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Hesperia Seed Initiative

Anna Gressel and Robert Bordone

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Product Description

The Hesperia Seed Initiative is a six-party, multi-issue, scorable negotiation simulation that introduces students to issues of multiparty negotiation strategy, including coalition building, multiparty process, and tensions between creating and claiming value.

This simulation concerns the launch of an international initiative to donate genetically modified seeds to the fictional island nation of Hesperia. The Olea Foundation, a philanthropic foundation, has partnered with ARVENSIS, one of the world’s largest agricultural companies, to send genetically modified seeds to Pacific islands that have been severely affected by climate change and insect blights. Hesperia is the largest of these islands, and the primary recipient country of this initiative. However, based on local and international objections to the seed initiative, the President of Hesperia has placed a moratorium on the importation, sale, and use of genetically modified seeds – and Olea is concerned that other countries may follow. The President of Hesperia has created a Steering Committee for the seed initiative in the hopes of negotiating a policy framework for the initiative that could garner broad, institutional support both within Hesperia and abroad. If at least five of the six members of the Steering Committee can reach agreement upon a policy framework by the end of their negotiation, the President will lift the ban on genetically modified seeds and allow the launch of the seed initiative to proceed as planned.

This negotiation is best conducted in groups of six participants (one per role). A facilitator is needed to deliver instructions and conduct the three votes. Ideally, participants should be given overnight to prepare before negotiating this case; however, two hours of preparation time should be sufficient to read the General and Confidential Instructions for the case. The negotiation itself takes approximately three hours, including time to debrief with participants.

This product includes:

• General instructions for all parties to the negotiation;
• Confidential instructions for the Head of the Food and Agriculture Division of Olea;
• Confidential instructions for the Director of Philanthropy and Strategic Public Partnerships at ARVENSIS;
• Confidential instructions for the Policy Director at Hunger Watch;
• Confidential instructions for the Deputy Director of the Hesperia Biosafety Agency;
• Confidential instructions for the Head of Research at the Hesperia University Seed Research Center; and
• Confidential instructions for the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Hesperia Mission.
• Complete Teacher's Package with all files listed above, plus instructions for facilitating the Hesperia negotiation and review.

Learning Objectives

This case allows for the introduction and review of several intermediate and advanced negotiation concepts:

• To identify interests and create options in a complex multiparty negotiation;
• To understand tensions between creating and claiming value in a “scored” negotiation;
• To illustrate the importance of setting up and implementing a multiparty negotiation process;
• To highlight multiparty relationship, coalition, and spoiler dynamics; and
• To understand how to break impasses in multiparty negotiations.

Subjects Covered

Negotiation Simulation; Multiparty Negotiation Process and Strategy; Integrative and Interest-Based Negotiation; Principal-Agent Tensions; Coalitions; Spoiler Dynamics.

Setting   Geographic: International (Hesperia, a fictional Pacific island nation)

Industry: International Development, Public, Private, Government, NGO, United Nations, University, Research, Philanthropy, Climate Change, Biodiversity, Environment, Genetics, Biotechnology, and Agriculture

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New Multiparty Negotiation is (Not Entirely) about Keeping Score

5 Questions with Professor Robert Bordone: Creating a Storyboard to Support Learning Goals

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Making the Most of Multiparty Negotiations

After decades of one-on-one negotiation with corporate division heads, the CEO of a large company considered himself an expert bargainer. So when he was offered the chairmanship of a national council of more than fifty nonprofit organizations, he quickly accepted and got to work on his first initiative: creating an integrated fundraising policy. While member organizations had successful fundraising strategies of their own, the new chairman saw several advantages to a uniform approach. In his convention acceptance speech, he explained that the council's long-term success depended on every member group adhering to the new model, and listed the reasons why.

Soon after the speech, the roof fell in. The chairman was attacked from all sides by member organizations that wanted no part of his new policy. Within days, he received a letter signed by the heads of fifteen member organizations demanding that he abandon his proposal.

Where did the new chairman go wrong? He overlooked the important differences that exist between two-party and multiparty negotiations. The many similarities between them can blind us to their distinctions. The key difference is that as soon as the number of parties increases to more than two, coalitions are likely to form—as in the case of the fifteen organizations that joined forces against the new chairman.

The prospect of coalition formation requires special preparation. Entering a multiparty negotiation means thinking ahead about offense—how to build a winning coalition —and defense—how to organize a blocking coalition that could thwart other parties' aggressive moves. And because coalitional dynamics are likely to play a crucial role in most multiparty negotiations, negotiators also need to pay close attention to managing group interaction.

Two-party and multiparty negotiations do share one important goal: the discovery of the trading zone . As we've described in previous columns, the trading zone is that moment in a negotiation when adversaries switch (if only briefly) to become collaborative problem solvers. No longer trying to win at each other's expense, parties in the trading zone shift from primarily competitive to explicitly cooperative behaviors, working to create as much value for all as possible. In the trading zone, you and the other parties accept the notion that, at least temporarily, helping meet each other's interests will make it easier for everyone to achieve their negotiation goals.

Whether you're navigating the trading zone with two, ten, or twenty partners, success usually requires that you:

• Closely attend to each other's needs and interests.
• Put forward proposals that incorporate valuable tradeoffs.
• Suspend criticism and explore creative but nonbinding ideas.
• Agree on problem-solving procedures.

While entry into the trading zone does not guarantee a perfect outcome for all, it is an essential step in generating negotiated outcomes that surpass everyone's "next-best" options.

Preparing for multiparty negotiation When you're getting ready to meet with more than one party, the usual steps of two-party negotiation apply. First, you must determine what Roger Fisher and William Ury, in their classic text Getting to Yes , call your BATNA—your "best alternative to a negotiated agreement."

Assessing your BATNA means forecasting what you are likely to end up with if an upcoming negotiation falls apart. For someone who has filed a lawsuit against her employer, this means estimating her chances of winning in court in order to figure out what she will and won't accept as a settlement. Specifically, the claimant can determine her BATNA by multiplying her chances of winning the case by the amount she's likely to get if she wins (based on how much past litigants in similar situations were awarded), minus legal costs. Suppose she figures out that she has a 50 percent chance of winning $100,000, minus $25,000 in projected legal costs—a BATNA of $25,000. If her employer offers a last-minute $50,000 settlement, she might decide to snap it up, since this amount doubles her BATNA.

It's important to analyze other parties' BATNAs as well. Assessing someone's BATNA means putting yourself in his shoes: gathering necessary information and making the same estimates you made for yourself. When you've figured out someone's BATNA, you've identified the bare minimum you need to offer to convince him to say yes. If he has no reasonable chance of getting more than what you offer, he should logically accept what you are prepared to commit.

Here's where negotiations with more than one party get tricky. When you just have one partner, you typically only need to calculate your BATNA and the other side's once. As the number of parties increases, BATNA calculations and resulting considerations of possible settlements take on a kaleidoscopic quality. In a multiparty negotiation, you must recalculate your BATNA every time you imagine a new coalition that might strand you on the outside of an agreement.

Imagine a merger being negotiated by the chief executive officers of three competing companies. None of the CEOs is dissatisfied with the status quo. If two of them decide to merge, their combined resources and market share will swamp the one left out. As a result, each CEO has to compare the status quo with a variety of two-way and three-way merger deals—some of which would leave one of them out in the cold. This need to compare fluctuating proposals makes preparation in multiparty negotiation all the more important—not to mention quite a bit more difficult—than preparation for a two-party negotiation.

Anticipating coalitional behavior Once a multiparty negotiation gets off the ground, it's crucial to build a winning coalition. The fifteen nonprofit council members who united in opposition to the new chairman's fundraising agenda knew their clout would be enhanced if they spoke with one voice. In the early days of his tenure, the chairman clearly spent too much time reviewing the details of his proposed policy with his staff and not enough time sounding out council members to drum up support for his reforms.

The chairman's missteps lead us to the first rule of coalition building: think carefully about how and when to meet one-on-one with other parties. As you talk with each potential coalition member, you may be asked to make tentative commitments before you know what other possible partners might emerge. Before tying yourself down, ask yourself some key questions. How will we divide up whatever value we create in the negotiation? Should I really commit to a "pretty good" split before hearing what others have to offer?

At this stage, your goal should be to collect relatively firm commitments from potential coalition partners while retaining the flexibility to switch allegiances. In the absence of clear ground rules, this can be a delicate process, but the results are well worth the effort.

The perils of coalition building played out on a global scale in mid-2003. Facing an important round of World Trade Organization negotiations in Cancún, Mexico, the U.S. government approached the European Union and a handful of its other usual partners from the developed world. Together, this informal coalition hammered out a preliminary agreement on issues from the meeting's agenda, such as agricultural subsidies in wealthy nations. Noticeably absent from these preconference talks were members of the G22, the coalition of developing nations.

Once the WTO talks were under way, it quickly became apparent that the developed nations had made a crucial miscalculation in excluding the developing world from their coalition. The G22 wanted a strong commitment from developed nations to reduce farm subsidies. The wealthy nations were not prepared to make a deal, and the developing world was insulted by the developed world's failure to take its concerns seriously. Talks broke down, and all sides walked away empty-handed.

The lesson for all multiparty negotiators: choose your coalition members wisely!

Managing group interactions When multiple parties gather to discuss multiple issues, someone has to oversee the group's efforts, or the process will descend into chaos or stalemate. A negotiation manager should prepare the group's agenda, establish ground rules, assign research tasks, summarize conclusions, and represent the process to the outside world.

It's too much to expect that any interested party can juggle these tasks without bias. If one side tries to assume the role of chair, others may view the move as a power grab. And in multiparty negotiation, process opportunism —the possibility that a manager or faction will wrest control of the agenda—is a constant threat.

Right from the start, whether talks are being held within one organization or among many, participants in a multiparty negotiation may want to enlist a trained neutral —a professional facilitator or mediator. It may seem premature to bring in a mediator before a dispute has even erupted. But the fact is, a neutral party can guide participants into the trading zone much more effectively than they can on their own. Neutrals can be particularly helpful in the information-gathering stage. Through a process of joint fact finding (described in my December 2003 column), the leader can help parties generate data and forecasts that everyone can accept.

As the size of a negotiation increases, group management becomes a challenge. One factor is the phenomenon known as groupthink , a term coined by psychologist Irving Janis. When people work together, sometimes their wish for unanimity overrides their commitment to weigh all possible alternatives and hampers their decision-making ability. In their desire to get along, coalitions begin to accept irrational solutions to their shared problems. For this reason, negotiators in multiparty situations need to remain in close contact with their constituents—senior members of the organization to whom they're accountable. Otherwise, the pressure to conform may cause them to lose touch with the interests of those they represent.

When multiple parties are balancing dozens of issues and preferences, it makes sense to break into smaller working groups. For example, when a federal agency opens up a dialogue on proposed regulatory reforms, a variety of stakeholders join the conversation, from corporations to politicians to activists. In such cases, subgroups can work to create preliminary proposals on elements of the larger agenda, a strategy that helps the larger group cover a lot of ground quickly. Subgroups must be sure to link their findings to the group's larger goals and communicate them in a way that's understandable to all.

Prospering in a multiparty trading zone With thorough preparation, the help of a trained mediator, and useful reports from subgroups, participants in a multiparty negotiation should be able to find their way to the trading zone. Once they've arrived, the next step is to work together to ensure that everyone's interests are met.

In the trading zone, parties must identify and address disagreements quickly and correct miscommunication before relationships deteriorate. For example, consortia that come together to work out complex construction contracts almost always form partnering agreements —arrangements to meet regularly to take up any misunderstandings that have arisen. Another key to progress in the trading zone is a clear commitment to joint problem solving. Once negotiators agree to seek out wise tradeoffs, they almost always succeed.

To prosper in a multiparty trading zone, you also need to pursue a carefully crafted coalitional strategy, building alliances to increase your leverage. It's important to do this in a way that doesn't undermine relationships with those who may have started out as your antagonists in a blocking coalition, only to emerge as potential members of a winning alliance. When others approach you about joining their coalition, be sure to respond with caution and tact.

When a group has succeeded in generating a number of possible proposals or package deals, how should they decide which one prevails? Clarity about the group's decision rules is crucial. A commitment to unanimity as a decision rule is usually a mistake, inviting blackmail by those who care more about a pet issue than about the overall success of the negotiation. Majority voting is also undesirable; large numbers of parties can be boxed out entirely, leading to unstable agreements as disgruntled minorities look for opportunities to sabotage implementation of whatever agreement emerges. Most of the time, agreement by an overwhelming majority—what we call consensus agreement —is the best decision rule. Under such a rule, parties should strive to seek unanimity, but settle for near-complete agreement after every effort has been made to meet everyone's interests.

Finally, keep in mind that the structure of the negotiating forum itself—that is, the ground rules that constrain the way a multiparty negotiation unfolds—will be a constant topic of conversation in a multiparty negotiation. Negotiators need to be able to quickly size up and react to possible changes in group membership and communication. By paying close attention to coalitional strategies and the changing BATNAs of all parties, multiparty negotiators can learn to pursue their interests and succeed in the trading zone.

Reprinted with permission from " Winning and Blocking Coalitions: Bring Both to a Crowded Table," Negotiation , Harvard Business School Publishing, January 2004.

See a current issue of Negotiation .

Lawrence Susskind is Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a cofounder of the Program on Negotiation, and president of the Consensus Building Institute, a nonprofit that provides mediation services worldwide.

Two-Party versus Multiparty Negotiation

Cite this chapter.

• Lawrence S. Bacow 4 &
• Michael Wheeler 4 , 5  

Part of the book series: Environment, Development, and Public Policy ((EDPE))

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The environmental dispute in the Brown Paper Company Case (described in chapter 4) essentially involved two parties—the EPA and the paper company. By contrast, there were many negotiators (both groups and individuals) in the Grayrocks and South Carolina cases (chapter 3). Environmental problems are often of the multiparty variety.

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Bacow, L.S., Wheeler, M. (1984). Two-Party versus Multiparty Negotiation. In: Environmental Dispute Resolution. Environment, Development, and Public Policy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2296-0_6

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New Multiparty Negotiation is (Not Entirely) about Keeping Score

New Product: Hesperia Seed Initiative

A philanthropic initiative to introduce genetically modified seeds on the island nation of Hesperia has great potential: either to save the food supply affected by climate change and insect blights, or to destroy the fragile biodiversity and local genetic resources. Citizens and officials alike have debated not only the impact of GMOs but also the corporate control of the project: by partnering with one agricultural company, the nation’s farmers risk establishing a crop lien dynamic or becoming helpless if the company ever cuts the seed supply.

Hesperia Seed Initiative , the latest role play package from Professor Robert Bordone, is an intermediate-to-advanced multiparty negotiation simulation. This case has six roles, representing the sponsoring philanthropic foundation, the agricultural company developing genetically modified seeds, an NGO with interests in food security, the national biosafety agency, a local seed research center, and the United Nations. For larger courses, instructors can set up multiple games or create teams to represent each role.

The negotiation is “scored” to bring out tensions between creating and claiming value: each player has a confidential points system that scales their relative interest in each of the five policy issues and sets a minimum threshold for accepting a policy proposal. In addition, each player has unquantified interests that can be used to leverage deals or create impasses. Multiparty negotiation simulations with both scorable and non-scorable components are rare, says Professor Bordone.

Participants will identify interests and create options in a complex negotiation; appreciate the importance of process; see multiparty relationships and coalition dynamics in action; and learn how to break impasses. The case comes with an extensive teaching note with four review plans:

• Discussion of creating and distributing value
• Discussion of multiparty process and coalitional dynamics
• Circle chart analysis in game groups
• Discussion of challenges, followed by class-wide circle chart analysis

Each review plan includes reflection on what worked well and what to do differently in the future.  The preparation, negotiation, and review takes about three hours, but the review can be extended for highly engaged groups.

Hesperia Seed Initiative is available on the Case Studies website . Registered educators, staff at non-profit institutions, and trainers are eligible for review copies free of charge.

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, wielding power in multiparty negotiations: the impact of communication medium and assertiveness.

International Journal of Conflict Management

ISSN : 1044-4068

Article publication date: 2 October 2021

Issue publication date: 11 January 2022

The medium negotiators choose for communication will influence both process and outcome. To understand how medium influences power expression, this paper aims to compare value claiming by asymmetrically powerful negotiators, using face-to-face and computer-mediated messaging across two studies. Following up on long-standing conjectures from prominent coalition researchers, the authors also directly tested the role of the apex negotiator's personality in coalition formation and value expropriation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted two laboratory experiments which manipulated communication medium (computer-mediated vs face-to-face) in three- and four-person bargaining. They also varied asymmetry of power so the apex negotiator either could not be left out of a winning coalition (Study 1) or could be (Study 2). The authors measured trait assertiveness along with multiple indicators of hard bargaining behavior.

Communicating using instant messages via a computer interface facilitated value claiming for powerful negotiators across both studies. Trait assertiveness correlated with hard bargaining behavior in both studies. An index of hard bargaining behavior mediated the effect of assertiveness on value expropriation but only in the context where the powerful negotiator held a genuine monopoly over coalitions.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to the literature on multiparty negotiations by demonstrating persistent media effects on power utilization and by finally confirming the conjectures of prominent coalition researchers regarding personality. Though personality traits generate consistent effects on behavior, their influence on negotiation outcomes depends on the power structure. Negotiation theory needs to incorporate structural and situational factors in modelling effects of enduring traits. Negotiation research should move beyond a rigid focus on dyads.

• Personality
• Communication medium
• Multiparty negotiation

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Barbara Gray for her helpful feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript and Kurt Silver for his assistance with the programming for their studies. They also thank Richard Posthuma and three anonymous reviewers for their many constructive comments.

Lee, J.I. , Jang, D. , Luckman, E.A. and Bottom, W.P. (2022), "Wielding power in multiparty negotiations: the impact of communication medium and assertiveness", International Journal of Conflict Management , Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 132-154. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-01-2021-0002

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Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program

Strategies in multi-party negotiations (a video presentation).

O ne of those practitioners is Susan Carney Lynch, JD, DrPH, NREMT-P , a lawyer, public servant, and   F ellow with Harvard’s Advanced Leadership  Initiative (ALI). Dr. Lynch has built a career around law and public health while centering the principles of effective multiparty negotiation throughout her work. Given the global focus on public health imperatives in the COVID–19 crisis , we  were grateful when Dr. Lynch offered to share some of her experiences and thoughtful analysis with our students and our broader community. Below is  a presentation that she graciously delivered concerning  her experience with  multiparty negotiation theory at the forefront, followed by an interview further exploring her perspective.  

CASE STUDY PRESENTATION:  STRATEGIES IN MULTI-PARTY NEGOTIATIONS USING A FALSE CLAIMS ACT LONG-TERM CARE CASE-STUDY     

Prior to her fellowship with ALI, Susan Lynch spent 20 years at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) where she led healthcare fraud prosecutions and elder justice policy work. She leads the Department’s Nursing Home Initiative and is the DOJ prosecution lead for all federal civil long-term care quality prosecutions and, as Senior Trial Counsel for elder justice, she founded and was the national lead for the Department’s ten regional Elder Justice Task forces, comprised of cross-sector, multidisciplinary teams which combat financial exploitation and elder abuse, and conduct elderly outreach. Dr. Lynch also served as senior lead on all rural and tribal issues related to elder abuse and exploitation, and has devoted years of service to the Native American population in South Dakota through the nonprofit ReMember Organization at Pine Ridge. Dr. Lynch also volunteers as a Paramedic in Maryland on weekends.

INTERVIEW w/Susan Lynch and HNMCP Clinical Instructor, Morgan Michelle Franklin

Morgan Michelle Franklin:  Susan, thank you so much for being with us. I’d love to ask a couple of questions to complement your presentation. First, I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind talking with us a little bit about your career path. How did you get involved in this work?   

Susan Lynch:   Absolutely. So my biggest motivation for  working in  the health care fraud  space  came in law school where I was fortunate enough to have a professor that became a mentor who taught  first year Torts as  a  health  care  law  class. And so  he discussed  various torts involving medical issues. I then had a property professor  who discussed property as a health care law class , as well . And so I got greatly interested in health. And then after law school, I went to a law firm back in the ’90s when everybody was focused on Hillary Clinton’s health plan. So that interest continued .   I then  decided to get my  D octor of  P ublic  H ealth, which pushed me completely into the area of policy and health and went on to the Justice Department with a particular focus on health care  law .  

MMF:   Oh, wow. Well, that is fascinating and great for the law students who are engaging with your work to think about how law school passion can inform a career. What do you think is most challenging about your work?  

SL:   So I think a couple of things are challenging in this work.  W hen you look at some of the nursing homes across the country, particularly now in the context of  COVID-19 , there’s a lot of residents suffering. And in some of  cases where the quality of care is really poor, you review the medical records and you see resident suffering, it is difficult. I think the other thing that can be challenging, as I mentioned, is the multi-party nature of these cases. And so while one result may be easier to achieve if there were just two parties sitting across the table from each other, these cases can involve  many, many stakeholders.  This  multi-stakeholder aspect can  make things challenging and complicated to  reach  a solution.  

MMF:    Well, that’s an excellent segue to the next question I’d like to ask you which is specifically about the alternative dispute resolution context. You’ve talked a bit now and also in your presentation about multi-party work. You’ve done so in a context in which people might not immediately think of multi-party negotiation. How did you come to think of your work within the multi-party frame?  

SL:   Sure.  Some  of these larger cases that I’ve been involved with that have included federal and state government s, and have included  from two  relators  up to  five or six relators.  The   multi-party nature of the work be comes clear when you engage in the cases where you see that, you know, it may be that the federal government has a particular interest that overlaps 80% with the state’s interests. But there is that one piece that isn’t exactly aligned and you have to then step back and say, well, what is the greater goal? What is the greater interest? And it really does, I think, fit the model of multi-party negotiations and making sure that you have common interests satisfied.  

MMF:   OK, thanks for that.   I was also really happy to hear about the importance of strategies related to conflict within your own negotiating team, as that’s often an area that’s overlooked particularly by students who are studying negotiation. I’m wondering if you would mind just saying a little bit more about your experiences navigating same-side conflict and what you think is most important to consider in that context.  

SL:   Sure. So I think the most important thing to consider on the same side is stepping back and saying, what do we ultimately want from this case? Do we ultimately want from this case—and let’s go back again to our example—a C orporate  I ntegrity  A greement to continue the quality monitoring and a certain amount of damages, and how do we keep our eye on the ball ?  So one is to keep your eye on the ball. I think the second is to recognize that there are many ways to  get from  one end of the town to the other town, you can go down many different roads and to not be too rigid about the way in which you get there, but to be sure that you  actually get  there together. And the last thing is to be really open to many different ideas and positions along the way,  because in  a negotiation, particularly one that goes on for a  year things  will change. The regulatory environment can change.  Look at  the situation with C OVID-19 .   I t upends priorities, and everything.   

MMF:   Fantastic. And you know, you said earlier that you had certain experiences in law school that really kind of shifted your thinking around career or informed them. I’m wondering if you have thoughts about how law schools might train students to effectively navigate this sort of work that you discussed here and in your presentation.  

SL:   Sure. That’s a tremendous question.  Negotiation is  like learning to play an instrument or riding a bike. And you can read about the theory. You can watch somebody do it, but you really don’t get your voice in the process, get your strategy in the process until you’ve done  the skill in a number of different  negotiations  because every negotiation is going to be different. So I think one way in which schools could really educate  students  is to start out with the theory.  This  is  the  theory of multiparty negotiation. This is the theory  of the  way to resolve conflict on your own  side. We  get the basic principles. Now, let’s watch some negotiations, be they video ,  virtual, be they in person. And let’s try to dissect  first what’s  going on here. How is this  person identifying  a BATNA ? (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) ? How is this person trying to resolve the conflict? What are they doing well and not so well and engage in that process for a while and then move to trying  the negotiation  yourself.  The  National Institute of Trial Attorneys, NITA, has a very effective way in which they work with  students  on simulations.  I have taught Trial Advocacy with NITA for years. Their  model is playback and prescription, so somebody goes in to a negotiation— two students or five, you’ve got a multiparty negotiation—and they negotiate. And then they do a bunch of things well, but they do a few things not so well. The NITA  instructor then looks at the student and says, OK, you did the following three things well, good for you. Now let’s focus on the things you need to improve and play back what they did that could be improved, where there is an opportunity for improvement . You did X, what you could have done is Y, and the idea of showing people what they could have done better, I think is absolutely critical. And sometimes that’s missing in  student training in  simulations because you say those three things were fantastic and here this thing could be improved, but we don’t really  don’t show the student HOW to improve . But by modeling that improvement, I think you really do get somewhere. And when the student has seen the theory so they have that to callback and then they’ve watched a number of negotiations, they’ve got that to recall. So they have something to model.  

MMF:   Yeah, great. You know, I’m just thinking about given all the things that you’ve done over the course of your career, if you could give yourself one piece of advice, knowing what you know now, at the beginning of your career, what would that piece of advice be?  

SL:   It would be that skill and experti s e takes time to develop. You cannot develop wisdom in a day. I started out  my career  in a law firm  and  can remember  as a young Associate going to court with law firm partners and watching them argue motions, particularly my first two years before I got to do it myself, thinking, the gulf between what I learned in law school and what these   partners are doing is an impossible task. I cannot get across that bridge. This is really far. But what you realize is it’s not that far. And that as you get into the process, you start to develop your own voice.  I need  to give myself the time and the patience and the compassion to develop my own skill and my own style. But I think that my feeling when I came out of law school and started seeing these people arguing these motions was, that’s impossible. But it is not, it is just a process.   

MMF:   That is wonderful and I’m sure that will help quite a few people who are engaging with this and think, oh, I’ll never be able to be this astute. So that’s excellent. Let’s see, so earlier in our conversation, I asked you about the most challenging aspect of your work. Now I’d love to hear what you think is the most rewarding part.  

SL:   Sure. Well, when you get a large group of people together, like in the  Extendicare case  and you’re able to engage in negotiations and come up with a solution that you think is going to make a positive  difference in the lives of residents in nursing homes, that is tremendously rewarding. And  I feel that in those cases you are making a tremendous difference in people’s lives.  

MMF:   Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. Are there any final thoughts that you have that you’d like to share with those who are reading this interview/have engaged with your presentation?  

SL:   Sure, I think that as you go forward in your career, whatever you choose, always remain the captain of your own ship and make sure that you steer your career both substantively and in the area of practice, be it litigation, counseling, what have you, in the direction that you want it to go. There’ll be many people trying to pull you in various directions, and so make sure you remain the captain of your own ship and really show up every day doing your best and being ethical in the pursuit.  

MMF:   Well, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it.   

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3 Multiparty Negotiations

• Published: June 2013
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This chapter examines issues arising from negotiations involving multiple parties. It first considers two problems that emerge from a multilateral negotiation: each party must keep track of more information and faces an increased risk that no agreement will satisfy everyone who considers himself/herself to have a voice. It then explains how information exchange becomes complicated in a multiparty negotiation, with particular emphasis on auctions, third parties, and spoilers. It also discusses the advantages and drawbacks of negotiating in teams and the complexity of negotiating with organizational constituents such as shareholders and the board of directors. The chapter concludes by offering suggestions on how to deal with the challenges involved in a multiparty negotiation.

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Home » Resources » Articles » Multi-Party Negotiations (part 1)

Multi-Party Negotiations (part 1)

Part 1 of this article discusses the challenges imposed by multiple negotiators at the negotiation table.

Many business partnerships that are forged in today’s increasingly specialised business milieu, often involves 3 or more partners who are co-joining into complex agreements. This bubbling stew pot of positions , needs, and ambitions requires dexterous handling of the right ingredients. This ambitious blend makes the difference between savouring a rich and inviting texture of tastes, or storming out the door in disgust. It’s a delicate balancing act where everyone is jostling, both delicately and aggressively, on the same high wire act, and all at the same time. Making it work and run smoothly requires a level head and keen vision.

The first part of this article tackles the dark mix of problems we may encounter. The second part of the article brings some light, to guide us along the high road to manage our way through this maze.

What are the differences?

When we have multiple people sitting at the table, there is greater potential for turbulence to seethe beneath the apparent calm. For one thing we will have more people jockeying and clamouring for attention. It can be a volatile mixture of mismatched representatives. Some negotiators may be acting as primary representatives, while others may be agents or third party negotiators who are acting on behalf of someone else, and may even have a separate and hidden agenda of their own.

We might have to brazen out the dilemma posed by the ‘ pecking order ‘ conundrum. Some negotiators may have a high level of executive status, while others are lower down in the corporate food chain with lesser status. Status can have meaningful implications as the authority levels of the representatives might be mismatched. This could result in a power struggle that might tie up the various discussions, that interplay throughout the discussions and at different levels. It is a complex drama where the actors may ad-lib their lines throughout the entire play, with mixed results.

The Information Puzzle

When we have more parties at the table, we will also face a multi prism of issues, viewpoints and perspectives. Like a demented chef madly throwing their ingredients into the pot, let us also add a multiple myriad of facts and figures, projections, expert opinions, and extraneous analysis into this culinary brew. We should be quite pleased to find the resulting mix eatable, while secretly being happy it didn’t explode in our face. This is simply a melodramatic way of saying that multiparty negotiations are complex and challenging, given all the factors we have to consider and keep in mind at all times.

The People Puzzle

During multiparty negotiations, we have to deal with a variety of agendas . We are no longer dealing with one-on-one discussions where there is usually some degree of ebb and flow. Now, the negotiators will be more challenged as they strive to achieve their individual objectives, while facing the pressing issues of staying cohesive and maintaining a unified direction.

Personalities may interact either melodiously, or abrasively. Negotiators may face a variety of tactics or even unethical gambits, as they evaluate and measure each other in pressing home their points. Conflicts will have to be overcome, as the group wrestles to achieve a uniform solution that is satisfactory, to not only the participants, but the constituents they represent as well.

The focus must always be on finding an effective agreement, a common vision that satisfies all their needs, in the best possible manner. The one caution that must be inserted here, is to be wary of making an agreement for an agreements sake. A weak or patched agreement is like threading your way through rush hour, wearing a blindfold and hoping for the best – it seldom works out very well.

Chaotic order or ordered chaos?

In the simple world of a two party negotiation, each party generally takes turns in their exchanges, as they proceed along the way. In a multiparty negotiation, finding order and process can be harder than finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. Who starts? Who does what next? Who determines the agenda? Since there are many differing issues, and of relative importance, we need a way to figure out how we will separate the wheat from the chaff, and visualize a common design. How do we establish order amongst this complex group, so that it doesn’t result in some civilised form of a taproom brawl, minus the fisticuffs? This is especially blaring when we meet head-on with the hard nosed negotiator, or when faced with a highly dominant personality pressing to have their way, and to heck with the rest of the group.

There obviously needs to be a means to manage the process so that there is order in how things are performed. Otherwise, nothing could ever be accomplished. As many multiparty negotiations do succeed, we can safely be assured, there are means and tactics to address the potential dilemmas we might face in the preceding paragraphs described above.

Let the games begin

Needless to say, each negotiation representative may invoke their own negotiation strategy and tactics to achieve their objectives. The more players involved, the more the interplay of strategies become increasingly and even perilously complex. Each player also will be responding to the strategy and tactics of the other players at the negotiation table. To succeed in this environment demands a high level of negotiation skills .

One of the challenges facing us in these thorny negotiations, is deciding how we will counter the differing strategies used by our counterparts. We may either deal with them on a one on one basis, or collectively as a group. We might be faced with hard bargaining issues while trying to find ways to develop creative solutions.

Attitudes could range from being confrontational and positional. This will sculpt their approach in whether they have the desire, or become reluctant to offer or consider concessions . All of this combined will affect the overall and ongoing dynamics of the interactions between the skilled negotiators, both individually and collectively.

There is also the challenge where a negotiator might face the coalition(s) of two or more negotiators. So now we must also deal with the added stress and pressures of coping with the coalitions attempt to dominate our position. Or, they may contrive to force their own resolution of issues between themselves or, by making side agreements during a break in talks. Sometimes, these coalitions can force the group into complying with a common perspective, while trampling on our own views about an issue or agreement.

Multiparty negotiations add many levels of both challenges and complexities that are normally less prevalent in a two party negotiation. In part 1 of this 2 part article, we considered the types of challenges and problems we may encounter. Although these challenges can appear daunting, there are ways and means to address this myriad of problems. Part 2 will offer a variety of solutions to address these dilemmas.

Continue to part 2 of Multi Party Negotiations .

• Harvard Business Essentials ‘Negotiation’ Harvard Business School Press, (2003).
• Max H. Bazerman, Margaret A. Neale, ‘Negotiating Rationally’, The Free Press – MacMillian, (1992).
• Leigh Thompson, ‘The Heart and Mind of the Negotiator-2nd Edition’, Prentice Hall Business Publishing, (2001).
• J. Lewicki, A. Litterer, W.Minton, M. Sauders, ‘Negotiation’, 2nd Edition, Irwin,(1994).

As the author says, multiparty negotiations add many levels of both challenges and complexities… Managers don’t always see the complexity of such negotiations as vital for success. I have recently been participating in such types of negotiation, trying to give advance warning to the board of one party, presenting the complexity and different levels of interests of the other party. Hence they were able to move from hardly believing in such a situation into realizing that such a spectrum faced them in their negotiations.

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Multiparty Negotiations - Explained

What are Multi-party Negotiations?

Written by Jason Gordon

Updated at September 27th, 2023

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What are Multi-party Negotiations? 

A multi-party negotiation consists of a group of three or more individuals, each representing his or her own interests, who attempt to resolve perceived differences of interest or work   together to achieve a collective objective. 

Types of multi-party negotiations involve: 

• coalitions, 
• constituencies, 
• agencies, and 
• inter-group relationships. 

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Unique Attributes of Multi-Party Negotiations

The differences between two-party negotiations and multiparty negotiations, which make multiparty negotiations more complex, challenging, and difficult to manage, are as follows:

• Number of Parties - Multiparty negotiations have more negotiators at the table.
• Informational and Computational Complexity  - With multiparty negotiations there are more issues, more perspectives on issues, and more total information are introduced.
• Social Complexity - The social environment changes from a one-on-one dialogue to a small-group discussion. As a result, all the dynamics of small groups begin to affect the way the negotiators behave. How the process evolves may depend on the motivational orientation of the parties toward each other. Social pressures may develop for the group to act cohesively, yet the members are in conflict with each other and cannot be cohesive unless they can find an acceptable solution.
• Procedural Complexity - More complex than two-party negotiations in that the process they have to follow is more complicated.
• Logistical Complexity - Physical distance can affect how much the parties trust each other, the ways they interpret unclear or ambiguous behavior of the other parties, and the willingness to continue negotiation with each other as a conflict resolution strategy. This distance, whether physical or psychological, seems to affect how parties make sense of and interpret what others are doing and whether signals are interpreted as indications of cooperative or competitive behavior.
• Strategic Complexity - In a group negotiation, complexity increases significantly. The negotiator must consider the strategies of all the other parties at the table and decide whether to deal with each of them separately or as a group. The actual process of dealing with each of them usually evolves into a series of one-on-one negotiations, which can have several consequences. First, these exchanges are subject to the surveillance and audience dynamics. Second, negotiators who have some way to control the number of parties at the table may begin to act strategically, using this control to serve their objectives. Third, negotiators can explicitly engage in coalition building as a way to marshal support.

How do multi-party negotiations affect the negotiation process?

Key challenges of multiparty negotiations include:

Formulating Trade-offs 

Approaches to trading off with the other party include:

Circular Logrolling - This is used n group negotiations. It consists of trade-offs that require each group member to offer another member a concession on one issue, while receiving a concession from another group on a different issue.

Reciprocal Trade-offs - A trade-off fashioned between two parties where each gives up one thing in exchange for making gains on another issue.

Voting and Majority Rule 

A voting principle providing that a majority (usually constituted by 50 percent plus one) of an organized group will have the power to make decisions binding on the whole group. 

Problems with voting and majority rule include:

Condorcet paradox   - A result of group voting that demonstrates that the winners of majority rule elections change as a function of the order in which alternatives are voted upon.

Impossibility theorem - A theorem stating that the derivation of group preference from individual preference is indeterminate if certain conditions prevail.

Strategic Voting and Misrepresentation   - A situation in which a negotiator misrepresents his or her true preferences so as to gain advantage over the other party.

Consensus Agreements   -  Consensus decision-making is a group decision-making process in which group members develop, and agree to support a decision in the best interest of the whole. 

Consensus may be defined professionally as an acceptable resolution, one that can be supported, even if not the "favourite" of each individual.   

Communication Breakdowns 

Private caucusing  -  These are side meetings between individuals (rather than the whole group) to discuss interests or procedures in the negotiation. This private meetings cause of breakdown in communication among the non-caucusing individuals.

Biased interpretation   - When individual heuristics or predispositions affect the interpretation of information in a manner not common to the other negotiators.

Perspective-taking failures   (the curse of knowledge ) - The tendency for people who are privy to information and knowledge that they know others do not possess to act as if others are indeed aware of it (even when it is impossible for the receiver to have this knowledge).

Indirect speech acts - Ways in which people ask others to perform tasks or acts that require extra cognitive steps on the part of the listener in order to understand the communicators intention.

Multiple audience problem - The difficulty that arises when a sender needs to communicate with a certain recipient in the presence of another person (or people) who should not be able to understand the message.

Important Practices in Multi-Party Negotiations

Key tactics to employ (or practices to avoid) for multiparty negotiations include:

• Counterparty awareness   - Know who will be at the table
• Manage information and systematize proposal making   - This will avoid tunnel vision , which is the tendency for people in group negotiations to underestimate the number of feasible options and alternatives available.
• Use brainstorming wisely ( brainwriting ) - A brainstorming session in which group members write their ideas individually at the same time.
• Develop and assign process roles - Strive for equal participation
• Persistence - Stay at the table
• Points of Agreement - Allow for some points of agreement, even if only on process.
• Dividing the Pie   - Avoid the equal shares bias
• Avoid the agreement bias  - When negotiators focus on reaching common ground with the other party and are reluctant to accept differences of interest, even when such acceptance might create options for joint gain.
• Avoid sequential bargaining   - When you discuss one issue at a time.

Related Topics

• What are multi-party negotiations and how do they affect the negotiation process?
• How does one manage the various stages of a multiparty negotiation?
• What are coalitions and how do they affect negotiations?
• What is a principal-agent relationship and how does it affect a negotiation?
• What is a constituent relationship and how does it affect negotiation?
• What are team negotiations and how do they affect the negotiation process?
• What are intergr oup negotiations, and how do they affect a negotiation?

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Top International Multiparty Negotiations: Dissent in the European Union

Multiparty negotiations are challenging. just ask the european union..

By PON Staff — on February 21st, 2017 / International Negotiation

Multiparty negotiations are complicated, challenging, and often require a very good BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement). A European Union summit held in late October 2013 failed to make headway toward more coordination of economic policies. Facing resistance from Germany in particular, European officials grew pessimistic regarding their odds of negotiating a deal over the next year to lay the foundation for a banking union for the 17 nations that use the euro, the Wall Street Journal reports. The proposed banking union would pool assets to allow the nations to engage in shared spending and borrowing, among other activities.

The plan for greater financial coordination was conceived at the height of the European financial crisis in 2012. As consensus grew that a shared currency with 17 different economic policies was unsustainable, the European Union began looking for ways to present future disasters.

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Those who support greater integration sought a model similar to the American system of federalism, according to Marcus Walker and Gabriele Steinhauser of the Wall Street Journal. A working group negotiated plans to set up a central budget that would cushion countries hit by crisis—as Spain and Ireland had been—through measures such as funding the costs of unemployment benefits. Yet as the financial crisis subsided, Germany, Belgium, and France began to push back against proposals for greater financial unity.

The conflict reflects the difficulty of forging multiparty agreements  during multiparty negotiations, particularly when no formal voting rules have been established. In business negotiations involving multiple parties, it is typically wise to spend time discussing up front how decisions will be made and agreed upon. By discussing the negotiation process and voting procedures ahead of time, parties may be able to prevent a powerful coalition from controlling the discussion.

Multiparty negotiations are common, even among those who are not professional negotiators : think of department heads dividing up scarce resources, family members debating the future of a business, or a group of consumers launching a class-action lawsuit. Three issues in particular make multi­party negotiations more complex than two-party talks, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Lawrence Susskind and Harvard Law School professor Robert Mnookin: (1) coalition formation, (2) process-management issues, and (3) the fluctuating nature of each party’s best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA). By preparing for these differences in negotiating strategy , you will be well positioned to thrive in your next multiparty negotiation. Learn how to choose coalitions wisely, manage the process, and calculate dynamic BATNAs.

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