Negotiating Across Cultures

PROFESSOR: In this
video, we're going

to talk about
intercultural negotiations.

The negotiations that
we're going to talk about

are specific to
business settings.

But also know that you negotiate
in all of your relationships,

whether they're
interpersonal, intercultural,

a combination of
both, so that what

you learn about
negotiation today

is transferable into
your other relationships.

We're just going to talk about
them in a strictly business

sense.

One of the reasons why
intercultural negotiation is

so difficult to accomplish
is because we're

so used to negotiating
within our own culture

that we assume that the rules
that we use to understand how we

ought to negotiate and how
we ought to achieve our goals

are going to be the same
when we go into new contexts.

And so we imagine that
this negotiation process

is going to look very similar
to what we're used to, when,

in fact, it's not.

When we negotiate
in our own culture,

we know the values
of the other person,

or we have a better
idea of what goals

they have about the interaction,
and what ethical choices

that they're going to make,
simply because we have a better

idea of what their cultural
background looks like.

So we know that there's
all sorts of variation

and we all have different lived
experiences, so we do all see

the world in different ways.

It's not all exactly the same.

But when we try to understand
the cultural lens of someone

who's more similar to us,
the process is a bit easier.

So we're not guaranteed
any shared perspectives

when we negotiate
interculturally,

so it's a bit more difficult
to find those places where

our experiences and the
experiences of the person

that we're talking to overlap.

And it's when we find
those moments of overlap

that we're able to have
more effective communication

because we recognize that
we can both understand

the worldview of
the other person

when we talk about those
shared experiences.

Other important
things to consider

when negotiating in
intercultural settings

is that you might be
writing a contract that's

going to be enforced by two
different legal systems.

So if the two different legal
systems are vastly different,

that contract may mean very
different things depending

on which country or
which part of the world

it's being enforced in.

So you want to be aware of that.

And we also want to be aware
that while the government

in the US tends to be very
separate from business

interactions, they're not
necessarily in the boardroom

24/7, that's not necessarily
true of other countries.

So you might have
government officials

that you have to be
interacting with.

You also might be negotiating
in a country that's

politically unstable, so things
can change really quickly.

These are all important things
to consider when looking

at intercultural negotiations.

So it's important to
remember that it is about--

being an effective
intercultural negotiator

is about much more
than just knowing

the values and the
beliefs of the group

that you're interacting with.

Because we do a lot of
negotiating every day,

we have this idea that we know
what it is and we intuitively

know how to accomplish it.

We don't necessarily
spend the time thinking

about what the definition means.

So to help us better
understand and at least

be on the same page concerning
what a negotiation is,

it's important to
know that negotiations

are the interaction
of two or more parties

who both have common and
conflicting interests,

for the purpose of reaching a
mutually beneficial agreement.

So negotiations happen when
we need to work together

but we have different ideas
about how we should achieve

those joint goals that we have.

We engage in negotiation
in our everyday lives.

All of the time, we're
engaging in negotiations.

So you might have a negotiation
with your significant other

when you're trying to decide
where you want to go for dinner.

So you both have a common
interest in eating a meal,

but you have conflicting
ideas about where

you ought to go to eat out.

When your significant
other offers

to do the laundry if you
pick his or her suggestion,

you have to decide
if receiving laundry

for giving in on the dinner
choice is beneficial to you.

If it is, you can
make this agreement.

And if it's not, you
continue in the negotiations

and you decide what
you're going to offer

to sweeten the pot so that he or
she will pick the place that you

want to go.

What then does it take
to be a good negotiator?

Well, first, good negotiators
have strong persuasion skills.

So individuals that
are highly persuasive

know many different strategies
for persuading other people,

and they're able to effectively
analyze the situation so

that they can pick
the strategies that

are likely to be most effective
in a specific context.

Good negotiators are
also well-prepared.

So they know what
outcome they want,

what outcome their company
wants, what they can concede,

when they can
concede those things.

And finally, they
know what to expect

within the intercultural
negotiation setting.

All of this requires
doing your homework,

not just on the deal that
needs to be made, though.

You have to do your homework
about the culture with which

you're making that deal.

So you need to learn
about the people you're

making that deal with,
not just about what

you need to do to get
this deal to go through.

While good negotiators
are well-prepared,

they're also flexible
and creative when

things don't go as planned.

So a good intercultural
negotiator is aware of the fact

that the cultural differences
between the individuals involved

in the negotiation are
likely to cause problems.

Thus, he or she is flexible
and finds creative solutions

when their well-planned
preparations don't really

work out.

So they become irrelevant
to the negotiation process.

When that happens,
strong negotiators

are both flexible
and creative and can

find new ways of interacting
with the other person

in trying to
achieve their goals.

Finally, good negotiators
need to have patience.

Things are not going
to go as planned.

That doesn't mean you
shouldn't have a plan.

That just means you need to
be ready to patiently work

through things with your
intercultural conegotiators.

As I've said, negotiation
can be stressful

when individuals are
coming to negotiation

from the same
cultural background.

So again, you can only imagine
how stressful things can

get when individuals are coming
from different backgrounds

with different perspectives.

So know that
intercultural negotiation

can be time-consuming, and
as such, it requires people

to really be patient and
to be willing to work

through the process of
negotiating and coming

to some type of mutual
resolution to a problem.

So now that we know the
personal characteristics

that a good negotiator
should have,

it's important to learn
about some of the strategies

that we can utilize to become
more effective negotiators.

First, to be an
effective negotiator,

we have to remember
to do our homework.

So we have to learn as
much as we possibly can

about the other
national culture,

the other
organizational culture,

as well as the other
culture of the individual.

So if we fully want to be able
to understand how to come up

with good strategies
for achieving our goals,

we have to know
information about all

of those different
things so we can truly

understand who we're
sending that message to

and how we can make that
message most persuasive.

Second, you're going to want
to focus on relationships

and building relationships
rather than just getting

contracts signed.

So many times, because
we're US Americans,

we focus on getting
a project completed

on time and under budget.

Time is money, and
if we can get things

done quickly and for less
money than we thought

we did or we would, we've won.

We've accomplished a goal.

That being said,
many other cultures

see negotiation not as
getting a contract signed,

but as building a long-term
relationship with an individual

from another organization.

So recognizing this focus
that other organizations

have on building relationships.

It's important for US
American negotiators

to remember that
there are benefits

to creating those long-standing
business relationships.

And if they come into
situations with a bit more

flexibility and a
bit more willingness

to concede on their desire
to have a contract signed now

and to be enforced 100% the
way the contract is written,

they might be able to facilitate
some of those good feelings that

enable intercultural
relationships

to happen and to flourish.

One of the things we have to
do when we build relationships,

however, is meet with
individuals face-to-face.

So when building
relationships interculturally,

you might need to travel to that
culture to have those meetings.

It's not going to be enough
to necessarily set up a Skype

interaction or do some type of
meeting software, where you all

can join together
at the same time.

So you're going to need
to meet face-to-face.

When you do that, you're
going to get to eat together,

drink together, do
activities together.

So maybe they're going
to take you to play golf

or to do another activity
that's important to them

within their culture.

So while a lot of US Americans
don't necessarily value doing

these things in business
settings-- again, time is money,

and building relationships
takes time and focus away from

the business at hand--

do recognize that doing
this is important,

as it enables us to engage in
dialogue with the other group

of people, and this can help
us facilitate a relationship

with that individual.

Good negotiators also
consider the need

that exists behind the
position that the other side is

advocating for.

And this requires you
to try and understand

why the conegotiator
or your conegotiator

is asking for what
they're asking for.

In the end, we have to
remember that like the iceberg,

there are always things
that we can't see.

There are always rationales
for what people are doing

that we don't necessarily see.

Those things exist
under the surface,

and they're not clearly
visible to us at all times,

but we can explore them
so that we can fully

understand why people think
and do the things that they do.

We also want to be
sure that we're not

relying too much on
intercultural stereotypes

when we're learning
how to do our homework.

So when we're good intercultural
negotiators, we do our homework

and we try and learn who the
person we're negotiating with

is.

And the problem we can
have is sometimes we're

overreliant on what the books
say that person ought to be,

and we don't really let that
person be an individual.

So it's important to know
how people from that culture

tend to behave, but you want
to get into that interaction

and then rather quickly let that
person change those stereotypes.

So you don't want to rely
on what the book said

or how the book
said an individual

from the Japanese culture
would approach a negotiation

situation.

You want to allow
that individual

to let you learn how they
approach negotiation situations.

So having that context in
the background of your mind

is important because
it's going to help

you understand why they see
negotiation settings the way

they do.

But you do want to let a person
become an individual rather

than keeping them as
a cultural stereotype.

In intercultural
negotiation, we also

want to be sensitive to timing.

So as we learned
earlier, individuals

have different
time orientations.

And this can make
negotiations difficult

if one person has that
monochronic orientation

and assumes that time is
money, and the other person

has a more polychronic
orientation

and is really focused on
building relationships.

Because in the US, we expect
things to be done really

quickly, it's important,
as US individuals,

that we are willing and able to
adjust our expectations for when

work will get done when we're
working internationally.

A lot of times,
international negotiations

can take a really long
time, and so walking in

with the expectation
that this is

going to be something quick
and easy to accomplish

is likely not going to happen.

So this is going to be one
area where you should probably

adjust those expectations
from the beginning

so that you can be
more successful.

So if you tend to
be a fast worker,

it would be advantageous
for you to pay attention

to how your conegotiators
orient to time

when you arrive in an
international setting,

so that you can work to
adjust your communication

to their expectations for
how long this will take.

Being patient in our
international business

and international negotiation
situations is a virtue.

You also want to
consider the time of year

when you're looking and
being sensitive to timing.

So, in the US, not a lot of work
gets done on the week between

the Christmas holiday
and New Year's.

So, in intercultural
settings, that really

wouldn't be a good time
for other individuals

to suggest that a meeting happen
or that negotiations take place.

The final thing you
want to remember

if you're being
sensitive to timing

is that time zones
might come into play

if you're not
meeting face-to-face,

or even if you're
meeting face-to-face,

as someone might be jet-lagged
or have just arrived

in a new time zone.

Effective intercultural
communicators are also flexible.

Because we have a high focus
on the importance of time

in the United
States and we really

want to accomplish things
quickly and efficiently,

we tend to plan things
out so we have a plan

for how things ought to happen.

And when things don't go
to plan because schedules

change or governments
get involved

or people don't do
what they promise,

it's important that we remain
flexible and open to changing

the way that we
get our work done.

When negotiating
internationally,

we're going to
undoubtedly find ourselves

in unfamiliar situations.

And so we can freak
out and we can panic

and we can lose in
the negotiation,

or we can, again,
try and remember

that we need to
stay flexible, be

open to the different things
that are happening to us,

and trying to understand why
those things are occurring.

So really being flexible
involves going with the flow

and not allowing the
cultural differences

that are occurring
within the meeting

to throw you for
too much of a loop.

You also want to
learn how to listen.

So US American speakers tend to
be very direct and aggressive.

We value directness and we value
competition in this country.

So when we converse
with other people,

we try and win in
those conversations.

And you win by being
able to get your message

across to the other person in
a very clear and concise way.

As such, we're taught that
talking is what's important,

and paying attention to message
production is what's important.

We don't necessarily focus as
much on teaching individuals

how to be good listeners.

So a lot of the cognitive
effort we spend in conversation

focuses on constructing
messages rather than

interpreting messages.

If you learn to actively
listen, however,

and you try and understand
your conegotiator when you're

in interaction with
him or her, you

might find yourself better
able to secure the things

that your organization wants
because through listening,

you've learned about
the issues, and you're

able to convince the other
people that you're talking

with that you fully understand
where things are headed

or what their perspective is.

So you can get them to be
more flexible because you

can show that you understand
what they're advocating for

and you've seen what's below
the water on that iceberg.

You get why they're saying
what they're saying, why they

want the things that they want.

Also, you can convince
them that you're

trustworthy and
worthy of entering

into a long-term relationship
with when you pay attention

to listening and listening
to what they're saying.

So just some
strategies you can use

to become a better
listener-- working

to hear all messages
and not just the ones

that you agree with.

Sometimes when we are
listening, we dismiss the things

that we don't believe or we
don't agree with as unimportant.

We call this
cognitive dissonance.

So if something doesn't align
with how we look at the world,

we don't really pay attention
to that portion of the message.

So we don't want to do that in
intercultural business settings

because we want to hear all
those messages because, likely,

a lot of things that are
shared aren't going to align

with how we see the world.

We also want to learn to
listen to the whole message

before we provide a response.

So as US Americans,
we like to help

other people solve problems.

And a consequence of
this is that sometimes we

don't let them share their full
perspective before we interject.

So good listeners let their
conversational partners share

everything, and then they
interject with their advice

or with their commentary.

So let the other person
give their full message

before you start talking.

You also want to focus on the
message and not the presentation

of that message.

So presentation is important
to how a message is perceived

and how effective a message is.

But it's far more important
to focus on what's being said

rather than the number of times
an individual said "um" or "uh"

while delivering that message,
or the lack of an effective

PowerPoint that coincided
with the message.

Focusing on those things takes
your cognitive energy away

from trying to understand
what that message is.

So it's far more
beneficial for you

to just focus on
the message and not

how that message comes to you.

You also want to
make sure you're

asking open-ended questions
so that the speaker is

able to elaborate
and really share

their perspective on things
or their position on things.

Likewise, you want to
stay in the moment.

A lot of times, when
we're listening,

our minds can wander
and go elsewhere.

And so you really want to use
cognitive effort to try and stay

in the moment and try and
understand what's being said

and why those things
are important.

As a good listener, you might
ask that a colleague come along

with you to help you
listen to what's going on.

So this is going to ensure
that more than one person is

listening to what's happening.

And then through
dialogue, the two of you

can come to better
understand what actually

happened in the interaction.

So if you happen
to miss something,

maybe he or she picked up on
it, or maybe through discussion,

you can come to understand
the motivation that

was behind some of those
messages, in different ways

than you would have if you
were the only person listening

to them.

Finally, active
listeners take notes.

So you don't take notes by
writing down every single thing

that a person is saying.

Rather, you take notes by
writing down those things that

are important.

If you have good
note-taking skills,

you can better
distinguish between what's

important and unimportant
in a conversation.

And then you have a good
record of the things

that you need to
pay attention to.

Likewise, as your conversational
partner sees you writing things

down, that's, again, going
to show care and concern

about the relationship.

That's going to build
trust and hopefully enable

more open communication
between all parties.

I've said this many times, but
to be effective in negotiation

in intercultural
situations, you have

to learn about your own
culture as well as the culture

that you're visiting.

There is, however,
another culture that you

should pay attention to.

So you also want to pay
attention to the views

that your conegotiator
has about your culture.

You want to consider how
that person perceives you.

You want to consider how
that person perceives you

so that you can
better understand

how to interpret the messages
that they're sending your way.

Finally, strong
intercultural negotiators

act ethically and with
integrity so that they can

build trusting relationships.

They accept that multinational
connections are needed

to be successful
in a global market,

and they work to be trustworthy
so that their relationships can

grow.

All right, so this video
gave a detailed look

at how to become a better
intercultural negotiator.

These skills are going
to be useful to consider

when you work on the
cross-cultural negotiation

activity on Monday.