Negotiation is an interactive process in which two or more parties with divergent views on an issue communicate to seek mutually acceptable solutions. Common workplace negotiation scenarios: salary negotiation (offer acceptance/promotion raises), resource advocacy (project budgets/team headcount), client contract terms, and internal disagreement resolution. Research shows that cultural pressure causes women’s propensity to initiate negotiation to be significantly lower than men’s, but negotiation skills themselves are gender-neutral — gaps are entirely addressable through training.
## Three Major Negotiation Frameworks
**Harvard Negotiation Method (Principled Negotiation, Fisher & Ury, “Getting to Yes”)**: distinguishing position (“I want this price”) from interest (“I need to cover these costs / I need to stay within budget”). Negotiation breakthroughs often come from identifying the other party’s real interests rather than clinging to one’s own position. Four principles: separate people from the problem (don’t let emotions be against people, focus on the problem); focus on interests not positions; generate win-win options (expand the pie rather than slice a fixed pie); use objective criteria (market prices, industry norms, third-party assessments).
**Behavioral economics perspective on negotiation biases**: Anchoring Effect — the first number proposed strongly influences the final outcome regardless of rationality (making the first offer is usually advantageous). Loss Aversion — the pain of losing $100 ≈ the pleasure of gaining $200-250; framing concessions as “avoiding loss” is more persuasive than “gaining benefit.” Scarcity bias — emphasizing limited time and scarce opportunities accelerates the other party’s decision-making.
**FBI Negotiation Tactics (Chris Voss, “Never Split the Difference”)**: Tactical Empathy — deeply identifying and expressing the other party’s emotional state rather than logical persuasion. Emotional Labeling — “It seems like you still have some concerns about this proposal” (articulating the other party’s feelings reduces their defensiveness). Calibrated Questions — open-ended questions starting with “how” or “what” (“How do we solve this problem?”) return the ball to the other party, avoiding direct confrontation.
See [Workplace Psychology Introduction](https://sunqi.org/workplace-psychology-intro-en/) and [Roger Fisher “Getting to Yes”](https://www.pon.harvard.edu/getting-to-yes/).
