Consensus Blog

The Power of a Positive No (Bantam, 2007) is a recommended read for any negotiator.  It’s an easy-to-follow guide on how to improve one’s ability to balance power and relationship concerns when pressed to say “no” to a counterpart.

In his seminal book, Getting to Yes (Penguin, 1983), Ury and his co-authors identified a tension commonly felt by negotiators, namely the challenge of “exercising power” and “tending to the relationship”, assuming that one compromises the other.  Generally, people tend to either accommodate (by saying yes, even if they want to say no), attack (by saying no poorly), or avoid (by saying nothing at all).  He offered a framework for balancing that tension and, in so doing, for achieving superior negotiated outcomes.

In his most recent book, Ury provides even more insight into balancing that tension.  He shows the reader how to leverage both power and one’s relationship with a counterpart during a confrontation, in short, by using what he introduces as a Positive No.  The book is organized into a practical framework consisting of three overarching stages – preparing, delivering, and following through on a Positive No – with each being further subdivided into smaller bits of advice that are highlighted through practical, real-life examples.

By reading The Power of a Positive No, negotiators can expect to be in a better position to obtain what they want, protect what they value most, and avoid the pitfalls of agreeing to things that are not in their interest.

If there’s one book that we would recommend to all of our Training & Development clients, it might be Built to Win, by Movius and Susskind (Harvard Business Press, 2009).

Essentially, the book suggests that, if you want to have a world-class negotiating organization, you must consider negotiation a core competency of your institution.  This entails going beyond developing the skills of individual contributors (which certainly is part of the recipe).  It also involves identifying and addressing systemic factors.  It requires a robust, customized solution instead of a one-size-fits-all, off-the-shelf intervention.

Based on our work with hundreds of clients, we find that the organizations that negotiate best – which we define as both attaining maximally beneficial terms and maintaining healthy working relationships and a positive reputation – adopt a comprehensive approach to improvement.  We help them address capabilities at the macro level through organizational development, such as assessment and improvement of their culture, communication channels, policies, etc.  We also help them address capabilities at the micro level through customized workshops at all levels and across functional areas, as well as individualized executive coaching (for executives and non-executives, alike).  Last, we provide reinforcement initiatives – ranging from dedicated online discussion boards to facilitated monthly webcasts – and follow-on solutions to help support ongoing development and improvement.

While customized, interactive negotiation training helps, the multidimensional approach outlined in Built to Win and practiced at our firm provides an even higher return on investment to organizations that are serious about improving their negotiations.

After two wonderful years together, the time has come to say good-bye to Ericka Duroseau.

Ericka, who has been managing our daily operations since 2008, is realizing one of her life’s ambitions by relocating to Southern California.  We are excited on her behalf, and we wish her every success in life, professional and personal alike.

As communication and relationship management professionals, it is curious that we have been operating a website with little means of two-way interaction. While the Internet has provided a forum for us to share information we choose with those who visit our site, we have not been tapping its power to capture their insights or to surface and address their questions and issues that matter most to them.

Well, that ends today!

We are very proud to launch the Consensus Blog – the first of two interactive sections of our website. Going forward, we will use our blog to share different types of information with our readers, including…

…commentary on negotiations, conflicts, and other interactions taking place in the public eye,

…recommendations of articles, books, and other resources related to our subject matter expertise,

….developments in the Consulting, Training & Development, and Peace Building arenas, and

…things going on at Consensus.

That said, the most valuable aspect of the blog will be the reader-supplied comments that you post. We strongly encourage your feedback, so please don’t hesitate to tell us what you think, including what types of postings you’d like to see from us.

In the weeks ahead we also will be launching the Consensus Forum, an interactive discussion board in which you can share your ideas and pose questions relating to the various aspects of relationship management (e.g., communication, influence, conflict management, etc.), professional development (e.g., training, executive coaching, organizational development, etc.), and international peace building. Even though Consensus will take part in these online dialogues, we anticipate that most of the content will be generated by fellow users, including other experts in the field.

Our hope is that our blog and forum – combined with our presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn – will help our friends, clients, and colleagues foster a valuable virtual community of folks interested in relationship management, professional development, and peace building.