Mr. Green, is it fair to say that negotiation is an art?
Well, I think it's both an art and science. You can prepare for a negotiation quite scientifically, but the execution of the negotiation has quite a lot to do with one's artistic quality. The scientific part of a negotiation is in determining your strategy. What do you want out of it? What can you give? Then of course there are tactics. How do you go about it? Do you take an opening position in a negotiation which differs from the eventual goal you are heading for? And then of course there are the behavioral aspects.
What do you mean by the behavioral aspects?
Well, that's I think where the art comes in. In your behavior, you can either be an actor. You can pretend that you don't like things which you are actually quite pleased about. Or you can pretend to like things which you are quite happy to do without. Or you can be the honest type negotiator who's known to his partners in negotiation and always plays everything straight. But the artistic part of negotiation I think has to do with responding immediately to cues one gets in the process of negotiation. These can be verbal cues or even body language. This is where the artistic quality comes in.
So really, you see two types of negotiator then, the actor or the honest one.
That's right. And both can work. I would say the honest negotiator can be quite effective in some circumstances. In other circumstances you need an actor.