Consider Your Opening Statement in a Negotiation
You will not find me complimenting politicians on their negotiating skills very often, but the recent negotiations between the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats were interesting and I propose coming back to them from time to time during the next month. For now, I want to consider the “opening salvo” on 7 May 2010, the day after the UK General Election.
For those who do not follow politics in the UK, the country woke up to the first “hung” or balanced parliament (it depends on your political persuasion which adjective you will want to use!) for thirty years and, for a short while, there was relative silence from our politicians. There were those who argued that this was a blessed relief after four weeks of relentless campaigning, but in truth, moves needed to be made in order to form as stable a government as was possible under the circumstances.
Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, had made it clear that, in the first instance, his party would have talks with the party that had won most seats in the General Election and, for the first time since 1997, the Conservatives were in that position.
David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party, moved to seize the political and negotiating initiative by holding a press conference–a conference at which, significantly, he took no questions. He wanted his message to stand as delivered; he wanted there to be no possibility of a muffled sound bite in answer to a throwaway question; he wanted to appear in control and statesmanlike. His statement was therefore prepared in advance, rehearsed and delivered without falter.
Whether you agree or not with the Conservative party’s policies is not the issue here. I believe that there are lessons for the commercial or indeed HR negoti