The G20 summit has just ended in London, with an agreement every representative there has signed up to. The leaders of the 19 leading countries in the world, and a representative of the EU, have agreed to collectively contribute $1 trillion dollars for various schemes designed to help the global economy, and to tighten up regulation of the financial industry.

Now, I’m not going to try and critique the agreement, or pronounce on whether or not it will be successful in helping the global economy. For one thing, I’m not an economist – and not even economists seem agreed on whether this will help or not. More importantly, that isn’t what this blog is about!

Instead, I want to look at something we can all learn from – the process that the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, seems to have gone through to try and get an agreement. (Well, not just him – mainly his staff and officials, but you know what I mean.)

Negotiation is something we all have to do in our jobs, though I’m assuming generally your negotiations don’t have quite as much impact as his…

What did Gordon Brown do to get agreement?

First of all, he had to clarify to himself exactly what he hoped to achieve. In this case, he obviously had to work with a wide variety of experts in the subject matter. His time as the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the UK Finance Minister) presumably meant he had some experience, but he is a professional politician, not an economist.

But his experience in this area means that, if nothing else, he already had a circle of advisers he knew and trusted, who he could turn to to get the information he needed.

Once he knew what his aim was, Gordon Brown began a tour of many countries around the world. He made sure he visited strategic countries, those who were regional leaders, to both sell his idea to them ahead of the summit, but also to gather information from them, to see what modifications he might need to make to his own position.

This was a vital step – it showed he was willing to be flexible, willing to listen, and willing to work with others to get to a solution all could agree to.

Importantly, one of the main early visits was to the United States. Any agreement absolutely had to have the United States on board, otherwise it would be doomed to fail. Gordon Brown had to make sure very early on that the UK’s aim fit with the aim of the United States, and that the two countries could work together.

After this worldwide tour, the summit itself began. By this point, Gordon Brown knew that his aim was in accord with that of the United States, and knew how close it was to the aims of the other countries who would be attending. His work beforehand also meant he knew what was important to each of the other countries present.

This enabled the horsetrading aspect of the negotiation to work. The final communique is a balance of the positions of the participants. Some things from the original UK position were presumably dropped (increased spending by all countries to stimulate their own economies?) while others were strengthened (tighter regulation of financial institutions?).

By making sure everyone could identify something in the final communique that they wanted to have, Gordon Brown could make sure everyone present was happy to put their name to it, and be seen smiling in the final ‘family photo’ at the end.

So what can we learn about negotiation from this?

Well, we can identify some clear and simple steps we can apply to our own negotiations:

1. Define your position.
   Before you go into any negotiation, you want to make sure you know exactly what you want to achieve. What would be the best result you could hope for? What areas are you willing to compromise on? Which aren’t you? Talk to your own circle of advisers and experts to decide what is important to you, and which isn’t.
2. Understand the position of the other players.
   To reduce surprises in a negotiation, make sure you spend some time gathering information about the likely position of the other participants in it. Sometimes you can only do this by putting yourself in their shoes, and trying to decide what they will be trying to achieve. Other times, you can actually go around and have meetings with them, to listen to their point of view. Regardless of how, always try to understand where they are coming from, and why.
3. Get the most important players on your side.
   If there are key players in the negotiation, whose lack of agreement on its own could scupper the whole deal, make sure you get them on your side early. Going into a negotiation without knowing if the most important person there agrees with you or not is risky at best, and foolish at worst. It may not be possible to get agreement beforehand, but at least make sure your position fits with your belief of what they want.
4. Be flexible to get agreement.
   Play off the various positions against each other. If one aspect is important to one player, compromise on that to gain something from them that is important to you. With a multi-party negotiation, this can become very complex! But because you have gathered the information beforehand about their positions, you will have a clearer handle on their aims, and will be able to plan ahead some of the concessions to make.
5. Make sure everyone can claim a success.
   There are very few negotiations that are a simple battle, that can lead to a winner and a loser. It is better by far to make sure everyone gets something, that everyone can claim the negotiation as a success. By working like this, everyone in the negotiation will be working together to make it successful, rather than having some acting defensively.

By keeping these steps in mind, hopefully we can have more successful, and you never know, maybe more pleasant negotiations in the future!

What do you think? How do you approach negotiations? Do you use the same approach for negotiations internal to your business as those involving someone external, be it a supplier or customer? Let me know!