The European Business Review - July-August 2019

78 The European Business Review July - August 2019

eventually he had a commitment from everyone. He

had made some tweaks to his plans as well. “I wanted

to make everyone happy at the same time but I was

wrong,” he said. “I learned a very important lesson

of leadership, just as I was about to leave the leader-

ship position. No matter how much you wish others

well, eventually you have to build consensus slowly.

You can’t win all of them over at once.”

Generally, it is difficult to form a coalition of

everyone all at once because of a lack of trust

among group members. It is important for the

negotiator first to win the trust of a few impor-

tant members (the ones closest in the affinity

map) and to establish a core. Having a core makes

it easier to gain the trust of new members, and

it also makes it easier to expand the coalition

without much disruption.

Circular Logrolling

Another advantage of establishing a core is circular

logrolling (Figure 5). This means having trade-offs

with other members. Think of a three-party situ-

ation where A and B have established an alliance

already and they want C to enter the alliance as

well. However, to achieve this, A needs C to back

down on a particular issue X, where A and C have

contradictory positions. In other words, A needs

C to back down in favor of A. However, there

is another issue Y, on which B can back down in

favor of C. In this case, A can convince C to give

up on X in return for Y, where B will back down.

Such circular logrolling or trading off is possible

when a negotiator has already established a basic

alliance and is trying to expand it.

Understanding Others

In order to establish a formidable coalition, it is

very important to understand who is at the table.

A quick analysis using a uniform structure can be

helpful in getting to know one’s counterparts at the

table in advance. Below is an example of a card

that can be used for a quick analysis of a negoti-

ator at the table (See figure 6).

One of the objectives in doing such an anal-

ysis is to identify de facto allies at the table. De

facto alliances emerge beyond the negotiation

table. They may not be alliances in the context

of the negotiation, instead influencing the nego-

tiation indirectly. An executive in one of the

programs told us an interesting anecdote. He

was going to take part in a negotiation at which

a bank and a country’s government were going to

be represented. On the day of the negotiation, the

executive negotiator was surprised to see that the

government negotiator was an old classmate of

his and they had even gone on vacation together

A

C

B

Transfer of value on Y from B to C

Transfer of value on X from C to A

FIGURE 5 - AN EXAMPLE OF CIRCULAR LOGROLLING

Negotiation

PREPARATIONCARD

FIGURE 6 - AN EXAMPLE OF PREPARATION CARD

Name

Organisation

PossibleInterest

CurrentPosition

PossibleRelationships

PastExperiencewithus

In order to establish a formidable coalition, it is

very important to understand who is at the table.

A quick analysis using a uniform structure

can be helpful in getting to know one’s

counterparts at the table in advance.