Should Negotiators Defer Details Until Reaching Agreement on Principles?

Karrass rightly says "Agreement on details is made easier when an agreement in principle has been achieved.  When talks on details break down later, the opposing negotiators can maintain momentum by returning to the principles previously agreed to."  Often better for negotiators to ignore the details until they agree on basic principles.  Sometimes that works beautifully because details can be easily deduced from principles.  On the other hand, sometimes parties deadlock on opposing principles.  In these cases, negotiators might find they can actually agree on details even though they start from different principles.

Cupcakes, glucose depletion, negotiation and mediation

Dan Green at the Negotiation Blog says eating cupcakes will make you a better negotiator.  He cites some of the serious scholarly research.  Coincidentally, I am currently studying that same vein of research for a project with Scott Simpson, with whom I co-authored this piece.

Negotiators are not willing to trade some goals for money

Frank Rose writes in the New York Times' interesting "Gray Matter" series that, when "Faced with mundane choices, people will readily alter their behavior in response to money."  On the other hand,   "When sacred values are in play, studies show, any proposal of economic incentives to make a deal is liable to backfire."  Financial incentives can trigger "intensely negative emotions."

Reasons Not to Mediate

A study by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) lists common reasons why a lawyer's client may decide not to mediate a dispute. Although the EEOC focuses on employment mediation, the reasons are broadly applicable.  Among the reasons,  "the misunderstanding that mediation requires resolution only in the form of a monetary settlement."  Hat tip to Cullen and Dykman

negotiating via email

Interesting new paper by Noam Ebner (of the Werner Institute at Creighton University) about this important topic: negotiating via email.  It aims to bring the discussion of email negotiation into the age of mobile communication.

Good Books for ADR

Books recommended by Prof. Richard Birke.

" if you want to know how to negotiate better, you need to understand how to make better decisions and what’s going on for the decision-makers across the table."

The full list is here.   I particularly value these two:

Robert Axelrod – The Evolution of Cooperation (how cooperation can emerge in competitive environments)

Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler – Nudge (how to get people to do things that are good for them)

Plea Bargaining Incentives

Settlement negotiation in criminal cases is typically called "plea bargaining."  In plea bargaining, as in civil-case settlement negotiation, incentives matter -- not just the parties' incentives but also their lawyers' incentives.  This from Cynthia Alkon is a good example.