Your Weekly Walkaway - Negotiating across different cultures
The Weekly Walkway highlights negotiation in its ‘good’, ‘bad’ and sometimes ‘downright ugly’ forms. Newsletter Issue No. 8 (4th November 2022)
What to expect?
Quote of the Week - “We cannot negotiate with people who say what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable."
Tactic of the Week - The Space Invader
Thought of the Week - Negotiating across different cultures
Their Week - Food makers face pushback over price increases in Europe
Remember: You are a negotiator!
You are always managing some form of conflict, a difference in opinion or interest.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
John F. Kennedy
“We cannot negotiate with people who say what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable."
TACTIC OF THE WEEK
The Space Invader
You go into a negotiation and there are many more of them than you;
They lean across the table or they pull up a chair and sit too close to you, invading your personal space;
They stand too close to you or maybe hold your hand for too long.
Some of these moves are designed to create an emotional response in you and maybe even to give them power over you. They can be used to stop you from concentrating or to exhibit ‘alpha’ status over you. But sometimes it’s just cultural.
Always be careful of cultural differences. South Americans, Africans and certain areas of Central Asia are much more comfortable with people invading space and being in close proximity to them. Europeans and North Americans for example, are very uncomfortable having their space invaded.
In some cultures it is a sign of respect to ‘present’ the whole management team in negotiations. They are not trying to intimidate you, they are showing you respect.
Some may eat before the deal. Others like to after.
We should always plan for differences in cultural acceptance, what is appropriate and what is not, before engaging in negotiations. But if you feel someone is ‘invading your space’ for purposes of taking power from you take charge. Be in control and tell them to back off, in your best diplomatic voice.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
Negotiating across different cultures
I recently read an excellent discussion posted on Linkedin titled “How to Negotiate with People from Around the World” by Marcus Koehnlein, where he shared an insightful piece of work on communication patterns for negotiations around the world by Richard Lewis, a British Linguist; you can see the original article he quoted here.
"By focusing on the cultural roots, both in society and business, we can foresee and calculate with a surprising degree of accuracy how others will react to our plans for them, and we can make certain assumptions as to how they will approach us."
Richard D. Lewis
We are all part of the global economy, whether it be negotiating in a Market place in Thailand or negotiating a multi-million-pound international supplier contract. We must appreciate that culture will always play a part in our interactions. Harvard Business Review has a few short videos that really talk to these points, negotiating across cultures and getting to 'yes' across cultures. And are well worth watching.
Be in control
As a negotiator, you must always ‘be in control’ of your non-verbal communication as much as your verbal communication. For example, How you ‘Flinch’ may need to be different across different cultures, or simply just nodding your head or moving your hands in a different way may send your counterpart the wrong signals.
I just love this example from an HSBC advert you often see dotted throughout UK airports…
We often have similar questions from our own delegates. For example, one of our past delegates was about to negotiate with a Japanese team and asked for our guidance. Our points to her were:
Do your preparation beforehand on the individuals and also their organisation, in how they normally negotiate;
Beware of unconscious bias (stereo-typing), the pre-programming in your mind to put ‘them’ into boxes or how the negotiation will go into a certain set box. Go in with an open mind;
Verify your assumptions in a culturally appropriate way;
Use direct Yes/No questions with care due to the different connotations across cultures;
Always observe clusters of Behaviour, eyes, voice, and body and whether they are incongruent.
Although our experience suggests the further East and South you go from the UK, the colder negotiators can become, perhaps because they are more used to haggling for everyday products and services, whilst in the UK and the West, we don’t usually negotiate at the markets, we simply just go to a supermarket and buy.
But that all being said, this is still very much a generalised assumption, especially as we have met many negotiators from the East and South of the equator who have been able to negotiate just as appropriately in a collaborative diplomatic deal.
So my point here is never to make an assumption based on cognitive bias and pre-programmed thoughts of how a specific culture may or may not negotiate.
You must do your preparation beforehand, and you must negotiate with an open mind while you are there, but equally have in your mind that in the preparation stage of negotiation, have an appreciation for what formality or informality may be expected in their culture, Japan being a prime example of this.
Good Luck!
THEIR WEEK
‘Retailer negotiations will become tougher’: Food makers face pushback over price increases in Europe.
Retailer negotiations will become tougher. Published on foodnavigator.com By Katy Askew
“In recent months, tensions have mounted between CPG brands and their retail customers over how far and fast to hike prices. Record levels of food inflation across the region - up 13.1% in the eurozone for October, according to Eurostat - suggest that food makers have been largely successful in winning pricing concessions that reflect the inflationary pressure they are feeling.
However a grim economic outlook is likely to make this picture more challenging. A number of multi-national CPG companies have spoken of the deteriorating sentiment in Western European markets.”
Zoom out
We are seeing more and more of this activity across the market; we’ve even written about it here.
Relationships will be swinging back across the Kahvay compass, from those warm, open diplomatic relations/negotiations to much colder, harder behaviours of the Hagglers and Dealers.
It’s a stark reminder to us all that the type of negotiation you find yourself in and have planned for can flip at any time. A relationship that may have taken years to develop can be shifted by external factors, such as market forces, overnight. The Master Negotiator must be agile enough to swing from collaboration to dealing, West to East on the Kahvay Compass.
Joint Business Plans (JBP’s) that were agreed upon at the beginning of the year will be sorely tested, if not ripped up completely.
There is an entire generation of negotiators out there (both buying and selling) who have never negotiated during such high inflation and a recession. Have the senior team members who have been there and ‘done it’ got the time to pass on the necessary skillset, or will they have to learn on the job?
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