I advise parties entering into mediations and negotiations on tactics and strategy. I use a variety of analytical tools to determine, for example, walk away values, optimal bid strategies, coalition strategies and issue trade-offs. Like most things the key to successful negotiation is preparation. Using such analysis will give you greater confidence in making, rejecting or accepting settlement offers. For some useful spreadsheets and preparation documentation see the downloads page.

In a commercial dispute a typical pre-negotiation advisory analysis might include:

• Decision trees. You need to choose between going to court and accepting a settlement offer. Going to court has risks attached. Using decision trees you can better understand the value of the court option relative to settlement offers. Understanding how the other side views their choices can help you in your bargaining strategy. Decision trees can be complex and need to be built with a clear understanding of the mechanics, where the numbers come from and their potential shortcomings. However, doing decision tree scenarios in advance is a vital tool to understanding your bargaining position and that of the other side.
• Facilitated mediation-negotiation rehearsal. For high value mediations and negotiations, rehearsing with one team role playing the opposing side can reveal unforeseen dynamics and allow better strategies to be developed.
• Quantification exercise. By creating a matrix of issues and parties we can quantify personal opinions in terms of power, position and prominence foe each issue/party cell. This can then be used not only to create and play with various negotiation scenarios, but also to point to likely coalition dynamics and issue trading opportunities.
• Issue preference analysis. In a case with multiple issues, how do you prioritise between issues, how do you trade between them? An employment case, for example, might include consideration of compensation, references, and confidentiality. How do you value each issue? How does the other side value the different issues? Doing an issue preference analysis in advance will enable you to construct a rational strategy for dealing with multiple objectives in mediations and negotiations.
• Bid strategy. What should your initial bid be? How should you react to the other side’s bids? The “negotiation dance” can go many ways, but a robust bidding strategy will help optimise the outcomes of your mediations and negotiations.
• Coalition analysis. In mediations and negotiations with multiple parties a key feature is often coalition formation. Analysing in advance the possible coalition structures and how they can be influenced can significantly enhance the profitability of the final mediation or negotiation outcome.
• Profiling. Certain types of people exhibit certain types of behaviour in mediation and negotiation situations. Profiling your negotiation team and that of the other side can help you predict likely responses during the process.

Please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss any of these techniques and their appropriateness to your situation.