Negotiations and dialogs begin with an initial talk. The goal of such an initial talk is to jointly organize the negotiation before it begins. The next phase is the thorough preparation of the discussion, and then the actual negotiation itself.
An important negotiation is only finished when you have held a genuine debriefing. Only this analysis allows you to draw useful lessons for your next negotiations. In general, you can also only ensure a seamless implementation of the achieved agreement in the follow-up to the discussion.
In order to structure the four phases of an optimal negotiation process, you can refer to the following four booklets:
We have also created a short digital checklist to prepare negotiations that are not overly complex and difficult. You can use this checklist anytime to prepare a negotiation on your computer or phone.
Whenever a team prepares and conducts a negotiation, the complexity of the negotiation rises exponentially with the number of people involved. In these situations, a careful preparation of the “negotiation architecture” (in addition to the negotiation content) is particularly important. We have created a separate checklist for the preparation of a negotiation as a team which reflects this.
While you can be a direct participant in a negotiation, you can also take the role of moderator as a third party supporting two other parties in their dialog. We have created a guideline for moderators for those cases, where you support other parties to conduct a negotiation as a moderator.
In addition, you can use our digital tool the Negotiation Toolbox to prepare the four phases of a negotiation.