BULLSEYE BLOG / WIN/WIN NEGOTIATION
We use the example of climate change to share win win negotiation techniques.
Create the connection. Understand positions.
Create win-win, by establishing a connection, followed by understanding each other’s positions. Then, the task (which makes everything easier) is to look beyond the problem, beyond the solution, to a vision for what it would be like once the problem is solved. What you put your attention on, expands. If we focus on differences, we will see more of that. By focusing on a vision beyond solutions, well, it’s more likely we will get there!
An aligned vision requires stepping out of the emotion of the situation, stepping out the ego battle that we get into when we are positional. It takes a concerted commitment, beyond our feelings, to solve the problem.
Bullseyecoach is in the business of transformational leadership. What do we mean by that? We mean, we coach leaders taking a stand, despite the flow of opinions otherwise, taking a stand for a bigger, broader extraordinary declaration.
Take climate change, for example. While the ecosystem will disappear in 12 years if we continue with our course of action, as Greta Thurnburg says…
… there are many possible reactions to this information.
1.Panic. We have to handle this now, no one is listening, let’s blow the whole thing up and start over!
- Look the other way and shame the messenger, because the idea seems so preposterous.
- Avoid. Become so fearful that you are paralyzed. Tell yourself anything one individual does is not going to make any difference. And so, turn a blind eye.
- Minimize. believe that driving an electric car, recycling your trash, and turning your thermostat to economy will make a substantial difference. You feel better, for awhile, then you discover that you’re recycling in plastic bags, your car battery is a big environmental polluter, then go to # 1, 2 or 3.
Align behind a common vision.
At the risk of oversimplifying the matter, what might happen when we align behind a vision of a world that exists beyond 12 years? One where the world is healing itself, as it does following a hurricane, though at this point we cannot count on that alone. Where we handle problems and enlist the support of leadership in corporate entities by lining up behind a vision for our surviving planet: a vision of clean oceans, a vision of forests regenerating, a vision of a world where water is plentiful and shared. Then the question becomes, how do we get there? One way is by enrolling each other in this vision, instead of condemning and blaming each other for the problems.
By adopting a vision of a healed planet we make more people right than wrong, we acknowledge that people are afraid of change, afraid of changing lifestyles, afraid of admitting that what we’ve done has led to this. No one wants to feel shame. And blaming isn’t changing anything anytime soon.
(By the way, if the world is going to end, who cares if people make money or not. There will be nothing to spend it on, no one to inherit.) The economy is a topic for another day.
Include all in the solution.
In win-win negotiation you include everyone in the solution. Don’t demand apologies for what’s been done. That’s a waste of energy. It’s time to look toward a more positive future while handling what is before us. Enlist corporate assistance, don’t give up on that. Though it may not have happened before, now there is a raised awareness. Things will turn around much faster once the fighting stops and alignment is reached. Meanwhile, recycle. Use bags made out of bamboo. It only takes a few of us to enroll the rest.
Transformational leadership is needed now more than ever. There are plenty of opportunities to lead, if only to enroll people in leadership positions to find win/win solutions! https://bullseyecoach.com/shop/