Negotium is our periodic newsletter, which takes real-world negotiations and builds on them, providing commentary and tips that you can apply in your work and personal life. We have designed it to be useful to our past participants and those with a general interest in negotiation.
Negotium covers a wide range of topics and current events. Past issues have considered:
- Negotiating trust
- Iron ore price negotiations between Australia and China
- Soft versus hard power
- The peace process between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
- When we are negotiating
- The capture of British naval crew by the Iranian government
- The power of a strong 'best alternative elsewhere'
- North Korea's nuclear program
From a recent issue:
Why did dominant chimps become both more selfish and more stubborn? Surely an equal payoff was better than no payoff at all? Why were negotiations nearly four times more likely to break down when inequity was higher?
Perhaps dominant chimps perceived the higher payoff as a potential loss, rather than a potential gain. We know (from prospect theory) that people are often more motivated to avoid perceived losses than to achieve equivalent gains. In the first experiment, the dominant chimps stood to ‘lose’ only half a banana by agreeing to the equal payoff, compared to the prospect of ‘losing’ three times that amount in the second experiment.
How is all this relevant to the negotiations of the G20? Humans behave in more complex ways than chimpanzees. What if we substitute ‘power’ for ‘bananas’?
The G20 was formed in 1999. It has taken ten years for the developed nations of the G7 to formally include developing countries, and in the process, to ‘give up’ some semblance of power.
In the face of forces such as loss aversion, how likely is it that deadlocks will occur in the G20?
How can we avoid this happening in our own negotiations?
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