What are the key tactics for non-native English speakers in business negotiations?
Non-native English speakers in business negotiation should carefully choose the right communication technologies for tasks like agenda setting, information-sharing about jargon, and summaries of agreement to avoid misunderstandings. Meanwhile, writing down numbers or using excel sheets to avoid speaking about numbers in a foreign language can help speed and comprehension. That is because using different parts of brain at the same time, e.g. dealing with mathematical calculations and speaking in a foreign language, can make us slower and easily confused.
How do cultural differences affect negotiation strategy and outcome?
Cross-cultural differences may impact tolerance of behavior norms, for example a negotiator may misunderstand a behavior as negative when the intent was positive. With knowledge of differences, cross-cultural negotiators can be more tolerant to the differences and be more open to explore motivation, interests and value at various levels, e.g., individual level, corporate level and national level. The negotiator’s efforts to show cultural sensitivities may encourage positive perception by their counterparties. Also, the knowledge of cultural values may help negotiators to know the key elements to highlight and therefore to integrate differences for the maximum joint outcome.
What are the exciting updates in the new edition of Practical Business Negotiation?
New chapter on understanding failures in negotiation: Knowing how and why failures happen can help negotiators avoid problems. Several type of failures are explained, tools for understanding failure, and tools for preventing failure are introduced.
Additionally, there are expanded materials on choice of language in cross-cultural negotiations as well as other expanded information about cross-cultural interactions. Helpful planning materials have also been increased as well as the number of cases.
Further, there is a new chapter on negotiation theory. This textbook generally avoids confusing academic terms in favor of easily understandable word choices. However some readers will appreciate the new summaries of key concepts and theories.
If there is one key takeaway for readers interested to hone their negotiation skill, what would that be?
The takeaway is that preparation wins. This textbook delivers tools for preparing negotiations through careful assessment of the interests of the parties, prioritizing goals, and looking for ways to link offers and issues. With understanding about the deep interests of all parties, negotiators can set priorities and weight the outcomes that they want to achieve (or avoid). Better planning leads to better results!