The Importance of Proactivity in Negotiations

In this podcast, Ricardo explains the importance of understanding the difference between passive and proactive behavior in negotiations. He cites the books "Getting Past No" and "Getting To Yes" by William Ury.

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Episode transcript

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Hello, everyone. Welcome to the five minutes PM. Podcast yeah. I'd like to discuss with you the difference between the passive and the proactive behavior during the negotiation. Most of the people think that when I'm negotiating, I'm going to a battlefield. So I have the enemy in the other side and it's a savvy game at that. I need to win. Okay. Hey, in some aspects you arrived, right? When you think this, but it's very important that when people think that they are going to the battlefield, they try to become more reactive, more passive.

They say, look, I will not move because if I move, I will reveal. I will show my strategy. So I will not do anything. I weight the enemy movement so I can find keys or her weakness so I can jump on it. This is not the right thing. Why? Because if you way to move, you, weren't given the two, the order part, the control of the momentum. And then you become just a passive agent answering questions and he or she is.

And the other side we'll be driving the conversation the way they want to shape. So, and then maybe they can understand everything they want, they need. And you don't have any order bargain power when you were handling, but it's in the auto weight, you have a proactive approach. What do I mean by a proactive approach? You take control of the negotiation. You take control, you be open to be sharp.

And it's very, very important when you think, okay. Okay. Take control means stop back to fight. No negotiation is not a fight. It's very, very important that you put in your mind like William or early in the books. Getting To Yes and Getting Past No is that you need to understand that people are different from the problem, unless you're problem is with the other part, the problem we'll be always the object of the negotiation.

So you are negotiating salary, or the problem is not you against your boss. Know the problem is that you and your boss solving the problem. The problem is that we need some more money to leave and they need to save money. So look how you shape this in a different way. So with this proactive approach, you need to start planning far in adverse. You need to understand that Negotiations is like a chess game.

You don't need to think only your next movie, but you need to understand maybe five, six, 10 moves ahead. This will be built your strategy. So you need to be prepared. If she says, this is what I say, what I need to have from this negotiation and what I can give up to make things move. So it's very, very important. So if you have this proactive role, you can, as acute to your tactics, much more effectively, and the much more proactive approach and being proactive doesn't mean being aggressive.

It's just trying to move on the negotiation. And most of the people feel very, very anxious, comfortable with doing this because they think if I move very proactive, they will think that a lot, starting a fight. No, no. You can be very polite, very open, very gentle and very active. It's saying, look, we need to find a solution for this, but if you stay reactive or passive You will let the order size to control everything.

And at the end you may leave the Negotiations out an agreement and with a lot of problems to solve. And in the project management, this is a critical skills for us. Negotiations is skills. We will shape the decision you made in such a critical environment. Like the projects. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. See you next week with another five minutes to be on podcasts.

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