Hi, I'm Julie Tietz. And welcome to Conflict Resolution-- putting the pieces together. Today, we're going to talk about interest-based negotiation. So let's start looking at some of the goals of conflict resolution. In conflict resolution and negotiation, we want to move away from positional bargaining.
And in positional bargaining, we are bargaining over the parties' positions. And conflict resolution wants to move away from positional bargaining and move towards interest-based negotiation. And in interest-based negotiation, we are focusing on the parties' interests rather than their positions. And a position is, how I like to phrase it, what we say we want. And an interest is the underlying reasons why we want what we say we want.
So in order to engage in interest-based negotiation, we must uncover the parties' interests. And this can be hard because traditional United States negotiation practices can create a barrier to uncovering our interests.
And this is because in the United States culture, we are conditioned in a way to take a position and to be adversarial in nature when it comes to negotiation. And interest-based negotiation is not set up to be that way. So it can be a barrier for people at times. But once we get over that barrier and explain a little bit more on how interest-based negotiation works, hopefully, this will clear that up.
And also, a way to uncover the parties' interests in this type of negotiation is to utilize our I statements and assertive communication. So an I statement could be something like I get to feel nervous or anxious when I don't have a report on my desk by 3:00 or could be utilizing examples of assertive communication by empathizing with the other party and really trying to see their point of view.
And then also acknowledging what they're saying, not necessarily agreeing with what they're saying, but acknowledging their point of view is another way in which we can uncover interests. And also, the biggest way to uncover interests is to ask the clarifying questions. Ask the why questions. Ask the who questions. Ask the what questions. All of these are good ways in which we can uncover the parties' interests to engage in interest-based negotiation.
So why are asking these clarifying questions and utilizing I statements and assertive communication so important in interest-based negotiation and trying to uncover interests? Well, it's because these help us elicit the information that we are seeking. And also, it allows us to empathize and acknowledge what the other party is going through. And in doing so, we are building a trusting relationship here in the process. And it helps us dig deeper.
And also, when we are utilizing these, we want to steer away from negativity. And so we want to remain positive in our statements, still be firm in our beliefs, but we don't want to be negative and start utilizing you statements like, oh, it's all your fault, you're the reason why we're in this situation, those types of things.
We can run into some difficulties along the way in conflict resolution and interest-based negotiation processes. And we often find this when we have unexpressed interests of the parties. And so these are interests that the parties are not clearly stating or explaining. And so we're not really understanding what's the situation here.
And we can recognize when there are unexpressed interests when we find that the parties are really holding on strong to their positions. And again, once we see that parties are holding onto their positions, that should be a little light bulb turning on in our heads saying that an interest may have not been stated here.
And to uncover these interests, we need to acknowledge that they're holding onto a position and begin to ask those clarifying questions so we can uncover the interest and get to the real heart of the matter and come to some lasting solutions to the situation.
So in order to fully engage in the interest-based negotiation process, we have to get the parties to agree on a win-win thinking scenario. And this is the main goal of interest-based negotiation. And with win-win thinking, we are knowledgeable of each other's goals.
And we are also trying to work together as a team. So once we know what each other's goals are, and we view them as as important to the other as our own, then we can work together as a team and create more lasting solutions.
So now that we've gone over our lesson on interest-based negotiation, let's go over some of our key points. So interest-based negotiation focuses on people's interests so the real underlying reasons why we want something. And we uncover our interests through asking clarifying questions. So asking why you want something is a great way to start to uncover interests.
And in interest-based negotiation, we create a win-win thinking atmosphere where we have everybody's interests and goals in mind and work together as a team to come up with really great, creative, and lasting solutions. Thank you so much for taking the time out to view this tutorial. And I really hope that you've learned something. And I can't wait to catch you again next time.