Game: Win as much as you can

Win as much as you can:

Knowing if your partner is going to play a “Y” or “X” considering the interests of the group is very difficult to guess. Even in a trustful negotiation it’s impossible to trust the other negotiators, because everybody wants to win more and can betray the rest of the group for its own interests. Successful deal comes with cooperation. Thus, negotiations are always more productive when parties freely share information about their interests and goals. But that requires trust, which is difficult to implement at the bargaining table.

Building trust requires time and taking some risks, especially at the beginning of a new partnership or business relationship. The risk of the failure of the negotiation get bigger if both party don’t trust each other. When there is a lack of confidence between negociators, there are different ways to improve trust in negotiation. That means create guaranties and process progressively. Trust is necessary to facilitate sharing information with the other side and reduce all the risks involve by the negotiation. Creating value in the agreement can make the party more open to share their data’s because negotiation can break down when each side doubts the other's abilities and intentions.

The mains tools that can be use in negotiation to build trust are:

• show to the other side you know information about their culture, history and that you are interested in their business
• justify your positions and explain your moves in the negotiation 
• ask questions and be open to answer the ones of the counterpart 
• try to create link with the other side. This will produce more loyalty and empathy in the negotiation