Briefs

By Tom Noble
6116 N. Central Expressway, Suite 922, LB 72
Dallas, Texas 75206
214-692-1888; fax: 692-8577
tnoble28@hotmail.com; www.tnoble.com

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Cooperative and Competitive Lawyers - Part Three
The Power of Cooperation

Where was I? Oh yes: Herb Cohen, internationally acclaimed negotiation expert. Has Herb been on Oprah? I’m not sure, but if not, it’s a gross oversight. What does the old master teach us about cooperative negotiating styles versus competitive?

… I believe that it is always advisable to begin every negotiating encounter in a cooperative fashion. More precisely, that means in an amiable manner with a congenial low-key pose of calculated incompetence. (Emphasis supplied). Emphatic enough?

First of all, if you start cooperative, there’s a good chance the other side will respond in kind. The reason is that in most civilized cultures there is a strong norm of reciprocity.

… the counter-measures for an adversarial gambit are to slow down and not to react the way they expect you to. Even if a threat is made, smile and nod your head up and down as if you’re acknowledging a compliment.

… While all of these games are being played out, time is passing and the other party is investing in this relationship. And once they invest, it’s hard for them to divest. Indeed, rats and humans have this in common: The more energy expended in pursuit of a particular goal, the more desirable that goal becomes.

… The second reason you should be cooperative at the outset is, as I said formerly, it’s virtually benign to move from collaborative [cooperative?] to conflictive, whereas to reverse the process is exacting, to say the least.

Remember when the Almighty sent Aaron and Moses to negotiate with Pharaoh, they did not start with plague ten or plague eight, but opened with a request for a favor on behalf of the Lord. It was only when this was turned down that the negotiation moved from cooperative to competitive, gradually increasing the negative consequences with each rejection.

… To cap it all, I am suggesting that you approach virtually all negotiations as an opportunity for mutual problem solving . At the outset emphasize the commonality of interests that brought you together. Quite often I turn to the other side and ask, “How can we come up with a solution that will meet both of our needs?” By all means, you want them to understand that it is your intention that this be a joint problem-solving process that will be enjoyable and energizing. (Emphasis supplied).

Skeptical? Think coming on “soft” is a “sign of weakness”? In his best-selling critique of the Iraq War, Fiasco, Pulitzer Prize winner, Thomas Ricks indicts the Bush administration for the now well-established fact that they did not have an exit strategy. They had a plan for taking down Saddam Hussein. That was, to them, “mission accomplished”, but they simply didn’t think through the rest of it. This is not a political opinion; it’s a fact. Our strategy vacuum was filled by looting, Fallujah, and counter-insurgency with one notable exception: Army Maj. Jim Gavrilis, in charge of Ar Rutbah, “the only town of any size in far western Iraq”.

He drank dark tea with the Bedouins in the desert, smoked cigarettes with farmers near the towns, and broke bread with police chiefs, and even with Iraqi army officers. He listened. He ate with his fingers, as they did.

Gavrilis worked with the Iraqis, not against them. “The stealing dropped to almost nothing.”

One hallmark of his approach was a humility about his role and his limited ability to alter a culture whose roots reached back to the days of Abraham and Ezekiel. … In sum, he treated Iraqis as partners. Rather than seek to break the structure of an ancient society, he sought to use it to achieve his ends. But he was careful in establishing those goals and realistic in seeking to achieve them, acting with both humility and common sense. In other words, he took almost the opposite course that the U.S. occupation authorities based in Baghdad would dictate in the following months.

Makes you wonder if Gavrilis read Cohen. No matter your political views, cooperation is a powerful tool. I’m not finished with this topic, but I am leaving it for now because I am anxious to talk to you about some ethical issues.

In the meantime, if any of my ideas or words offend you, please remember, as Yogi Berra said, “I didn’t really say everything I said.”