of these are interests
that that are they're not the heart of
what you're negotiating for
but they matter to you so that would
change what your walk away point or your
reservation point is right.
So with that being said the all of the
interest anything that matters to you
as part of a negotiation should be
identified right
whether it's the substantive interest
whether it's procedural interest whether
they're secondary
in nature or however minor it's
important to identify them to understand
that ahead of time.
Next your alternatives what alternatives
exist
to you working out a negotiated
agreement
with the other party if the negotiation
fails if you cannot come to an agreement
what is your best alternative okay among
whatever alternatives this is sometimes
you only have one alternative and that
is your best alternative right
so that will help inform at what point
in time you say well okay the
negotiation has failed
I can it I can't achieve this so i'm
going to
walk away and that position is known as
your reservation point
okay at what point you're willing to
walk away
if you can't achieve at least that that
you will go with one of your
alternatives
now I caution you your walk away point
is not always exactly even with
your best alternative why because there
could be interest
at stake that make it that make you
willing
to accept something less than you could
pursue as an alternative
right um and again that's going to be
based on you and the situation
right so anyway that's your reservation
point your reservation point
it is so important to establish that up
front
because going into a negotiation if you
don't have a strong understanding
of what is your reservation point and at
what point you are willing to walk away
you are more prone to make emotional
decisions that are not based upon
sound reasoning and logic the type of
reasoning and logic that you can do and
undertake
outside of the emotional influences of
the negotiation
you can make these decisions establish
these
boundaries in advance okay.
and then there's your target point your
target point is
to what you are aspiring in the
negotiation it is what you are going for
okay generally that is
somewhere very close to where you anchor
or where you open up the negotiation
right it needs to be realistic so
oftentimes you'll anchor above your
target point understanding that you're
going to
come down to it as long as it's still
potentially realistic and not going to
have the negative effect of alienating
the other party
um but again your target point is what
you reasonably believe
you could achieve in this negotiation
I will tell you this research shows as
well that focusing on your target point
what you believe you could achieve
rather than focusing on your reservation
point what
you might um what you would walk
at what position you'd walk away or at
what point you'd walk away the
negotiation
focusing on that target rather than your
walk away point
right focusing on the higher results
and better outcomes for you okay so keep
that in mind
and then lastly estimate your risk
propensity well risk is
I mean risk is a probability
of an outcome a probability of an
outcome you don't prefer or negative
outcome
right and so the actual risk of a
situation believe it or not
um is generally established right
but your perception of risk is different
how much risk you perceive
is there okay so risk propensity is
your willingness to undertake an action
or to go for something or to seek
something out
that could result in a negative outcome
right so in assessing your risk
propensity you're saying
okay this is how much risk I perceive is
there i may be wrong but this is how
much risk I
perceive is there in this negotiation
okay it could be far more risky or could
be far less
but based upon what I perceive I am
willing to risk losing
this okay I'm willing to risk this deal
going south at this
you know to this extent that type of
thing so to the extent you're
willing to accept whatever potential
out negative outcomes you see as a
possibility uh is your risk of
propensity.
So taking together if you can assess
these about yourself you have the
information to
to start the strategic planning process
interests alternatives your resistance
point
your target point and your individual
risk propensity.