Negotiating Analytics
I love connecting unseeming books I’ve come across to analytics and this book is no different to this concept. "Never Split the Difference" by Chris Voss is a treasure trove of insights on negotiation and how to manage conflict. By blending insights from Voss's experience as a former FBI hostage negotiator with psychological principles and practical strategies the book challenges conventional negotiation tactics, advocating for empathy and understanding to achieve better outcomes.
Some highlights that I was able to pull away from the book that I would love to highlight are:
Tactical Empathy: Understanding and acknowledging the emotions and perspectives of the other party to build rapport and trust.
Mirroring: Repeating the last few words the other person says to create a sense of connection. It’s a wonderful tool that I engage in use regularly to help build relationships and trust in new contacts and relationships.
Calibrated Questions: By asking open-ended questions that begin with "what" or "how", it allows the other party involved to share more information and feel in control in a conversation or negotiation.
No-Oriented Questions: Sometimes framing a question into a simple one-word answer and framing questions to get a "no" response can make the other party feel more secure, in control, and less defensive.
Relationship Between Negotiation and Analytics
But how does this all fit within the world of analytics? Negotiation and analytics are closely intertwined, as data-driven insights can significantly enhance the negotiation process. Analytics provide a factual basis for decision-making, helping those in the negotiation process understand patterns, predict outcomes, and tailor their strategies effectively. Analytics is a strong and relevant precursor and end goal in a lot of negotiation practices as negotiators want to be as prepared with as much information as possible when engaging with another party. Having the right tools, tactics and knowledge are paramount in succeeding in any negotiation, those tools include:
Data Collection: Knowing what you and your team know and knowing what your team doesn’t know is an important starting point. It seems simple, but is a great basis when it comes to analytics and negotiation. It gives you a base to operate from and grow from what you learn in you collection of information. Gathering relevant data about the other party, market conditions, and historical outcomes to inform negotiation tactics.
Pattern Recognition: By identifying trends and commonalities in negotiation scenarios to anticipate and prepare for potential challenges. Finding a pattern or rhythm could be key in finding out how the other party operates and will help in risk assessment and prediction of out comes
Risk Assessment: Evaluating the potential risks and benefits of different negotiation strategies using quantitative and predictive analysis. Having an idea of outcomes and their likeliness will help further guide decision making and paint a stronger picture of potential outcomes.
The Importance of Negotiation Strategy with Analytics
Negotiation strategy can fuel analytics and vice versa. It is a two-way street that work in tandem with one another as we learn more and more from those we work and engage with. Not all engagement needs to be treated like a hostage situation, but there are some key learnings and benefits that come from negotiation strategies that apply directly to analytics.
Informed Decisions: Analytics provide a solid foundation for making informed decisions rather than relying on intuition or assumptions, intuition and assumptions are also key, but the more informed we are on a situation, the better picture we can paint to the advantage of ourselves and our teams.
Enhanced Predictability: Data-driven insights help predict the other party's responses and outcomes, allowing for more precise planning and execution.
Competitive Advantage: Leveraging data can provide a competitive edge by revealing insights that might be overlooked by those relying solely on traditional negotiation tactics.
Continuous Improvement: As mentioned earlier, analytics can be a precursor and an end goal for negotiation. Its cyclical in a way as are most analytics. With more information coming in, the better decisions can be made in negotiation and future negotiations. Analytics enable ongoing monitoring and refinement of negotiation strategies, leading to continuous improvement and better results over time.
This book was such a wonderful read and opened me up to new and effective strategies for when engaging with new people and companies. It helped frame what I want to focus on and what remains important in a negotiation whether I’m looking to negotiate for the lives of those in danger or an extra week of vacation this year.
