jonnygoldstein.com

Have you ever been in the midst of a lousy situation and gone, “Man,
if I’d just negotiated differently a few months ago, I would not be in
this mess” We negotiate every day, with ourselves, our spouses, our
kids, our business partners. When I want to understand things better,
I usually start doing research and drawing pictures of what I’m trying
to learn. Here’s one of the basic concepts you will find in many
negotiation books—positions versus interests. Positions are a what a
party states they want, and interests are what motivate those
assertions.

You can think of interests as the tip of the iceberg—they are what
are visible. But dive deeper and you will find the interests that
underlay those positions.

So how do you find out the interests of your negotiating partner?
That’s coming later! For now, try thinking about the interests that
motivate the positions you are taking. Are your positions actually
going to satisfy your interests? Just a thought.

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