Chapter 4: Introductory Comments

The Quandary of Uncertainty

Negotiation is inherent in human nature and with it a sense of uncertainty. That's one of the reasons why Brits particularly dislike the process. Many of us would far rather prices, proposals and terms were fixed in every way, so that we could ask for what we want, and make a decision based purely on our perception of value. What causes this quandary?

Simply, the fact that everything is unknown. I don't know what a 'good' deal is in this case. Is the other person ripping me off? What will my peers, my family, my boss think of the agreement I have reached? Could I have got a better deal in some way? All this produces stress, unease, uncertainty.

As I write this, the British government in the past five years has faced this quandary of uncertainty with BSE or mad cow disease and subsequently foot and mouth disease. In both cases they didn't know whether to cull thousands or millions of cattle. They didn't know how much the European Union would cough up in compensation for culling or how much they would have to ask the British taxpayer for. For that reason, in both cases they found it difficult to decide where to start in their negotiating process. And the politicians' stumbling, rambling political performance on television revealed that fact starkly.

The same can happen to any one of us reading this material. In many cases we really do not know what price to start at. Many times we will not know for sure whether we could have got more. We may never know whether we could have persuaded our counterpart to move further. That is the reality of many of the negotiations we are involved with.