职场与战场上谈判的相同点

时间:2021-04-27 19:40:32 Negotiation 我要投稿

职场与战场上谈判的相同点

  You think negotiating a raise is tough? Try convincing an Afghan elder to identify Taliban fighters in his own community.

职场与战场上谈判的相同点

  Negotiating is not confined to the office and the car dealership. In fact, some of the best deal-brokers have worn fatigues.

  Jeff Weiss is familiar with negotiating both on and off the battlefield. As a partner at Boston consulting firm Vantage Partners, Weiss helps corporations and executives handle disputes and hammer out better agreements. He also spends a good chunk of every year doing the same thing for cadets at West Point. Weiss has spent the better part of a decade studying battlefield negotiations and figuring out what works and what doesn't in a hostile foreign country.

  The goal is for a soldier to forge alliances in unknown territory where every move is being carefully watched, time is of the essence and a faction is very much interested in the soldier's failure. Hopefully, starting a new job is not as dangerous, but many of the same dynamics are in play in the workplace.

  The key to thriving in a new environment, according to Weiss, is controlling the nagging sense that you are making a major mistep. Danger, and the fear that it incites, triggers a cavalcade of reactions that could start someone off on the wrong foot, most notably a tendency to rush, make threats and too easily concede vital points to mitigate tension. In other words, it helps to stay calm, yet confident.

  'Many of us walk around with a default setting and a belief that to be a good negotiator you should use threats, anchoring, bluffing, banging the table and a general show of power,' Weiss said. 'Frankly, what I have seen in good negotiators — whether they are a 30-year-old captain in the Army or a 40-year old salesman — are folks that say 'There's a time and a place to do that, and it's not often.''

  Here are some of the other pieces of advice that Weiss has gleaned from men and women in uniform:

  1. Get the Big Picture

  Get a lay of the land at the outset, particularly the opinions and viewpoints of other parties. In other words, don't dive in and try striking deals right away. Be humble and curious.

  2. Uncover and Elaborate

  Learn the motivations and concerns behind your counterparts' opinions. Propose multiple solutions and invite the other parties to improve on them.

  3. Elicit Genuine Buy-in

  Avoid threats. Win others to your side with reasoned arguments, not power plays or brute force.

  4. Build Trust First

  Directly linked to No. 4, this tactic is all about building a foundation of success. Don't try to 'buy' support. Rather, make incremental commitments of good faith.

  5. Focus on process

  Forget about results, or lack thereof. Put your energy into having a healthy and robust discussion free from knee-jerk reactions.

  Do any of you have something else to add to that list? If so, weigh in. Ten-hut!

  How often do you find yourself negotiating in the workplace? Do you think you're a strong negotiator? What are your bargaining weaknesses?

  你以为跟老板谈加薪很难?那去试试说服一个阿富汗老人指认社区里的(Taliban)分子呢。

  谈判并不仅限于办公室和汽车专卖店。事实上,一些最善于谈判的人来自军队。

  杰夫维斯(Jeff Weiss)对职场和战场的谈判技巧都很熟悉。作为波士顿Vantage Partners咨询公司的合伙人,维斯协助企业和高管处理争端,达成更好的协议。他每年还花不少时间在西点军校(West Point)给新兵培训谈判技巧。他近十年的相当一部分时间花在战场谈判的课题研究上,分析在敌对国的环境下哪些原则是管用的,哪些则不管用。

  培训的目的是让军人在一个不熟悉的国家寻求到盟友,在那种环境下,每一步都必须小心应对,时间至关重要,而内讧往往导致任务失败。在职场上,开始一份新工作不像打仗那么危机四伏,但也有很多相同的因素在发挥著作用。

  维斯说,在新环境中获得成功的关键在于,控制频繁干扰自己的负面情绪,不要认为自己正在犯下大错误。危险以及由此激发出来的恐惧感会引发一系列容易让人出师不利的自然反应,最常见的就是急于求成、威胁别人,以及过于轻易地放弃重要筹码以化解紧张态势。也就是说,保持镇定和自信是有好处的。

  维斯说,我们中的很多人抱着一个固有观念,认为一个谈判高手必须会威胁别人、能言善辩、虚张声势、大拍桌子,表现得非常强势。说实话,我看过的谈判高手—— 无论是30岁的陆军上尉还是40岁的推销员——都认同一个观点:要实现目标必须有天时地利,这种恰当的时点并不是经常都有的'。

  下面是维斯根据军中谈判专家的经验提炼出来的一些建议。

  1.了解资讯,掌握大局

  出发前了解一些具体情况,尤其是其他各方的观点和看法。也就是说,不要一下子扎进去敲定一个交易,要谦虚,多问问题。

  2.发现细节,善于发挥

  了解谈判对手观点背后的动机和顾虑,提出多个解决方案,邀请其他各方共同加以完善。