The Chess Player’s Guide to Negotiation
Many negotiators still use the Sun Tzu strategy. Art of War as an authorized reference. Now, although Art of War may be a good battle textbook; it is a lousy guide to modern negotiations. Let’s be honest; Any approach that relies on calling the other party ‘the enemy’ will have trouble creating mutually beneficial deals!
However, the strategy and tactics of war games can have many lessons for negotiators. One very instructive war game is chess.
Position and intention
Like negotiation, every move in a game of chess involves taking a position. All your opponent sees is that you move your piece from one square to another. A novice chess player will simply react to this with a counterattack. An experienced player, however, will try to determine the intention behind the play. What is your strategy? What is your long-term goal? While a beginner plans his next move, an experienced player thinks at least three moves ahead. Likewise, a skilled negotiator will always look for the intention behind the position taken; and, unlike a chess game, you can ask.
Three questions
When playing competitive chess, I developed my own three-question process that I used to examine every move made by my opponent. These same three questions work wonderfully to help you understand the other party’s strategy in a negotiation.
Question 1: What attacks?
Which of my positions (offers) are you attacking? Why do you choose to focus on that one? Do I need to defend my position, or is she strong enough to stand up for herself so that I can ignore her criticism? You may need to reinforce the benefits of your offering if you think they are not fully appreciated. Or he may simply recognize this as a tactic to unsettle him and can be safely rejected. Some negotiators believe they can change your position by attacking you. The reality is that challenging the other party’s idea head-on is more likely to get them to defend it, thereby deepening their entrenched position.
Question 2: What do you stand for?
Are you trying to reinforce a previously made offer? This can give an idea of your priorities. To negotiate most effectively, you need to understand what priorities your demands have for them. These will be divided into three categories:
1. ‘Must have’: essential elements without which the negotiation would be meaningless
2. “Nice to have”: demands they are willing to compromise on
3. Claims of scope: demands that fulfill the role of currency of exchange, concessions that have no cost to them for which you could exchange something of value.
You must evaluate each component of your offering to determine which category it belongs to.
They may be defending themselves because you have fallen into the trap of attacking them; either as a tactic or because you have been annoyed. This rarely works. Remember, you don’t have to prove them wrong, you just have to prove you are right.
Question 3: What do you open?
You can move a chess piece simply to put another piece into play. Similarly, an offer in a negotiation can open up possibilities in areas you may not have considered before. Always be willing to explore areas that you may not have thought of in your preparation because it may be just a small piece of added value that makes your deal fall out of line.
The only area where you should get rid of the chess analogy is in the result. Chess players hope to come out with a crushing defeat with their opponent conceding and walking away like a loser. In negotiation, you should always look for the honorable draw that will bring you to a conclusion with satisfaction and mutual respect.
